100 Global Activities for Climate Impacts Day

May 5th, 2012 (5/5/12) is a 350.org event known as Climate Impacts Day. This is an opportunity for people to “connect the dots” between extreme weather and climate change. Activities are taking place all around the world to show the various ways that climate change has impacted their lives. Here is a summary of more than one hundred activities from Africa, the Pacific, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and North America:

Africa

·
On the outskirts of Bujumbura, Burundi, students will gather with victims of
recent flooding in the village
of Gatumba that destroyed
over 500 homes this March.

·
In Northeastern Kenya, representatives from three districts will
gather in Garissa to highlight how the ongoing drought in Eastern
Africa has impoverished their communities and threatened their
survival. `

·
In Dakar, Senegal, students will hold dots on
the beach to highlight the threat of sea level rise and storm surges to their
city.

·
In the Seychelles,
people are organizing a moonlight “mutia,” a traditional dance that is often
used as social protest, to lament the impacts of rising seas on their islands.

·
In Contonou,
Benin,
organizers will host a panel discussion on the failure of rich countries to
provide appropriate climate financing for adaptation and mitigation efforts and
point to a number of innovative sources of financing.

·
In Livingston,
Zambia, a local
drama group is hosting a play to educate the community about the impacts of
climate change and local solutions.

·
In Mzuzu, Malawi, the Northern Youth Network
will march through the city with posters showing how young people were affected
by flooding in the Karonga District.

·
In Lome, Togo, the Young Greens Togo
organization will host a climate dot event focused on the problem of erosion
caused by increased rainfall and flooding.

Pacific

·
In Palau,
organizers will hold dots in taro patches that suffered from saltwater
inundation and at coral reefs that are suffering from the warming and
acidification of the oceans.

·
In Majuro Atoll,
Marshall Islands,
350.org supporters will be amongst those first to see the sunrise on May 5 and
greet the new day with large dots held to the sky. Another team will dive
underwater to dying coral reefs to take a photo with a banner that reads,
“Connect the Dots: Your Carbon Emissions are Killing our Coral.”

·
In Nauru,
citizens will hang a giant dot banner on the island’s desalination plant to
represent how the community struggles to generate enough water during an
increasing number of droughts.

·
In American Samoa,
the 350 Environment Club will run a “Connect the Dots” billboard design
competition across every high school on the island. The five winners will have
their work displayed on billboards around the island.

·
In Melbourne,
Australia,
activists will roll a giant dot around downtown and stop at offices and
buildings connected to companies, banks and institutions driving “extreme
energy,” like tar sands and coal seam gas.

·
In Sydney, Australia organizers will unfurl a giant dot
banner on the banks of the Parramatta
River which is increasingly
eroded from extreme weather events.

·
On the shorefront in Aukland,
New Zealand,
activists will build a Human Wall of Dots representing the height of the
sea-wall that will be necessary to prevent the inundation of the city by rising
oceans.

·
In Adelaide,
Australia,
350.org supporters are hosting a “Dry Creek Regatta” in the Gawler and South
Australian rivers to raise awareness about climate change and the threat of
drought.

·
In Hobart, Australia, people are gathering to
form a giant dot on the eroded area in front of properties on Roches beach to
show the impact of climate change on the community.

·
In Wellington,
New Zealand,
people will hold dots in places around town that will be affected by sea level
rise.

·
In Rotorua, New Zealand, organizers will use
old painted 33 LPs to highlight local or global extreme weather events and
their connection to climate change.

·
In Golden Bay,
New Zealand,
organizers will form a dot at the site of a house that was buried by a
landslide from a “Once in 500 Year” Rain event last year.

Asia

·
In Pakistan,
the Pakistan Sustainability Network will host street theater in regions
affected by the terrible flooding in 2010 and unfurl dot banners in communities
still struggling to recover.

·
On the beach in Orissa, India, famous artist Sundersan Pattanaik will
create a sand sculpture that depicts the extreme heat facing India and
connect the dots to climate disruption.

·
In Delhi, India, students will tour government ministries
with dots representing the different ways climate is impacting India’s
agriculture, economy, environment, and health.

·
In Srinigar, India, young people will hold a giant dot on the
banks of the river Jhelum which has dried to ⅓
of its flow over the years due to shrinking glaciers.

·
In Kathmandu, Nepal, grandparents and their grandchildren will
create a mandala that depicts the different ways that climate change is
impacting Nepal.

·
In Ayutthaya, Thailand Buddhist monks will hold dots outside
the Ayutthaya
temple that was damaged by last year’s epic floods.

·
In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, organizers will hold dots on the banks
of the Saigon River which is flooding more and more
often due to higher tides and heavy rains.

·
In Daegu, South Korea, students will gather with bags of
rice and umbrellas to connect the dots between climate change, heavy rains, and
the damage caused to South
Korea’s rice crop.

·
In Dumaguete City,
Philippines,
organizers will host a climate dots event to raise awareness about the
connection between global warming and typhoons. Last year’s typhoon Sendong was
the strongest typhoon ever recorded in Philippine history, impacting over
63,000 families.

·
In Jakarta, Indonesia, 350.org volunteers will arrange
photos of how climate change is impacting indonesia into a giant “350” and
host a candlelit vigil.

·
In Ulaanbaatar,
Mongolia, will
create a dot in the city to highlight how climate change is leading to
desertification in the country.

·
In Singapore,
organizers are hosting a 3 hour interactive workshop on how climate change is
impacting Singapore
and taking a giant dot photo.

Middle East & Central
Asia

·
In Iran,
students will hike to the top of Mt. Tochal outside of Tehran to observe how polluted the city has
become and unfurl a dot banner at the top.

·
In Amman, Jordan, Friends of the Earth Middle East will be
forming a climate dot on the shores of the Dead Sea
to draw attention to how drought due to climate change has been shrinking the
sea.

·
In Herzliya,
Israel, people
will form a dot on the beach to stand in solidarity with island nations and
coastal communities around the world that are feeling the impacts of climate change.

·
In Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 350.org supporters are
organizing a two-day exhibit of art and photography on how climate change is
currently impacting Kygrzstan and surrounding areas.

·
In Beirut, Lebanon, activists will converge on
one of city’s busiest streets with umbrellas to form a giant dot.

·
In Tripoli, Libya the Environmental Engineering and Sciences
center at the Libyan National Academy
will host a public presentation to educate the community, politicians, and
media on how climate change threatens Libya.

·
In Kutaisi, Georgia, volunteers are organizing
a “Climate Photo Studio” in the city’s central park to create images that show
how climate change is impacting their country.

·
In Salalah, Oman, students are inviting their
elders to share accounts about how climate and weather events differ today from
times past.

·
In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, students are creating
dots to raise awareness about the many sand storms, wind storms, and flash
floods that have been a common phenomenon during the past decade.

·
In Garm, Tajikistan, staff with Cooperation
for Development will conduct meetings with farmers, women, and youth on
adapting traditional agriculture to the changing climate and take climate dot
photos with farmers in their fields.

Latin America

·
In Rio Branco, Brazil,
the Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental de Amazonia
is organizing an entire day dedicated to connecting the dots between the
terrible flooding that has impacted the region and the broader climate crisis.

·
In Araranguá, Brazil, people are hosting an event to examine
the ways civil society and government have worked together to recover from
2004’s Hurricane Catarina, the first tropical cyclone to ever hit shore in Brazil.

·
In São Paulo,
Brazil,
activists are staging a big photo opp to connect the dots between climate
change and deforestation to pressure President Dilma to veto the new forest
code which is weak and full of loopholes for logging.

·
In the Região Serrana area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
members of CARE Brazil and local 350.org supporters will create a climate dot
in an area where heavy rains created landslides that led to death of many
community members in the region.

·
Outside of La Paz, Bolivia, members of Reacción Climática will
create a climate dot on a retreating glacier to highlight the impact melting
glaciers are having on the water supply to cities like La Paz and El Alto.

·
In Monterrey,
Mexico, people
will host a climate dot event on the banks of the Santa Catharina river which
were flooded out during 2010’s Hurricane Alex, an event that caused $1.8
billion in damage and Nuevo León governor Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz described
as “the worst weather phenomenon in [the state’s] history.”

·
In Carhuas, Peru, high school students from the Callejón de
Huaylas region will form a dot in the main plaza of the town to show solidarity
with farmers whose crops are being affected by the lack of rain.

·
In Cartagena,
Colombia,
350.org volunteers will collect garbage and plant trees along a canal that is
increasingly clogged and flooding due to heavier rains. Their dot will be
created with the garbage that they collect.

·
In the Monteverde Cloud Forest, Costa Rica, climate change
ecologist Alan Pounds will give a lecture on how climate change is changing
rainfall patterns in the forest and attendees will come up with 350 ways to
mitigate the effects of climate change.

Europe

·
In Copenhagen,
Denmark,
activists will unfurl a dot outside of the Canadian Embassy to connect the high
carbon emissions from the Canadian tar sands to the global climate crisis.

·
In Chamonix, France, climbers will create a huge red dot on
one of the melting Mont Blanc glaciers.

·
In Kiel, Germany, volunteers will invite
pedestrians leaving one of the city’s subway stations to put their fingerprint
on “Connect the Dots” banner as a pledge to stand in solidarity with victims of
climate change.

·
In Jaca, Spain, climbers will create a dot out of melting
snow from the Pyrenees.

·
In Lund, Sweden, students are collecting used and second
hand bikes and forming them into a solutions dot before shipping them to Cape Town, South
Africa.

·
In London, United Kingdom, the London Occupy Movement will
host a creative “twist” on the game of Twister, with participants using their
bodies to connect the dots between extreme weather events and climate change —
a large “dot” photo opp will also be taken in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

·
In Kiev, Ukraine, activists will parade through the
streets with dots representing the threat of climate change to different
regions of Ukraine.

·
In Riederalp,
Switzerland,
climbers will unfurl a giant dot on the Aletsch glacier, a UNESCO heritage site
that is currently melting due to climate change.

·
In Kydymkar City, Russia, indigenous people of Komi-Permyak will
perform traditional shamanic rituals to find the “Hub of the Universe,” a
sacred spiritual place connected with the state of the environment, and pray
for an end to the wildfires that have devastated Russia in previous years.

North America

Canada

·
In Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Citizens Climate Lobby is
hosting a “Swimming for Survival” climate dots event to highlight the threat of
rising seas to their communities.

·
In Hamilton,
Ontario people will gather with
umbrellas to form a giant dot and highlight the 17 extreme rainstorms that have
caused flooding in the city over the last eight years.

·
In Nelson, British Columbia,
organizers will hold dots in a forest decimated by the pine bark beetle that
has been spreading across North America due to
warmer temperatures.

·
In Ottawa, Ontario,
people will hold dots in the Rideau Canal, the
world’s longest skating rink. In the 1970s, the canal was open for skating an
average 70 days a year, but in the last decade the average number of skating
days has shrunk to 55. Last year, the canal was open for only 24 days.

·
In Winnipeg,
Manitoba, organizers will host a
community feast to welcome First Nations people and their supporters as they
travel on a Freedom Train to challenge the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline
and connect the dots between tar sands exploitation and climate change.

United States

·
In Nashville,
Tennessee high school students
will gather on their football field that was submerged in 2011’s historic
floods.

·
In San Francisco, California, aerial artist Daniel Dancer and the Center
for Biological Diversity will work with hundreds of people to form a giant,
moving blue dot to represent the threat of sea level rise and ocean
acidification to San Francisco
and other coastal communities.

·
In Cincinnati, Ohio, dozens of people will join an flashmob to
make a giant dot with umbrellas to represent the historic rainfalls in Ohio —
2011 was the wettest year on the record in the state.

·
At the Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico, firefighters will take “dots”
photo in a forest burned during the devastating fires that swept the southwest
in the summer of 2011. The company will also be installing solar panels on
their firehouse to do their part to combat climate change.

·
In Aspen, Colorado, a “Climate Dots” event will
connect climate change with pine beetle infestations, wildfires, and an
increasing lack of snow with “The Climate Challenge Snowless Ski Race”,
attendees wearing white to fill in for the missing snow, and a film screening
of “Chasing Ice”.

·
In Waitsfield, Vermont,
350.org founder and Vermont
native Bill McKibben will join hundreds of people to connect the terrible
flooding caused by 2011’s Hurricane Irene to the climate crisis.

·
In Louisville,
Kentucky, activists attired in
dot themed outfits and derby hats will host an event outside of the Kentucky
Derby to educate the public about climate change with horse names like “Florida
Under,” “Missing Ice Cap,” “Crappy Crops” and more.

·
In California’s Sierra Mountains,
climbers will unfurl a giant banner on the Dana Glacier that reads “I’m
Melting!”

·
In Pensacola, Florida,
activists will gather with dots on the bay front to recognize how climate
disruption is already impacting coastal communities in Florida.

·
In Miami, Florida,
organizers will march with blue dots from Miami’s
famous beach front to the spot where seas will rise by 2030 if global warming
is left unchecked (about the second story of most “beachfront” real estate).

·
In Honolulu, Hawaii,
organizers will bring their dots to Waikiki’s
beach front to raise awareness about the threat of sea level rise to the
island.

·
In Davenport, Iowa,
students at Iowa State University
will hold dots at a rally in front of the campus power plant to show how it
connects to human health, climate change and other environmental challenges.

·
In Winfield, Kansas,
350.org volunteers are hosting an event called, “Oz–Are we there yet?” where
they will paint windows downtown with a state map and “dot” the location of
recent tornadoes across Kansas.

·
In Boston, Massachusetts, the Boston Climate Action Network will
mark the 100 year anniversary of Fenway Park by organizing an event at the “Wake
Up the Earth” festival in Jamaica Plain that focuses on how climate change is
impacting important Red Sox locations: the Caribbean Islands (home to many top
players), the team’s training camp in southern Florida, and at home in Boston.

·
In Boston, Massachusetts, volunteers with the fictional “Metro
Boston Climate Defense” agency will distribute “Change in Service” flyers to
subway riders showing ferries replacing subway lines where flooding is
anticipated due to rising sea levels.

·
In Wayland, Massachusetts, citizens will gather with
dots at their local library that was inundated by a major flood in the spring
of 2010.

·
In Belfast, Maine, volunteers will raise awareness about climate
impacts by putting up Burma Shave style signs along a local highway that read,
“DEER TICKS BITE/THEY MAKE US SICK/INVADING MAINE/TOO DARN QUICK/ CLIMATE
CHANGE.”

·
In Ada, Michigan, mycologists will organize a
“mushroom count” to compare the number of spring mushrooms normally found in
May to the number of summer mushrooms that are appearing sooner due to climate
change.

·
In Charlotte,
North Carolina, activists will
unfurl a giant dot banner in front of Bank of America headquarters that reads,
“Climate Change Starts Here. BoA, Stop Funding Coal.” The event kicks off a
week of action against the Bank for funding dirty energy projects.

·
In Weirs Beach,
New Hampshire, locals are getting
out their umbrellas to form a dot to commemorate the impact of Hurricane Irene
on the state and call for climate action.

·
In Mahwah, New Jersey, local activists and members of
the Ramapough/Lunaape Nation will hike to the proposed site of a Fracked Gas
pipeline and create a “Dot” to connect the project to the broader climate
crisis.

·
In Sante Fe, New
Mexico, people will form a giant blue dot in the drought-stricken Santa Fe River to represent the water that should
be flowing there.

·
In New York City, 3rd Graders at the Children’s Storefront
School will be creating huge black dots with either red or green images on them
showing problems (red) or solutions and things we need to protect (green) –
demonstrating that all these things are linked to climate change.

·
In Lower Manhattan, which sea-level rise is expected to wipe off
the map, New Yorkers will hold up a giant blue dot that says “Underwater” and
unfurl it in Battery Park with the Manhattan skyline behind them. Following
that they’ll collect some of the water from Manhattan Island’s shores that will
soon wash up to Wall Street’s doors, and dump it on the Bank of America
headquarters as a reminder of what their investments in coal and oil are
bringing about.

·
In Saratoga Springs, New York, students at Skidmore College
will be “dotting the night,” covering their campus with dots relaying extreme
weather & climate related events.

·
In Salem, Oregon, cyclists will bike to three
different locations affected by a major flood in January 2012 to connect the
dots between heavy rains and climate change.

·
In Hood River,
Oregon, activists will unfurl a
giant red dot next to train tracks in town that increasingly see trains carrying
coal to export facilities on the coast.

·
In Portland,
Oregon, organizers will host an
umbrella decorating party to commemorate March 2012’s new all-time record for
monthly rainfall with 7.89 inches.

·
In Northumberland, Pennsylvania, concerned-citizens will attend a teach-in
to connect the dots between fracking and climate impacts hosted by the
Interfaith Sacred Earth Coalition of the Susquehanna Valley.

·
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
members of Clean Water Action will display at giant dot on the Smithfield Street Bridge
to connect fracking and the climate crisis.

·
In Dallas, Texas, a group of people will create dots
showing the rising number of 100-degree days over the past few years and
display them in a photo opp.

·
In Richmond,
Virginia, people will from across
the commonwealth will hold a giant dot in front of Dominion Virginia Power’s
headquarters to connect the dot between Dominion’s coal and the earth’s
warming.

·
In Virginia Beach, Virginia, activists will wade into the Atlantic
Ocean for a photo-shoot featuring a big cutout of King Neptune
submerged in the water — the famous statue is threatened by rising seas and
storm surges.

·
In Brattleboro,
Vermont, that Flat Street Brew
Pub will host a candlelight event to remember the impact of Hurricane Irene on
the local business which had to shut its doors for 10 weeks after flooding
wrecked their building.

·
In Hoquiam, Washington, birders will hold dots at the
Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge to mark how changes in the climate are
affecting bird migrations and endangering the habitats of many different
species.

·
In Anacortes,
Washington, community members
will take their dots to the gates of the Shell Oil Refinery to protest Shell’s
expansion of tar sands mining and drilling in the arctic.

·
In Eau Claire, Wisconsin, students at the University of
Wisconsin will create bright orange dots featuring different climate impacts
and place them on the stumps of trees that were cut down to make way for steam
lines from the university’s power plant.