Dr. James Hansen is back in the news this week. It’s been twenty years since his famous 1988 testimony before Congress on the “greenhouse effect.” His message today could not be more clear:

We’re toast if we don’t get on a very different path. This is the last chance. We see a tipping point occurring right before our eyes. The Arctic is the first tipping point and it’s occurring exactly the way we said it would.

I have to admit, when I first heard of the 350 Project to mobilize action around 350 ppm CO2 as the “start line for a global movement”, I was skeptical. Nine years of spreading the gospel of taking action on climate change has taught me that scaring people with doomsday scenarios and striking numbers is a dangerous road to travel down. But I’m learning..

Maybe it’s less about what story we tell, but how we tell it. I love the doctor analogy that the 350 folks use:

If we’re already past 350, are we all doomed?
No. We’re like the patient that goes to the doctor and learns he’s overweight, or his cholesterol is too high. He doesn’t die immediately—but until he changes his lifestyle and gets back down to the safe zone, he’s at more risk for heart attack or stroke. The planet is in its danger zone because we’ve poured too much carbon into the atmosphere, and we’re starting to see signs of real trouble: melting ice caps, rapidly spreading drought. We need to scramble back as quickly as we can to safety.

In a crisis, you’ve got to re-think conventional wisdom. Maybe if we can break down a few of our stereotypes, look out for the long run, and not be afraid of speaking truth to power and the people, we’ll stand a chance at real revolutionary change.