Ringing the changes!
St James bellringers joined others around the world in ringing our church bells 350 times on December 13th.
As world leaders plan for a make-or-break summit on climate change in Copenhagen , bellringers across the country were invited to ‘sound the alarm’ in a way unparalleled since the last World War, firstly on October 24 and now on December 13. By ringing the bells 350 times our bellringers united our church family with people around the world to symbolise support for radical action from the Copenhagen summit.
Why 350 times?
Many of the world’s leading climatologists say that, to maintain a global environment similar to the one in which humanity has thrived for thousands of years and to which life on earth is adapted, the highest safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 350 parts per million.
Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are already at 387 parts per million, and climbing rapidly – which is why the Arctic is melting, disease-carrying mosquitoes are spreading rapidly, and droughts and floods are making the livelihoods of the poor ever harder. The symbolic ringing on 24 October was just one of thousands of events promoted by the global 350 campaign asking negotiators to reach a deal strong enough to turn the tide.
Bells have been used throughout history to sound the alarm. Soon after the last national call to prayer in 1940, the nation’s bells fell silent, only to ring again in the event of invasion. Almost seventy years later, in the face of the threat from climate change, bellringers played a similar role as they rang the bells 350 times on October 24, six weeks ahead of the Copenhagen summit.