By: Daria Mahgoub

Courtesy of Sarah Rifaat.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”. Margaret Mead

On October 24th, I was one of thousands of individuals in 181 different countries participating in events to commemorate the “International Day of Action”. I was in Cairo, supporting the 350 movement and participating in one of 5200 events worldwide.

Where were you on October 24th?

The brain behind the 350 movement, the organization that coordinated the global events, Bill McKibben, a respected activist and author, is adamant that a concrete goal such as the number 350 is the best way to build a “global community” to end the climate crisis. The numbers above deem him right.

Registered on the 350.org website were 14 actions in Egypt. The events, or actions, took place in Cairo, Aswan, Alexandria, Dahab, Farafra Oasis, and Demietta.

Young activists Sarah Rifaat and Hazem Saleh contacted Eco Options Egypt’s founder in September to organize the event ‘350 Climate Action Night‘ at the Rawabet Theater. The team spent numerous days organizing, talking, dreaming, drinking coffee and emailing other interested individuals and organizations such as  HEPCA and Rawabet’s Outreach Program.

The outcome was a successful night in Rawabet’s theatre with over 100 guests.

The main feature was the screening of the award winning documentary “The Age of Stupid” and a discussion. Following the screening, three prominent scientists and professors  in various fields of the environment- Dr. Moshira Hassan, Dr. Salah Arafa and Dr. Thomas Culhane,  introduced to the avid audience the dire importance of immediate and significant actions to end the climate change crisis.

The event also featured Cairo’s own comedians Rami Boraie and Mo’ love who discussed how Egyptians treat their environment with recklessness, at the same time highlighting that the time  for action  and for cleaning up and protecting Egypt’s environment is RIGHT NOW. During the event, short films of relevance were screened after their submission through a contest put up by the organizers. Besides that, films from the 350.org website were screened as an explanation of the concept of 350.

Two interesting features were the participation of the Cairo Cyclers Club and Egypt Car Poolers. The former has already shown great dedication to the movement by participating in the Pyramids event earlier in the month.

Events by 350.org and many more global campaigns like Tck Tck Tck are tackling Climate Change with global communities as a preparation for the awaited Climate meetings in Copenhagen in December 2009. Similarly, on October 15^th the Blog Action Day 09 was dedicated to Climate Change. In that, 13,598 blogs from 156 countries participated and were read by more than 18 million readers world wide.

Pictures from the previous event held at the Pyramids were added to the slideshow shown on Times Square in New York at 4:30 EST on the 25^th of October.

Since millions were mobilized on a national and international level, Climate Change is unmistakably becoming an issue of concern to the public, the media and hopefully to the preliminary target: the world leaders.

Media Coverage

Local:- Al Doustor Newspaper, October 26th issue

Global:- BBC, CNN and Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter (!)