Using their bodies to form the number 350, 55 students braved the cold and rainy weather Monday to demonstrate on Libe Slope as part of a campaign to promote global warming awareness. 

The campaign –– named 350 Earth Art and conceived by 350.org –– organizes mass human art in cities across the world to promote the cause, then photographs the works from satellites in space. The number 350 is the upper-limit of carbon dioxide emissions in parts per million that scientists believe will prevent further global warming, according to the organization’s website.  

The 350 Earth Art movement began in hopes of influencing a more tangible outcome from the upcoming United Nations Climate Conference — which will be held on Nov. 29 in Cancun — after several past conferences, such as the 2009 Copenhagen Conference, failed to yield a suitable solution for the global warming crisis.

 Major 350 Earth Art events are scheduled to occur from Nov. 20 to 28 in 12 major cities, including Los Angeles, Cairo, Cape Town and New Delhi. Yet smaller events, like the one on the slope on Monday, are continuing to pop up across the country.

One demonstration included 1,000 Santa Fe Girl Scouts who formed the shape of a “flash flood” in the area where the Santa Fe River should have been flowing, according to a 350 Earth Art statement. Another demonstration, in Los Angeles, organized hundreds of people to take the shape of an eagle flying over solar panels.

But at Cornell, the weather was not as cooperative as organizers would have hoped.

“Most people would rather not stand around in the rain,” said April Schneider ’13, who participated in the event. “We probably would have had a much bigger turnout if it had been sunny.”

Though the rain likely contributed to the smaller than expected turnout, others believed that a lack of significant promotion for the event may have been another factor.

“How often we remind people and how much people have going on is more important than the weather,” Neesha Regmi Schnepf ’13, president of Cornell’s Green Party, said. “While a lot of people were notified about this event through Listservs and Facebook, we didn’t have enough physical on campus advertising for it.”

In spite of the weather conditions, Schnepf said that the event went well and emphasized the need to educate the Cornell campus about a number that everyone should know about.

“Many people have not heard of 350 as the [carbon dioxide] atmospheric concentration cut off, and I hope that this event really draws a lot of attention to that number. Especially since we’re at 390 parts per million and growing,” Schnepf said. 

Jamie Henn, one of the founders of 350.org, said that although traditional sustainability measures, such as recycling and conserving electricity, were helpful in the general fight against global warming, she believed that only through political action could things really change.

“The best way to contribute as a student is to get together with your friends, do some research … and start brainstorming creative campaigns that can accomplish some clear goals … like pressuring your politicians to do more on climate,” Henn said. 

Schnepf agreed with Henn’s assessment.

“The USA is responsible for 25 percent of the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. It will take a lot of work to reduce this, with most of that work having to go towards motivating politicians and corporations,” Schnepf said. “If it was only a matter of what individuals did, it would be fine, but as a country we need to change.”

Since its founding in 2007, 350.org has tried to spread its message about the dangers of global warming in an original and artistic way. 

“350.org’s mission is to build an international, grassroots climate movement that can pressure our political leaders to help solve the climate crisis,” Henn said.

The organization’s website lists several statistics indicative of a changing climate, such as the 39 percent worldwide decrease in sea ice in the summer of 2007 –– an area comparable to five times the size of the United Kingdom.

350 Earth Art is the third major program instituted by the organization, according to the 350.org website. 

Previous efforts include the mass coordination of 5,200 climate actions in 181 countries on Oct. 24, 2008, which CNN called “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history.”