At a press conference on 31 July 2016, 350HK pointed out that the greatest threat facing humankind today is not economic downturn or financial turmoil, but environmental collapse brought by climate change. “Although the UN Climate Conference at the end of last year was declared a success, the climate crisis is far from solved,” Dr. Eddy Lee, the Convenor of 350HK, explained. “To avert global disaster, governments all over the world – including the government of Hong Kong, must take bold and swift action to phase out fossil fuels, and replace them with clean energy like solar or wind power which do not emit carbon dioxide, the chief culprit of global warming. The longer we delay action, the more severe will be the disasters befalling us and our future generations.”

Based on the above assessment, 350HK launched a Climate Challenge to all LegCo candidates, which consisted of a 14-point questionnaire probing their stand and attitude on various policy suggestions in combating climate change. Their responses will then be collated, processed and disseminated via different media channels a few days before the election, so that voters could take them into account during their decision-making.

After the press conference, a special parade was conducted outside the Tsim Sha Tsui Cultural Centre. Four life-size models of the Hiroshima atomic bomb were carried along the promenade by a group of young people, signifying that the heat currently absorbed by the Earth due to global warming is equivalent to the detonation of four such bombs per second. These attracted a large number of bystanders and phototaking. The stiflingly hot weather that day added a sense of immediacy to all those who witnessed the event.

At the end of the parade, there was a “bomb defusing” ceremony which symbolized our determination to solve the crisis. It so happened that a movie team from National Geographic was taking location shots in the vicinity. As their guest, Hollywood movie star Sigourney Weaver of Alien and Avatar fame was thus among the bystanders. She was spotted and quickly invited by 350HK to “defuse” the last bomb, together with two toddlers to whom the future belongs. The crowd was pleasantly surprised by this unexpected highlight of the event.

The Climate Challenge had been launched. We would see how it was taken up by our LegCo candidates.