As I write this, Blog Action Day 2009 is about to sunset over the Pacific, with the last part of the globe reaching 11:59pm on October 15th.  For the past day bloggers in 155 countries across six continents have written about a single issue that impacts us all, and turned BAD09 into one of the largest social change events ever held on the web.

Your participation helped change the conversation and showed the power of the web to connect people across the world who despite their varied backgrounds have one shared desire: to make a difference. According to blogpulse, we increased the number of posts about climate change on a given day by about 500%, and CNN wrote a great article covering the excitement and diversity of today’s event across the web and around the world.

There are too many updates to include in a single blog post, but here’s an overview of today’s highlights to get us started:

We are about to hit 27,000 32,000 total trackable blog posts, and our current estimate is that together we reached at least 17 million people today. We are also about to exceed 12,000 registered bloggers on the site and are working to get all of you who posted but haven’t yet registered into the final count.

We count at least three major world governments as active participants in this year’s event. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown posted the first Blog Action Day entry in Britain at the stroke of midnight this morning, which was followed by Foreign Minister David Milliband and many others from the UK stationed around the world. The PSOE governing party of Spain hosted a bloggers event focused on climate change and transformed their website for the day to promote Blog Action Day. And late in the day, President Barack Obama’s White House blog joined in become part of the global movement of bloggers shaking the web.

Of course, well-known bloggers were a big presence today as well. Check out the Featured Posts on the blogactionday.org homepage for an extensive list, which includes The Official Google Blog’s green tour of the company’s campus, Mashable’s post asking what you’re doing to reverse climate change, and The Unofficial Apple Weblog’s suggestions for “Five apps to help save the world.”

Many of our nonprofit partners, leading organizations from around the world, were actively involved in making the event a success. TckTckTck released a beautiful new video, Greenpeace and WWF bloggers from around the world added their voices, Oxfam helped emphasize the human side of the climate crisis, 1Sky wrote about the front lines of political activism in the US, and The Nature Conservancy helped us understand the science of climate change. We’ll provide an entire list of all nonprofit posts as soon as we gather all the links.

In addition to all of these great bloggers we’d particularly like to thank several blogs for devoting the whole day to  Blog Action Day. The travel blog Gadling posted a number of great pieces on green travel. The always-insightful bloggers at NRDC’s Switchboard wrote throughout the day. The World Resources Institute provided updates throughout the day with facts and information. Global Voices has posts from around the world in many languages. Co2nsequence wrote a whole series of posts on youth climate leadership.

Finally, we’d like to recognize the efforts of our partners at Current Green who have not only been posting, but also featuring the best writing and art from Blog Action Day bloggers everywhere.

We should all feel proud of this remarkable collective effort, and for many of you, we hope this serves as an entry point into the broader movement to address the issue of climate change. There are a number of ways and some amazing organizations through which you can continue to remain involved, many of which are listed in our Take Action section. We will continue providing updates and information about the success of today’s event and ongoing opportunities for involvement here in the coming days and weeks ahead, and hope you’ll stay with us.

This list is raw, unedited. It was put together by several volunteers from among the thousands of Blog Action Day 2009 participants. We hope you find it useful and that you add to it in the comments below!

1. Talk to your boss at work and ask him/her to set up a training meeting for employees on how to make the workplace more friendly to the environment.
2. Take action on big scale with an organization.
3. Take 15 minutes to ask your friends on Facebook and Twitter what they think about climate change and what people can do about it.
4. Sign a peitition like this one: http://bit.ly/bad09act
5. Find out where your senators stand on the Kerry-Boxer climate bill.
6. Work with your local university or college on making your area more bike friendly. You could even help develop a bike share program!
7. Walk leave your car in the garage
8. Go vegetarian/ vegan
9. Join a local event at http://350.org/ – it’s happening on Oct 24, 2009 worldwide
10. Stop throwing so much away. Get a pig, they eat trash like no other.
11. Watch “The Day After Tomorrow.” Okay, or watch a documentary about global warming or climate change like “An Inconvenient Truth.”
12.Climb the stairs let the elevators
13. Watch a climate change video from the latest Nobel Peace Prize winner, then email your senators to demand a clean energy future: http://consequence09.org/TimeToLead
14. Talk to your coworkers about the possibility of carpooling to and from work.
15. Reduce, reuse, recycle!
16. Don’t eat so much meat. Either stop eating it altogether or at least cut it down so the majority of your diet is plant-based. That way the planet’s land can be used more for growing plants for us to eat instead of feeding them to animals.
17. Take actions at Greenpeace’s website: http://members.greenpeace.org/action/index.php
18. Sell your gas guzzling Hummer or whatever and get a car with much better gas mileage. Or get a bike.
19. Get involved in your local community in leading discussions about how to support clean energy.
20. Stop getting so many paper bills in the mail. Go online to access them instead.
21. Turn off the water when not using it. turn off the electricity and heating if it is not needed.
22.Try walking or riding a bike to and from work. Cutting down on auto emissions would help out alot.
23. Support and participate in actions against the destruction of our forests.
24. Avoid speaking rather than doing. Use renewable energy without hurting its future. Plant more trees (p.e. with http://www.wikiwoods.org) and try to make the developed countries to use vehicles when needed rather than using it for luxury.
25. Don’t use paper or Styrofoam cups at work-bring your own. When changing appliances, buy EnergyStar certified. Raise temperature on the air conditioner and lower it on heater by a couple of degrees.
26. Pack a Waste Free Lunches for yourself and Children.
27. Show your neighbors, how nice a sustainable garden can be – farm your garden organic
28. Stem the flow of Junk Mail to your home Use this guide for links to make the job easier.
29. Stop using bottled water.
30. Switch to Paperless Paper Towels – Learn how here.
31. Separate home waste in 3 different trash 1. organic 2. paper/plastic 3. no-recycleable materials
32. Don’t leave plugs in sockets. Energy is still being used even if the socket is off.
33. Come on stop buying this SUV and trucks to drive in the cities, small is beautifull!
34. Try to find apartments close to your school, so you do not need a car to travel to school each day.
35. Pass on used books and photocopyied materials to your friends in younger years so that they do not need to photocopy again, save papers, save trees.
36. Learn to shower with less water. I don’t have running water so use two 64oz Pace Picante bottles with hole drilled in lids. Getting wet, Soaping off and then rinsing generally only takes one bottle. I use 2 when washing my hair. Been doing it for 18 years and it works.
37. Put up a dry erase board to write down thing you need at the store so you can get in the habit of only shopping once a week or less.
38. Inspire other people for a transition – use this handbook: http://ecolocity.ning.com/notes/Transition_Handbook_online – give it to other people.
39. Stop using planes and discover the nature in your region.
40. If you have a garden: plant vegetables, if you can’t do it offer other people to use it.
41. Learn about your ecological footprint and reduce it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_footprint
42. Make sure that every air trip we choose to do will bring real benefits, such as increasing understanding and collaboration, personal development and true fulfillment. All other trips are a waste of time which we should anyway avoid in our lives. http://wp.me/pE64t-2j
43. Recycle your toylet paper, dont eat meet, shower only evry other day, and pick your nose instead of using kleenex.
44.bring & use your basket bag when u shopping, don’t request plastic bag to shopman
45.use mechanical pencils, instead of manual ones

What would you add? What else can you do?

judith meskill, executive editor at change.org, gives ‘iambic pentameter’ props to the blogs and nonprofits joining us for blog action day, 2009.

come blog with us, today’s blog action day,
for each of us can surely find a way,
to fix the climate, or the kids get it,
let’s show our children that we give a whit.

“i want to leave a safe and secure world,”
said gordon brown as his first blog unfurled,
we mow our lawns with goats, said google’s blog,
else we will need a beacon in the smog.

the clock is tcktcktck’ing, as we know,
and there are still so many ways to grow,
let’s green our rides, and our computers too,
while greening up our habits, through and through.

our chance to leave a legacy is now,
as thousands of green bloggers show us how!

by: judith meskill

Behold, 7 videos for you to enjoy. Happy Blog Action Day 2009 everyone.

The Drawing of “Melting Planet”

Milo Tells Us How He Does “Green”

Climate Change: Why Question It?

Blogging for Climate Change

Fight Climate Change!

Jamaica Urban Transit Company

Telúrica 754

What other videos have you seen that have to do with Blog Action Day 2009?

We asked Beth Pickard of FirstGiving.com a few questions about her organization’s involvement in Blog Action Day 2009. Here are her answers.

How did you guys find out about Blog Action Day 2009? What made you decide to participate?

FirstGiving blogged about poverty on Blog Action Day last year, and it was incredibly inspiring to see how many voices came together to talk about such an important cause with such passion. We see this passion every day from nonprofits and their supporters on FirstGiving.com, and we’re constantly inspired by the thousands of people raising money online for the causes they care about. Taking the time to focus in and generate awareness worldwide about a cause that impacts everyone is a terrific idea. It’s very much in line with our values as a company, and we’re honored to take part again this year.

What are you planning to write about or do for Blog Action Day today? What’s your position on the issue of climate change and how does your organization address it?

One of the first things that comes to mind about climate change for FirstGiving is energy consumption. As an online company, energy consumption is a necessity. We rely on technology, and our technology relies on energy. But energy consumption can be smarter. Today FirstGiving is blogging about a partnership between the Solar Electric Fund, a nonprofit organization, and John, an individual supporter. They’re working together to make energy sustainable for the segment of the population who are impacted most by climate change: the poor. These are the kinds of relationships that FirstGiving facilitates and nurtures—very exciting stuff!

What impact do you see this issue having in the world in the next 10 or 20 years?

Climate change affects everyone, and those who are least able to cope to a greater degree. FirstGiving is encouraged to see people taking responsibility and action on a daily basis by raising money and engaging their social networks on issues like climate change. These people are having a real impact on the world.

How do you think bloggers can make a difference in social issues like climate change in the offline world?

Simply by being authentic. It’s good to blog about making a difference; it’s better to live it out. People spend a lot of time translating things like social networks from offline to online paradigms, but we should make sure that how we live online isn’t divorced from how we live offline.

What sorts of social media initiatives have you done in the past? What are some things you’re working on now that bloggers and social media users can get involved in?

FirstGiving empowers people to engage their social networks and to raise money using social media—with personal fundraising pages, widgets for personal blogs, and Fundraising (a Facebook application). We keep the conversation going between nonprofits and fundraisers by posting spotlights and stories to the Online Fundraising Blog as well as updates to Twitter and Facebook, and we love hearing from people .

Any other thoughts or ideas you’d like to share?

Thanks for having us, and thanks to the thousands of other bloggers contributing today!

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Thanks to Beth and FirstGiving!

Register now for Blog Action Day (8,857 blogs so far) and sign the petition (6,832 signatures so far)!

The video above shows UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband at a joint press conference speaking about the pressing issue of climate change and how it related to the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

How did you find out about Blog Action Day 2009? What made you decide to participate?

After participating in Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty we were eagerly anticipating this year’s. We signed up for the e-mail alert early on. We see our blogs as being part of the blogging community. Here is our chance to prove it and get involved in raising awareness of climate change. It’s exceptionally important this year as we prepare for the climate change conference in Copenhagen this December.

What are you planning to write about or do for Blog Action Day on October 15?

The Foreign Office has a wide range of bloggers across our embassies. For Blog Action Day, they’ll write a perspective from their country, on an area of foreign policy expertise, the effects of climate change locally or personally. The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has already committed his support and will be blogging on the day.

How do you think the topic of climate change relates to your work? What impact do you see this issue having on your country in the next 10 or 20 years?

Increasingly the problems caused by Climate Change and the solution to combat it are  Foreign Policy issues. Promoting a low carbon high growth global economy is a key priority for the Foreign Office. You can find out more about our particular priorities: developing a low carbon economy, encouraging the use of low carbon technology, giving a voice to vulnerable countries and researching the threat of climate change on global security in the global issues area of our website.

We’re also working in conjunction with the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Department for International Development (DfID) on a campaign website where we outline the UK’s position and ambition for a global deal on climate change.

How do you think bloggers can make a difference in social issues like this in the offline world?

Bloggers can make a difference in the offline world by creating awareness of the problem. The personal style of blog writing allows you to be persuasive. The sheer volume of bloggers blogging for blog action day and climate change also helps amplify the message.

Any other thoughts or ideas you’d like to share?

Just to say many thanks for the work that has gone in to organising this day. We hope it becomes an annual event for years to come. So long as the Foreign Office has bloggers, we will always take part.

Blog Action Day 2009 isn’t just about getting a bunch of big organizations to take action. It’s about involving individuals like you and me to work together to make a difference.

For example, Pamir Kiciman runs the Reiki Help Blog. We asked him what he thought of Blog Action Day and what he plans to do for this unique event. Here’s what he had to say.

How did you find out about Blog Action Day 2009? What made you decide to participate?

This will be my third year. The first year I joined, the topic was the Environment. Last year it was Poverty. BAD picks really good topics! Climate change is in our face and not to participate would simply be irresponsible. There’s one thing we can all agree on: The health of the planet we call home is crucial to the quality of our lives, and our very existence.

What are you planning to write about or do for Blog Action Day on October 15?

I’m not planning on doing anything too different than what I’m already doing. I’m raising my son as a vegetarian (massive numbers of livestock raised only for human consumption is a contributor to global warming), and he is going to be the starting spark of what I will write.

We do our best to live with awareness of what it is to be human, and human footprint on the planet. There are about 6.5 billion of us now. That has to have an impact. There’s just no way we can have free reign to do anything and everything we want in a resource-limited ecosystem without serious consequences.

So I’m going to write an educational post about recent climate change findings, various recent news from high-level meetings, and the gearing up to COP15 in Copenhagen in December.

To me, the first step is becoming informed. This is what “awareness” is all about. In anticipation of the next question, let me say that awareness is what I’m mostly engaged with. With the proliferation of Web 2.0 information is more than available, so not being educated is inexcusable. But there’s another side. Information is useless if not acted upon, or actions remain the same as before despite strong indicators to change.

Being educated first takes the form of self-awareness. The world is made up of individuals. If each individual becomes truly self-reflective, we may not need to always get to a point of desperate outer action which often begins too late and can be ineffective.

In health, everyone talks about prevention. Why can’t we be proactive with our ecosystem too?

How do you think the topic of climate change relates to your profession? What impact do you see this issue having on your industry in the next 10 or 20 years?

It’s hard to talk about something as large-scale as climate change from the narrow lens of a profession or industry. James Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia theory which considers planet Earth a self-regulated living being, has been making extremely dire and fairly accurate predictions for years.

We don’t know what can happen, except that the status quo is certainly a sure way of dooming our future.

If Earth remains livable, I predict my line of work will be in great demand as it is even now because of rising fears, dissatisfaction, and an increasing search for meaning and belonging.

How do you think bloggers can make a difference in social issues like this in the offline world?

Bloggers and everyone else for that matter have to become responsible and global-minded citizens. While we still have leaders who want to do the right thing, Big Oil, Coal, Finance, Agriculture and even Big Politics (to cite a few examples) continue to pursue narrow short-term and self-serving agendas, and actively conceal and spin the truth.

So it’s up to us to live in a way that promotes values and practices which will perpetuate a balanced and healthy life for all of us, and the planet. The era of indulgence and self-interest is over. It’s now so evident that humans are all one living organism with each other and the planet in undeniable symbiosis, that hopefully this will propel cooperation, consideration and the sustainability of the future.

Any other thoughts or ideas you’d like to share?

Yes. As great as the BAD venture is, as a blogger of certain topics I find it frustrating that I’m not represented well in platforms such as this. For instance, I had to select “Other” as my blog topic when registering, whereas my ‘topic’ is much more colorful and crucial.

Ironically, there isn’t even a “Green” or “Environment” topic. Since numbers are often respected let me quote one: There are 50 million adult Americans who can be considered what sociologist Paul Ray has termed “Cultural Creatives.”

Briefly, “The Cultural Creatives care deeply about ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, social justice, and about self actualization, spirituality and self-expression.” Ray also has a book by the same title, detailing 13 years of survey research.

This is an already deeply engaged group of people. When people are engaged, there’s tremendous motive power.

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Thanks to Pamir for putting so much thought and effort into his participation for Blog Action Day 2009!

What are you going to do?

So we are using a Google blog search to pull the feed for our homepage today. Unfortunately no system is perfect and some posts aren’t showing up. So we’re going to use this blog post to link out to anyone who’s post don’t get picked up on the homepage feed.

Is your post missing? Email easton@change.org and he can make sure we get your link up here.

Great posts Google missed:

Our friends over at Current Green are devoting all day tomorrow to Blog Action Day and they’ve offered to feature your posts! Check out the post they put up yesterday with instructions for how to get your writing or art featured on the site.

This is a great chance to show the world your Blog Action Day effort and we will of course also feature it here on blogactionday.org as part of our live stream tomorrow.

One great thing about Current’s participation is that they have two separate locations. www.current.com/green will feature news and opinion writing and the Current Green Blog will be reserved for featuring artistic and poetic contributions.

Thanks a lot to Current Green for this opportunity!

We asked Spanish social entrepreneur Francisco Polo a few questions about his organization YoPolitico and how it hopes to help address the issue of climate change for Blog Action Day 2009.

1. What is YoPolitico and why are you supporting Blog Action Day 2009?

YoPolitico.org is a new organisation that helps you to join forces with people like you who do not want to be a mere spectator of the political process. We are very diverse people who have in common the decision of taking steps to make progress in our societies.

We are supporting Blog Action Day because we share the belief that long sighted solutions must have more importance than short sighted fixes. Climate Change is one of these issues that need long term action and compromise.
2. What’s the debate about climate change like in Spain?

Spain is in a process of renewing its productive model. New technologies and renewable energies will be the epicentre of this new economy. At this very moment, Spain is one of the most important countries on the development of clean energies but it is still important to make new commitments on the fight against Climate Change.
3. How do you think bloggers can use the Web to make changes happen offline in regards to climate change?

Bloggers and citizens around the world have an unbelievable power. The most important issue about Climate Change is making everyone aware of its effects and consequences. On this subject, bloggers have the power to explain Climate Change and join millions of voices to the preservation of our planet.
4. What are you planning to do for Blog Action Day? (blog posts, videos, contests, etc. – any details would be great)

As the only Spanish Partner of Blog Action Day we will be fostering BAD in the Spanish speaking world. We are planning to release the Spanish version of BAD video and we will be encouraging Spanish blogs around to write about the same issue on October 15^th.
5. Any other thoughts to share?

The struggle against Climate Change is probably one of the issues that will touch us all sooner or later. You have the seed to stop Global Warming. Make it grow. Join us on the BLOG ACTION DAY.

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Thanks so much Francisco! Mil gracias.