Abreu and Hurwicz conduct and film singers of "The Balance"

Sharon Abreu, in the pink jacket on the right, led a gathering at Odd Fellows Hall who sang "The Balance" from Abreu and Mike Hurwicz' environmental musical, "Penguins on Thin Ice"

Dozens of Orcas Islanders and international visitors from Canada and Mexico came to the Odd Fellows Hall on Saturday afternoon to briefly rehearse and then sing “The Balance”  for a San Juan Islands’ contribution to International Climate Action Day.

The group was organized by Sharon Abreu and Michael Hurwicz of Irthling, an arts-based environmental organization. Among other projects, Irthlings has written and produced Penguins on Thin Ice, a 45-minute musical production “that teaches about global climate change, while inspiring and offering solutions to this modern challenge.” “The Balance” is a song from Penguins on Thin Ice.

On Saturday afternoon at the Odd Fellows, participating singers were served hot cider and cookies after the hour long rehearsal and “take.” A video of the event can be seen at
youtube.com/watch?v=szyY051gT8Q.

The video will also be posted on the website, www.350.org, so named because 350 parts-per-million of carbon dioxide is the maximum safe level environmentalists have determined may safely be in the atmoshpere before creating instability in the atmosphere, resulting in the warming of the planet and global climate change. Right now the level in the eath’s atmosphere is 397 part-per-million, Abreu has stated.

“350.org will deliver our messages to the media and world leaders. Together, we can show our world and its decision-makers just how big, beautiful, and unified the climate movement really is.”