The weather was perfect for a walk. Ames’ sidewalks were littered with exercisers, as people gathered at Brookside Park for different reasons.

Ames 350 event collaborated this year with Ames’ CROP Walk, which works to raise funds to fight world poverty and hunger. The 350 event was one of 7,347 events held by the organization internationally Sunday.

Ellen Johnsen, 350 spokesperson, stresses a strong connection between hunger issues and climate change.

“CROP walk was kind enough to partner with [350], so that we could make this a dual event,” Johnsen said.

350, an international movement toward climate change, stresses the fact that 350 parts per million — carbon in the atmosphere — is the safe upper limit of CO2 in our atmosphere.

“Three hundred and fifty ppm is the safe and stable upper limit; beyond that, that’s climate change and that’s why we’re already seeing the effects of that,” Johnsen said. “We need to be below 350 ppm to make sure the world that we live in is the same as the world that human life has adapted to.”

Rod Fischer, coordinator for the CROP walk, strives to raise money for world hunger and awareness.

“For CROP walk, the main emphasis that I like to focus on is that 25 percent of the money that’s raised in the local CROP walk, stays locally,” Fischer said. “It’s just a matter of getting people fired up, sign up and walk as well as get donations.”

Rivka Fidel, graduate student in agronomy, was also present on campus for the International Day for Climate Action [10/10] run by www.350.org.

“[350’s] to promote the idea that if CO2 levels stay above 350 ppm, climate change could become irreversible,” Fidel said. “Right now we’re at 390 ppm, and there hasn’t been enough legislation to get the CO2 concentrations down.”

The reason that 350 partnered with CROP walk to raise awareness about how climate change is really connected to world hunger and how bigger a problem it can be if the world gets too warm, like with increased droughts and floods, Fidel said.

“Ames could be doing a lot more, we could be shifting away from coal — which Jim Henson says is 80 percent of the climate change problem because there’s so many countries that rely a lot on coal,” Fidel said. “It can never burn clean.”

350 stations were spread throughout the walk’s route, including one run by Colleen McRoberts, local Ames’ musical director, who looks at how water scarcity, climate change and world hunger work together.

“We’re taking a look at how about in arid nations, 90 percent of water is being used at this point in time for agriculture production,” McRoberts said. “China and India are already seeing places were they can’t produce as much food as they have people, and a big part of that has to do with water issues.”

Tanya Meyer, Ames resident, thought the CROP walk was a good thing to do.

“I think it’s good to get people aware of hunger in the world, that it really exists and there’s a lot of people who are suffering,” Meyer said.