Bill McKibben

Do the Math (documentary)

July 20, 2013
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Bill McKibben is one of the greatest environmental writers and activists of our time. In 1989 he wrote The End of Nature, which is considered by many to be the first book on global warming written for a general audience. Since then he has written countless articles, given hundreds if not thousands of public lectures, and is the main organizer of the 350.org movement to solve the climate crisis. One year ago McKibben published an influential article in Rolling Stone magazine entitled “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math.” The thesis of the article is that there are three significant numbers that everyone needs…

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Obama vs. Physics (by Bill McKibben)

January 30, 2013
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The subtitle of Bill McKibben’s latest piece for TomDispatch reads “Why Climate Change Won’t Wait for the President” and sets the tone for another very well written and well-reasoned article by one of the greatest environmental writers and activists. While it is worth reading in whole, here are some particularly interesting paragraphs that catch the essence of the article: […] And that’s always been the difficulty with climate change — the greatest problem we’ve ever faced. It’s not a fight, like education reform or abortion or gay marriage, between conflicting groups with conflicting opinions. It couldn’t be more different at a fundamental level.…

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New ideas for addressing climate change

July 27, 2012
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Bill McKibben, one of the leading environmentalists of our time. has a real talent for taking the latest developments in climate science and explaining their significance in terms that the average person can easily understand. His latest piece in Rolling Stone magazineis no exception. In it, he gives compelling, fact-based reasons for why the prospects for containing global warming are very dim. But he also presents a new idea that just might provide a glimmering of hope. McKibben suggests that the divestment campaign that helped to end the South African apartheid may provide the model for a public campaign to…

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Canadian Oil Sands

April 16, 2012
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Consider these four facts: Canada quits the Kyoto protocol and threatens the EU with trade war for labeling tar sand produced oil highly polluting. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney calls the Keystone Pipeline a “no-brainer”.   Cancer rates downstream of tar sands are staggering. Obama finally and despite earlier hesitation voiced his support for expedited construction of the southern half of the Keystone pipeline. In light of the foregoing, it is worth having a look at what both Canadian and U.S. politicians sell as unique job creation opportunities and heavenly energy security gifts: the oil sands that they have greenwashed and relabeled…

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The great carbon bubble

February 14, 2012
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If there is any single person worth listening to on the issue of climate change, it’s Bill McKibben. He’s the global canary in the coal mine, sending out ominous warnings that unfortunately fall mostly on deaf ears. He’s been at this for decades, and his messages, which are backed up by the latest climate science and corroborated by the events unfolding in front of  our eyes, are getting louder, clearer, and more urgent. Still the changes made in response to this looming crisis are insignificant, inconsistent, and do not approach the scale of the changes that are required in order…

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Bill McKibben on Irene and climate change

December 28, 2011
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Democracy Now once again demonstrated its ability to connect the dots–in this case on climate change. In an interview with Bill McKibben on Hurricane Irene, Amy Goodman remarks: We did not hear those words, “global warming.” I watched a lot of the media coverage this weekend. What about this? I mean, to say the least, there was time in the endless coverage.  That the dots are not being connected by the mainstream media is deeply disappointing because it is precisely what the IPCC was predicting all the time: Climate Change 2007: Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis 3.8.3 Evidence for Changes…

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