Bill McKibben Inspires Students to Take Action against Climate Change

 

This past Wednesday, hundreds of people crowded into McCarthy Arts Center to hear Bill McKibben, a renowned environmental author and activist (and native Vermonter!), speak about climate change in his presentation “After America’s Hottest Year, It’s Time to Act: Fossil Fuel, Divestment, and the Future.” 

 

McKibben wrote The End of Nature in 1989, and is often seen as the first author to educate a general audience about climate change. He has since published a dozen books, including bestsellers like Eaarth. His article “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math” reached a large audience in its publication with Rolling Stone, receiving hundreds of thousands of likes and shares among social networks. In 2010, the Boston Globe referred to Bill McKibben as “probably the nation’s leading environmentalist” and Time magazine called him “the world’s best green journalist.” The Burlington Free Press named him the 2012 Vermonter of the year. 

 

McKibben is also the founder of 350.org, a grassroots organization that has launched several campaigns in taking action against climate change. The number 350 represents the amount of carbon dioxide in parts per million (ppm) that scientists tell us we need to remain under in order to live on a sustainable planet. Our current level is 392 ppm, and 350.org argues that we can reduce that amount. 350 has become a symbol for a new way of living on this planet.

 

Why is a global fight against climate change so important? McKibben reminded students that scientists have really only known about it for the past couple of decades. In that amount of time, the world has warmed over one degree. It may not seem like much on the surface, but the science behind this fact suggests quite a lot. 

 

“Each degree increase cuts grain yield one tenth worldwide,” McKibben said. He discussed the rapid increase in global temperatures and noted that with the way things are going, we might see even a 3-degree increase in our lifetime alone. “Try to imagine our planet with 30% fewer calories on it,” he stated.  

 

Although talk of the environment and where our world is headed can easily become overbearing, McKibben wasn’t completely doom-and-gloom. In fact, he had an energetic, optimistic attitude that was so contagious, it would be difficult to not feel inspired. 

 

He discussed the vast number of alternative energies in use throughout the world, citing Germany and China as nations that the United States could look to for an example. China leads the world in renewable energy technology, and Germany has implemented much of that technology and new legislation in recent years. “Far more than technology,” he added, “it is political will that we are lacking.”

It is well known that oil companies have a lot of power in our political system, sponsoring campaigns and lobbying for the protection of corporations. This is one of the main reasons why environmental legislation in the United States never seems to get anywhere, and with President Obama’s time to decide about the Keystone XL pipeline coming to a close, we’re facing a big moment for American history. Not only would the decision to go through with the pipeline reaffirm the power of the oil companies and cause devastating environmental effects, but it would also serve as a symbol of America’s stance on climate change. Many people might think there’s not much to do about it, but McKibben sees an opportunity for voices to be heard.

 

“We need passion, spirit and creativity,” he said, calling for students to take action. “We need to bring people together in large numbers.” 

On February 17th, tens of thousands of people are planning to do just that. At 12 noon, Americans will gather at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for what will be the largest climate rally in the nation’s history. The objective of the rally will be to have enough of a response that President Obama will reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. According to 350.org, “His legacy as president will rest squarely on his response, resolve, and leadership in solving the climate crisis.”

 

McKibben had a special request for those who wanted to join the effort. For those attending the rally, he asked that they show up wearing a suit and necktie or a dress. He wants people wearing their finest clothes in order to let the government know that “there is not a thing radical about what we’re talking about. Radicals work at oil companies…If you want to alter the atmosphere you are more radical than any human who has come before you.”

 

He reassured the audience that stopping the pipeline can be done. After all, the November 2011 rally proved enough opposition that Obama delayed the decision. That campaign was the biggest action of civil disobedience in this country in thirty years.

 

McKibben and 350.org were also behind a historical day in 2009, when the 24th of October marked “the most widespread day of political action in our planet’s history,” as CNN called it. On this day, millions of people in 188 countries came together to inform the world that something needs to be done about climate change. 

 

Taking on climate change is undoubtedly an incredibly serious task, but Bill McKibben assured students that they have the power to do something about it. As our Environmental Studies department chair Professor Valerie Banschbach pointed out in the event’s closing comments, Saint Michael’s College is a perfect example of that. The last time McKibben spoke on our campus, there was no Environmental Studies program. Now, after just three years, the major is one of the most highly-enrolled at SMC. The college is constantly taking new steps to be more sustainable and uphold the principles of living in an environmentally responsible way. This includes getting involved in 350.org’s divestment campaign, a call to colleges across the country to sell any stocks they have in oil companies. 

 

“We have to figure out how to undermine their legitimacy,” McKibben said about these corporations in relation to the campaign, which has become the nation’s largest student movement in decades. “It makes no sense to pay for an education that invests in a company [which would create conditions] where there is no planet to enact that education on.”