What makes us different? We're the creature that can decide not to do something that we are capable of doing. Bill McKibben More Quotes by Bill McKibben More Quotes From Bill McKibben Everything that the administration has done has been counterproductive. Bill McKibben counterproductive administration done In the States, the movement's actually gotten much much much stronger. There really was no climate movement so to speak before that - I think because everybody assumed that reasonable heads would prevail and do the right thing - and why would you need to have a huge movement in order to cause our leaders to deal with the most serious problem that they face. In a rational world you wouldn't. They would deal with it. Bill McKibben leader order thinking TV, and the culture it anchors, masks and drowns out the subtle and vital information contact with the real world once provided. There are lessons, enormous lessons, lessons that may be crucial to the planet's persistence as a green and diverse place and also to the happiness of it's inhabitants-that nature teaches and TV can't. Bill McKibben persistence anchors real The end of nature sours all my material pleasures. The prospect of living in a genetically engineered world sickens me. And yet it is toward such a world that our belief in endless material advancement hurries us. As long as that desire drives us, here is no way to set limits. Bill McKibben future desire long I think [George W.] Bush has done nothing right about global warming. Bill McKibben global-warming done thinking Alone among businesses, the fossil-fuel industry is allowed to dump its main waste, carbon dioxide, for free. Bill McKibben waste fuel business Do I think that people should in the best of all possible worlds have to go to jail for wanting the US government to pay attention to the warnings of scientists about climate change? Not really. I mean, in a rational world, if all the scientists said, "The worst thing that ever happened is about to happen and here's what you should do to stop it," you would expect any rational system to say, "Oh, sure, OK, let's do something about it." But that's not the world we live in. In the world we live in, you do need people willing to stand up, fight, march and sometimes go to jail. Bill McKibben fighting mean thinking When we think about global warming at all, the arguments tend to be ideological, theological and economic. Bill McKibben global-warming argument thinking I did very much like [Barack] Obama's attack on fossil fuel subsidies for fossil fuel companies. We asked for that in demonstrations and petitions, and now we'll try to push it forward. Bill McKibben subsidies fuel trying For the first time in 150 years, the USDA reported there were more farms in America, not fewer. That has to make you happy. Bill McKibben america years firsts The irony is that one of the things people want to solve climate change is more market - more price on carbon so that markets have something to chew on when they think about climate change instead of the complete monopoly, the absurdity of allowing these guys to own the sky for free - socialise all of the costs and privatise all of the profits. Bill McKibben sky people thinking At the moment, the 4 percent of us in this country produce a quarter of the world's carbon dioxide - once you look at maps of rising sea levels and spreading mosquitoes, you realize that we've probably never figured out a way to hate our neighbors around the world much more effectively. Bill McKibben hate sea country I can't tell how moving it is to open my email and see a picture of 1,500 Buddhist monks and nuns in the Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh forming a human 350 against the backdrop of the melting glaciers. This is not their fault, and yet they're stepping up to be part of the solution. Bill McKibben email buddhist moving In the last two years 24 countries have set new all-time temperature records. We've seen flooding on an epic scale in every continent . Bill McKibben epic country years There is a tendency at every important but difficult crossroad to pretend that it's not really there. Bill McKibben tendencies important challenges We're not at the point of trying to stop global warming; it's too late for that. We're trying to keep it from becoming a complete and utter calamity Bill McKibben becoming too-late trying I'm far less a leader than a writer. Bill McKibben leader Other thing we need to understand is that the financial power of the fossil fuel industry has so far prevented even any minor progress. They have a sweetheart deal unlike any other business on Earth: they're allowed to dispose of their waste for free, to use the atmosphere as an open sewer. And they will do all they can to defend that special privilege. Bill McKibben atmosphere progress special All the signs of incipient activism and uprising, from Tahrir square to Zuccotti Park to [the recent] shutdown of the Internet to protest web censorship. People are getting smart and getting connected. Bill McKibben uprising smart squares We've lost half the summer sea ice in the Arctic. We've wiped out an enormous percentage of the world's coral reefs. We see huge changes in the planet's hydrology already, the cycles of drought and flood both amped up because warm air holds more water vapor than cold. These things are happening with a one-degree increase and going to two degrees won't be twice as bad, the increase in damage won't be linear, it most certainly will be exponential. So it was precisely the wrong moment to elect Trump. Bill McKibben ice sea summer
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