What we're playing for now as a movement is not to stop climate change — that's not on the menu. What we're playing for is can we stop it short of the place where it cuts off civilization at the knees? that's what the goal is now. It's not inspiring in a way that saying 'I have a dream' is inspiring. It's more like: 'let's see how tame we can keep this nightmare'.

Bill McKibben

Categorized in : Environment

That's what's changed : there is now a big, big movement that was... by Bill McKibben

That's what's changed : there is now a big, big movement that was not there five years ago.

This is a big win. by Bill McKibben

This is a big win.

If you told Exxon or Lukoil that, in order to avoid wrecking the climate, they couldn't pump out their reserves, the value of their companies would plummet.

avoid value you climate

The popular notion is that Americans are addicted to fossil fuels, but I find that's not true; most people would be happy to power their lives with anything else.

be-happy power happy people

If the movie had ended in Hollywood fashion, the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009 would have marked the culmination of the global fight to slow a changing climate.

conference slow fight fashion

We build schools and give government loans and grants to college kids; for those of us who are parents, tuition will often be the last big subsidy we give the children we've raised.

parents government college children

Pity the poor senator or representative trying to stay alive in the political jungle. At every turn, there's a danger: a constituent who actually wants something done. Or worse, a campaign donor who might be offended by that something.

jungle poor political trying

Whenever anyone challenges anything, the powers that be try to paint them as extremists or radicals or whatever. And I think that's actually nonsense.

try think nonsense challenges

We can't bankrupt Exxon. But we can politically and morally bankr... by Bill McKibben

We can't bankrupt Exxon. But we can politically and morally bankrupt them.

morally politically bankrupt them

Our criteria is that it's okay to invest in companies so long as they stop lobbying in Washington, stop exploring for new hydrocarbons, and sit down with every one else to plan to keep 80 percent of the reserves in the ground.

stop down new long