The Need For Collective Change

Bill McKibben is a brutally honest man, who admits his basic function in the world is to “bum people out.” The majority of his lecture, “The Education of an Unlikely Activist,” consisted of information and revelations that are difficult to accept. But there is no sense in avoiding the facts, McKibben points out. The scale and pace of “what’s going on” needs immediate attention to avoid making a bad situation worse. 

What’s going on? Climate change, of course.

Bill McKibben is co-founder of the global climate movement “350.org,” The number, “350,” refers the safe limit (in parts per million) of carbon dioxide allowed in Earth’s atmosphere. Today, the world is above 400ppm of CO₂. With that sense of urgency, McKibben helped create the “350” group in 2008. “We had no plan, we thought we’d just go out and organize the world around climate change.”

And why not? The unsustainable behavior that resulted in a 1^oC global temperature increase and pushed humanity out of the Holocene epoch has “set us on a path to raise it 7 to 8 degrees higher in this century.” McKibben warns that these increasing temperatures will decrease the world’s grain production and raise the sea level. 

“Can you imagine the impacts?” McKibben asks, “On development, public health, war and peace?” This question strikes at the core of any environmental scientist, whose field of study has always been interdisciplinary, with strong social implications.

McKibben uses the nation of Maldives as a prime example of the negative social impacts of climate change. As an island chain in the Indian Ocean, the highest point of Maldives is 1 meter above sea level. McKibben shows the audience a picture of three small children from Maldives holding up a “350” sign. “In the future, those girls will probably become refugees for something they didn’t do.” 

To me, that is the worst aspect of current global environmental issues: the disparity between the sinners and the sufferers. Those who are the least responsible for instigating climate change are those who will bear the brunt of its consequences.

People consider activists as “radical” individuals. But McKibben explained that organizations like "350" actually have a rather conservative demand: they want to maintain an Earth similar to what most other humans have had the chance to live on. 

If the demand is so reasonable and the consequences so great, then why is nothing being done about climate change? 

McKibben answers, "The scientists have done their job and presented society with their well-reasoned warning. The engineers have done their job and developed various alternatives to fossil fuel energy. What prevents us from acting is the failure of our citizens."

The time is past for individual efforts. Personal choices to eat vegan, drive electric cars, or install solar panels will only do so much now. “Physics wanted us to start 25 years ago.” Today, we need a collective effort. Together, citizens need to actively stand up against corporations and demand change from the government—to move away from fossil fuels as a society. 

Protests, such as those asking for universities to divest in fossil fuels, may seem dramatic, but we are running out of time to do anything but be active and become activists.