Articles by: Bill McKibben

When It Comes to the Climate Emergency, It’s No Fun Saying, ‘I Told You So’

When It Comes to the Climate Emergency, It’s No Fun Saying, ‘I Told You So’

The dawning El Niño, which will produce worse chaos than we’ve seen so far, offers what I think may be our last viable political opening to make the large-scale global corrections in time to really limit the heating. This piece will be a touch more personal than most, because the past couple of weeks have felt personal. I wrote the[Read More…]

by 18/07/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
The Hottest Days in 125,000 Years—So Far

The Hottest Days in 125,000 Years—So Far

Monday July 3 was the hottest day anyone had ever measured on planet Earth. True, our system for measuring the global average temperature—a network of weather stations, ocean buoys, and satellites—only dates back to 1979, but that means that at a bare minimum it was the hottest day a large majority of the Earth’s population had ever been alive to witness. And[Read More…]

by 07/07/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Plaintiffs await the start of the nation's first youth climate trial at Montana's 1st Judicial District Court in Helena on June 12, 2023. (Photo: William Campbell/Getty Images)

In Praise of Montana’s Climate Kids

It got…somewhat less coverage than the imploded sub, but for me the titanic story of the last week was the truly remarkable trial held in Montana over the last ten days—one of the first times that the climate story has played out in an American courtroom. The plaintiffs were 16 Montana youth, who charged that by continuing to issue permits[Read More…]

by 25/06/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Global Temps Not Just Off the Chart, But Off the Wall the Chart Is Tacked To

Global Temps Not Just Off the Chart, But Off the Wall the Chart Is Tacked To

The rapid warming over the next couple of years is likely to be our last opportunity to really act coherently as a civilization to reduce the magnitude of this crisis, and so far we are blowing it We’ve reached the scariest moment yet in the climate saga: I noted in mid-April that there were all kinds of signs that a rapid increase in[Read More…]

by 17/06/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
The WWF report points out that we can't achieve the world's Sustainable Development Goals (or SDGs) unless we prevent a climate-led biodiversity collapse. (Photo: Pixabay)

A Fast-Emptying Ark: The World Grows Quieter by the Day

I confess, for reasons I can’t fully explain, that when bad things are happening to animals I tend to look away in pain. When bad things are happening to people I try to face those things squarely and do what I can, but there’s something about wildlife—perhaps the way its become implicated in our strange human game without having the slightest[Read More…]

by 15/10/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Youth to Adults—Join Us in the Climate Fight

Youth to Adults—Join Us in the Climate Fight

So far it’s been the hottest summer ever recorded — June was the hottest June, and July was the hottest month ever. France, Germany, Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands had their hottest days of all time, joining countries from Cuba to Vietnam and Togo to the Reunion Islands. This is dangerous for two reasons. One, it’s destroying the planet. And[Read More…]

by 22/08/2019 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
A Future Without Fossil Fuels?

A Future Without Fossil Fuels?

“Kingsmill Bond” certainly sounds like a proper name for a City of London financial analyst. He looks the part, too: gray hair expertly trimmed, well-cut suit. He’s lived in Moscow and Hong Kong and worked for Deutsche Bank, the Russian financial firm Troika Dialog, and Citibank. He’s currently “new energy strategist” for a small British think tank called Carbon Tracker,[Read More…]

by 17/03/2019 2 comments Alternative Energy
US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, and US Senator Ed Markey (R), Democrat of Massachusetts, speak during a press conference to announce Green New Deal legislation to promote clean energy programs outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, February 7, 2019. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)        (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Climate Change Is Scary—Not the Green New Deal

It’s very clear that conservatives have one plan for dealing with the popularity of the Green New Deal: scaring the hell out of people. Myron Ebell of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, the man who led the drive to pull America out of the Paris climate accords, said the other day that the Green New Deal was a “back-to-the-dark-ages manifesto.”[Read More…]

by 16/02/2019 2 comments Climate Change
Achieving 100% Renewable Energy

Achieving 100% Renewable Energy

We watch in horror as the damages from climate change continue to mount. Last year, Hurricane Harvey dropped more rain on Houston than any storm has ever dropped on any American city, ever. Hurricane Maria set back development in Puerto Rico 25 years, according to early estimates. And the tab keeps mounting: in 2017 alone, the economic cost of hurricanes[Read More…]

by 21/04/2018 1 comment Alternative Energy
The Question I Get Asked The Most

The Question I Get Asked The Most

The questions come after talks, on Twitter, in the days’ incoming tide of email—sometimes even in old-fashioned letters that arrive in envelopes. The most common one by far is also the simplest: What can I do? I bet I’ve been asked it 10,000 times by now and—like a climate scientist predicting the temperature—I’m pretty sure I’m erring on the low[Read More…]

by 04/04/2017 1 comment Climate Change
Chasing away pipeline security trucks. Photo by Dell Hambleton.

Why Standing Rock Needs To Be A Two-Front War—Against Big Oil And Big Banks

Most Americans live far from the path of the Dakota Access pipeline—they won’t be able to visit the encampments on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation where representatives of more than 200 tribes have come together in the most dramatic show of force of this environmental moment. They won’t be able to participate in the daily nonviolent battle along the Missouri[Read More…]

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