Many of the same campuses and college endowments who were pressured back then to sever their financial ties to South Africa will be asked to do the same with the fossil fuel industry. McKibben also suggested that the next time ten thousand activists gather on a climate issue, it won't be at the White House, but at Exxon/Mobil's corporate headquarters in Dallas.
The tour will make only two of its stops below the Mason-Dixon Line, in Durham and Atlanta. It won't get within 600 miles of Mr. Tillerson's Exxon/Mobil HQ. For many oil-patch campuses, it's not so much that the schools are invested in fossil fuel companies, but the other way around. Oklahoma State University's T. Boone Pickens Stadium is not on the itinerary, nor is Wichita State's Charles Koch Arena. In other words, not all campuses will receive this message well.
In its dress rehearsal, the show had some ragged edges. But then again, McKibben isn't trying to draft an army to watch a Broadway production, he's trying to draft an army to keep Broadway from going under water.
And if you're modeling your incipient movement after the South African apartheid struggle, future shows might benefit from some audience diversity.
Apart from video appearance s by Archbishop Tutu and Greenpeace's Kumi Naidoo, and a brief speech from an ethnic Indian Vermont state legislator, the crowd appeared to this observer to be, like Vermont itself, nearly all white.
Whatever its color, however, the crowd was ready to be led. McKibben, acknowledging that he was "twice the age" of his audience and his staff, looked up to the task.
This article originally appeared at The Daily Climate, the climate change news source published by Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit media company.
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18 Comments
Add CommentSo where is the rest of the scientific community? If McKibben is using consensus data, as he appears to be, then isn't it time for the entire scientific community, including Scientific American to openly endorse his goals? With 4 presidential/vice presidential debates with even the very phrase "climate change" off the table, how long can the scientific community stay silent.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt will take decades to institute the technological changes necessary to abate and reverse the anticipated CO2 build up. Fifty years ago, the broad scientific community helped stop atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. Isn't it time for an even stronger response.
Little things like having the Attorney General for the State of Virginia be very nasty to a climate scientist (Michael Mann), and having Rush and Senator Inhofe call your area of expertise a gigantic hoax on mankind tends to make one a bit shy I would imagine. The denialists have won the day pretty much since the climate-gate emails were grabbed and exploited. If you repeat something often enough, lots of people begin to believe it, and no one likes being called a perpetrator of a hoax.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@Sisko: Isn't it wonderful that science is true even when victims of tribal politics such as yourself rant and rave against the data? I think your ideas might find more traction over at tinfoilhats.com or foxnews.com--they have forums for people like you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisrrusan
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou seem to have prejudically concluded that someone who does not agree that there is reliable evidence that a warmer world is a pending disaster or that "we" must take highly expensive and ineffective actions to mitigate it is a republican or conservative. I am an engineering and an independent. Talk to me about the science and you will find that my conclusions are factually correct.
Only in your dreams.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMike
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI notice that you and the others who fear more CO2 seem unable to reasonably discuss the science or point out aything I have written that is not correct.
"Bill McKibben Launches Campus Crusade for Climate"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe above headline says it ALL. A Crusade is a religious battle or endeavor. The "high priests" must occasionally address the zombified followers, in order to maintain the faith.
I prefer, the scientific method, of observational science, over the faith based video games/models. Not as entertaining, to be sure, but of more value to society than the alarm klaxons, that never stop alarming. GK
What about all the non-human species that will be affected? What about the habitat that will be changed due to climate change? Already, millions of acres of pine trees have been killed by a shift in the range of pine bark beetles due to warming. And CO2 is causing acidification of the oceans, which threatens coral and lots of other species that make shells, etc., of calcium.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd what will you say when Tuvalu floods? Will you blame land subsidence, or random tidal fluctuations, or what?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerhaps the people living in Tuvalu should move or build better infrastructure if the weather there is prone to flood the island.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"""1. The climate models used by the IPCC have provided inaccurate results that greatly over stated potential warming and failed to accurately forecast future conditions. """
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLie.
"""a. http://rankexploits.com/musings/2012/adding-multi-model-means-to-model-v-observations-graphs/"""b. http://rankexploits.com/musings/2012/observations-v-models-model-weather/"""
Cherry-picked.
"""2. Sea level is not rising at the feared rate of 2 meters by 2100 or the rate predicted by the IPCC of .6 meters by 2100 but at a rate of under 1 foot by 2100."""
Lie.
"""a. http://sealevel.colorado.edu/"""
Biased/misinterpreted source.
"""3. There is nothing scientifically special about CO2 levels at 350 ppm. """
So?
"""4. The idiot geek advocates that all Americans should send $100 to the corrupt government of Bangladesh. At a time when we can not balance our own budget you think that is a good economic policy huh? """
Yes, I do, Your Idiocy. If you think that we should let 50 million people worldwide get inundated, you are a heartless monster.
350.org is just a waste of time and money-Any organization or person that is saying things like "we can solve the climate crisis" or "we can stop global warming" are making statements that are just "Advertising Slogans" impossible to accomplish.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo actually "stop global warming" or "solve the climate crisis" human beings would have the ability to control the following to name a few:
The Sun
Volcanic Activity
The Weather
The Atmosphere
All Human Activities
The Oceans
No matter how aggressively heat-trapping emissions are reduced, some amount of climate change and resulting impacts will continue. Consequently, there is a need for adaptation and mitigation.
http://www.earthlyissues.com/globalwarming.htm
The Sun is not causing global warming. Increased CO2 is.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's not caused by volcanoes. Humans put out 100 times as much CO2.
And all of the other endangered species should do likewise?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you were really concerned about other species you would hope for a reduction in the human population and be far less worried about CO2. The large increase in the human population is the root cause of the change to the environment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Humans put out 100 times as much CO2."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am certain you meant to say that humans produce 3% of natural CO2 emissions, and which volcanic eruptions are just another emitter. Of the 3% man contributes, what is your best estimate of reductions that realistically can be cut? 0.5% at maximum effort and a trillion dollars??
Seems that ideology is being expressed... NOT science. Especially when considering the benefits to the biosphere of enhanced CO2 and seems to ignore the fact of no significant warming for 16 years. Y'all need to seriously understand the word significant better.
Your social ideology will have to wait for social enlightenment, as the climate scare won't do it on its own. Other opportunities will present themselves, I'm sure. GK
"I am certain you meant to say ...."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow would you describe someone who would say such a thing? The words that come to mind are "arrogant fool."
"When global warming has happened at various times in the past two million years, it has taken the planet about 5,000 years to warm 5 degrees. The predicted rate of warming for the next century is at least 20 times faster. This rate of change is extremely unusual."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/page3.php