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Sanders, McKibben Urge Move to Sustainable Future
BRATTLEBORO - The citizens of the world may not get a better chance to reverse the mounting threat of global warming, even in the face of a struggling economy.
That's the message environmentalist and author Bill McKibben preached to a Brattleboro crowd during a town meeting event Sunday afternoon.
McKibben said the United States, as well as the rest of the world, is facing huge financial issues and equally huge environmental issues, but there remains a very narrow window for a gradual transformation to a new global economy.
"This is the future we can have," said McKibben. "Now's the moment, and we are the people who will either do it or not do it."
McKibben, author of 10 environmental books, was in town with U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., to discuss developing a sustainable economy while finding solutions to make global warming take an about-face.
Nearly 300 residents turned out at Brattleboro Union High School to visit with the senator, one of the most popular political figures in Brattleboro.
"I think anywhere we go in the state we will get crowds like this because people are very, very, very concerned," he said.
The two speakers visited Woodstock earlier in the day to speak on the same global issues.
Sanders, in his first-term in the Senate, led off his statements about the serious economic crisis facing the nation.
Unemployment is soaring, and millions are losing their homes, he said, which leads to employees losing their pensions and health insurance.
It has come to the point now where officials in Washington, D.C. have to bailout corporations -- due in part to greedy executives on Wall Street -- in the form of billions of taxpayer dollars, Sanders continued.
"The amount of money we are talking about is staggering," he said, with long-term economic trends that can be devastating to middle class Americans.
While the banking industry has weakened the American consumer, McKibben said the energy corporations are the ongoing failures that are the largest risk to the planet.
Leading scientists came in front of environmental committees on Capitol Hill a few years ago to tell politicians bold actions must be taken, said Sanders.
Those same people recently came in to say they underestimated the problem, and bolder actions need to take place. Without properly addressing the concerns, the global warming crisis could mean unprecedented floods, droughts and extreme weather conditions leading to a rise in hunger and disease, said Sanders.
"We thought, 20 years ago, (global warming) was going to be more of a problem for our children and not for us, but we were wrong," McKibben said.
But out of the darkness, there is hope that the country and Vermont -- known as a leader in energy efficiency -- can begin to create a more sustainable energy plan.
"We can create millions of good paying jobs as we move our country any from foreign oil," said the senator. There needs to be an aggressive move toward greater energy efficiency and sustainable development of renewable sources as the country moves away from fossil fuels, he added.
McKibben grew up in Lexington, Mass., and was president of the Harvard newspaper while in college. Shortly after graduation, he joined The New Yorker magazine and wrote for the publication until 1987.
Since that time, he was frequently wrote about global warming, alternative energy and the risks associated with Human genetic engineering. McKibben helped lead the country's largest demonstration against global warming in 2006.
He currently lives in Addison County and works as a scholar in residence at Middlebury College. One of the ways to help put out the fire, according to McKibben, is to get involved with the global movement to put a cap on the carbon intake into the atmosphere.
He recommended the Web site www.350.org as a good starting point for activists to learn about the issue and ways to take action.
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18 Comments so far
Show AllThose of us who read and think are aware by now of 350.org. The other 6 and a half billion are not. I have an idea that would bring the crucial number 350ppm to the forefront of public awareness and thereby set us on the path to preserve a liveable planet. We must somehow tattoo 350.org on Angelina Jolie's buttocks.
I am not kidding.
I hope McKibben sells a lot of books.
After all, that's what he was out there for, and Bernie Sanders is running for re-election.
A society that desires sustainability, yet ignores equity, humanity, quality of life, and cooperation will get nothing.
Only the dead Capitalist system that the ignorant, vile, insidious, greedy, ostentatious, opulent, blood-sucking American Capitalists deserve!
They will be too stupid, too lazy, too comfortable, too liberal to understand what must be done to replace their very sick society.
Looks like America will be the great world leader into the most cataclysmic and hellish suffering ever experienced by the human race.
I'm afrayed and almost totally convinced that Americans are not capable of understanding and unwilling to do the work that would be necessary to evolve to a peaceful, equitable, human, sustainable world, with a quality of life for everyone. The world would be better off if the Americans committed suicide immediately and stopped their daily genocidal, ecocidal rampage.
Sorry, my book is out of print...
I'm a Work kin for peace and cooperation.
With much (tough) love and care,
Mike Morin
www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com
"The world would be better off if the Americans committed suicide immediately and stopped their daily genocidal, ecocidal rampage."
How extreme can you get? Obviously Capitalism is a very flawed system with potentially disastrous consequences for the Earth. That being said, America has done as much good in the world as harm. For instance, we saved Europe from Fascism. Also, the cutting edge of technology comes out of America. The internet, which brings the world together and enables you and I to communicate, came out of America. All I am saying is there are two sides to this coin. You can't just put forth such a one-sided rant.
Frankly, you sound like an asshole.
You'd expect cowardly name calling from someone who uses a "handle" (That is, is so craven not to use her real name).
Replaced German Fascism with American Fascism, which always has been and is now clearly manifesting itself to the entire world as the most virulent strain of Fascism that man has ever known.
Give me some specific examples of what Americans have contributed and we'll talk about it, little gas-guzzler...
Now, go to Pittsburgh, and invent a virtual reality game of Risk. You're real thing stinks, Cowardgirl SwineNazi... (I had to invent a name for you because you're such a little coward that you use a pseudonymm).
Mike Morin
www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com
Are you for real?
The moderators of this site should really try to clamp down on hate speech like this...there have to be limits. Frankly it denigrates what is otherwise a pretty informative site.
Hey Mr. Crazy - I just noticed by your blog profile that you live in the USA! Talk about hypocrisy on a grand scale.
Nice sentiments but as long as Obama remains a courtier to the Coal industry no amount of sustainable energy will offset Coals egregious impact on the Earth. We need a comprehensive solution as long as Coal gets downsized with the long term solution to phase it out completely.
Without demand-side management, we're all sunk!
We need to reduce automobile usage by 80% in the next twenty to forty years. Without setting that goal and obtaining it, we may as, not so well, even discuss energy "supply side" questions.
Oil's well that ends...
Well?
Mike Morin
www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com
Grappa
Alot of the financial accumony stems from the reduction in the progressive tax scale which was lowered back in the 1980's by pres. reagan. I don't hear any of the polictical leaders suggesting that we re-institute the higher rates which I believe would correct some of the greed mongers.
I attended the McKibben / Sanders event Sunday morning in Woodstock, VT, just prior to their above-mentioned appearance in Brattleboro. Senator Sanders framed the current economic crisis within the context of long-term failures of the US economic system, and spoke of the need to" take a hard look at the basic tenants of our consumer culture." I was heartened to hear this and more from a US Senator, especially followed by Mr. McKibben who spoke of how basing bailouts on being "too big to fail"--is backwards, and how, "if they're too big, we need to make them smaller." He gave some examples of local economy success stories: apparently 8-9% of the fresh veggies provided to the public in the city of Burlington, VT, comes from a local food/farming/educational non-profit located in that town http://www.intervale.org/index.shtml. A long way to go, of course, but things like this are a start, at least, and I believe more collaborative success can be born if people keep talking--and more importantly--acting with a sustainable future in mind. So, let's hear it for the new paradigm: may we all find ways to make it happen.
"Reversing climate change while creating a sustainable economy for the middle class is possible... This is the challenge of our generation." Senator Bernie Sanders
"We can do this, if we get to work right away." Bill McKibben
PS. McKibben announced that October 24th will be an International Action Day on climate change.
Obama is already cow towing to the corporatists running his Administration. His stimulus package is being reworked as we speak for an infussion to the Nuclear industry which will help derail sustainable solutions or at least to marginalize it to the point of it having no significant impact on climate change.
I personally think global warming is partly mother nature doing her thing and partly due to man-made emissions in the air. Nothing scientific about that but since earth has been hot enough for dinosaurs, then the Ice Age which supposedly killed them off, we have had widely divergent climate changes.
If the seas will one day flood our coastlines and Florida will be underwater it might be wise for us to buy property now that is 40 to 50 miles inland from the coast. Until then I will enjoy my coastal living while I can. :-)
So no one likes my buttocks idea? I thought I had something there.
No hemp to put forth sustainable future? Oh well. so much for one. Besides, why worry about sustainable future when we need a sustainable present which we currently lack?
I hate to burst everyone's bubble, but the whole global warming fear mongering is a scam.
I am all in favor of alternative energies and conservation. More so to prevent pollution and war for oil.
Here are the facts:
1. Other planets in our solar system are also warming up. Most likely do the cyclical nature of the sun. Thus, what is warming the earth is the sun and not CO2.
2. Polar bears are not drowning. They are excellent swimmers. Polar bear populations has quadrupled during the past 25 years. Going from 5,000 to 20,000-25,000.
3. Man-made CO2 only accounts for a mere .13% of all greenhouse gases. About .25% occur naturally. To believe that .13% of man-made CO2 is causing massive global warming is not true.
4. Far more scientist now DO NOT believe GW is man-made.
Please research the facts and don't rely solely on what our politicians and media tell you.
Please support your "facts" with appropriate citations, especially since they are clearly contrary to scientific consensus.
Welcome Republicans and other conservatives to Common Dreams. You lost the election in a big way because the Internet lets everyone see, evaluate and take action on infinitely more information than what is available on your corporate media.
Some of you have set out to post on these sites to try to counter the progressive surge with corporate and other conservative propaganda denying global warming, overpopulation, resource depletion, money-power concentration, species extinctions, CO2 and other pollutants, pushing for nuclear power plants and downplaying deadly radwastes, pushing for unlimited growth, raising fears of terrorism and drugs, demonizing people who are trying to help their own people instead of the oligarchy, glorifying militarism to bolster the gargantuan military budget, etc.
We have heard such bilge rot before from Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Sugar, Big Booze, Big Military Contractors, Big Religion and other conservative Big Money establishment voices and have learned not to trust what amounts to propaganda. Such postings will swiftly raise some red flags, particularly on progressive sites like this.
People in general have too long been victimized by such propaganda, but no more thanks to the Internet. If you have new and sound information I'm sure we would like to hear it. Posting corporate conservative propaganda will blow back on you and many of us will say, be our guest.