Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and co-founder of 350.org. His most recent book is Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.
Articles by this author
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Views Thursday, June 01, 2017 Trump’s Stupid and Reckless Climate Decision People say, if all you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail. We should be so lucky. President Trump has a hammer, but all he’ll use it for is to smash things that others have built, as the world looks on in wonder and in fear. The latest, most troubling example is his decision to... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, April 19, 2017 On April 29, We March for the Future I t is hard to avoid hyperbole when you talk about global warming. It is, after all, the biggest thing humans have ever done, and by a very large margin. In the past year, we’ve decimated the Great Barrier Reef, which is the largest living structure on Earth. In the drought-stricken territories... Read more |
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Views Saturday, March 25, 2017 Citizens Must Hold Government Accountable on Climate A few things that happened this week: one set of researchers announced that February was the planet’s fourth-warmest month on record, which is especially bad news since the El Niño that produced last year’s record-breaking heat is over and we’re supposed to be cooling a little. Another group of... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, January 31, 2017 The Americans We Need As tens of thousands of people across the United States rushed to airports and took to the streets to protest Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigration by Muslims from seven countries, and refugees generally; as four federal judges issued emergency orders to prevent immediate deportations... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, January 25, 2017 From Faith to Action: Fossil Fuel Divestment More Vital Than Ever In a world where too many institutions now worship power and wealth, the Church remains a citadel of the word, a place where ideas matter. And words have rarely been used with more power than by Pope Francis in his majestic Laudato Si . I spent several weeks living with it, as I wrote a d etailed... Read more |
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Views Monday, January 23, 2017 With the Rise of Trump, Is It Game Over for the Climate Fight? One possibility is, we’ve lost. It’s a real possibility, and we should consider it carefully instead of ignoring it because it’s emotionally unpalatable. I think the argument would go like this: The idea that humans would move quickly enough off coal and oil and gas to salvage the planet’s climate... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, January 11, 2017 Rex Tillerson Is Big Oil Personified. The Damage He Can Do Is Immense In one of the futile demonstrations that marked the run-up to the Iraq war, I saw a woman with a sign that read “How Did Our Oil End Up Under Their Sand?” In nine words she managed to sum up a great deal of American foreign policy, back at least as far as the 1953 coup that overthrew Mossadegh in... Read more |
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Views Friday, January 06, 2017 Democrats Shouldn’t Squander Their One Advantage The Democrats were given one great gift last year. Even as they lost state legislatures and control of the Senate, even as they surrendered governors’ mansions and somehow turned over the White House to a moral midget, one thing broke their way. And if they squander it now, as their establishment... Read more |
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Views Friday, December 02, 2016 How to Save the Planet From President Trump We’re going to be dealing with an onslaught of daily emergencies during the Trump years. Already it’s begun — if there’s nothing going on (or in some cases when there is ), our leader often begins the day with a tweet to stir the pot, and suddenly we’re debating whether burning the flag should lose... Read more |
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Views Saturday, November 19, 2016 Donald Trump is Betting Against all Odds on Climate Change President-elect Donald Trump has already begun to back off some of his promises: Maybe not all of Obamacare has to go. Maybe parts of his wall will actually be a fence. Maybe it’s okay to have some lobbyists running the government after all. But I fear he won’t shrink from the actions he has... Read more |