Climate Crunch Time: An Interview with Bill McKibben

The PS Say More Newsletter | [View this message in a web browser]( [PS Say More]( This week, we have a special offering for PS subscribers. [Bill McKibben]( – a long-time climate activist; a regular contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, and other publications; and a co-founder of 350.org – recently spoke with [Elmira Bayrasli]( about climate activism during the COVID-19 pandemic. To read the full interview, [click here](. To listen to McKibben and Bayrasli's conversation, [click here](. [Nouriel Roubini]( Say More will resume next week with an interview with [Nouriel Roubini]( Professor of Economics at New York University's Stern School of Business and Chairman of Roubini Macro Associates. For full access to Say More, [subscribe now](. Climate Crunch Time Bill McKibben in conversation with Elmira Bayrasli Since 1880, the average global surface temperature has risen by about 1°C, or 1.8°F. Much of that increase has happened in the last 50 years, and the consequences are already becoming apparent. Forest fires have become larger and more severe, the polar ice caps are melting six times faster than they were in the 1990s, and extreme weather events like hurricanes and droughts are occurring with greater frequency and intensity. As the evidence of the looming climate crisis has mounted, it has reinvigorated the environmental movement that started in the 1970s, with young people increasingly leading the way. In August 2018, a then-15-year-old Greta Thunberg staged her first climate strike in front of the Swedish parliament. Just over a year later, millions of young people in 150 countries joined her for a worldwide climate strike. The activists’ demands are straightforward but potent: eliminate greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, shift to renewable energy, and ensure a sustainable future. Will our leaders listen? [Read the Full Interview]( McKibben and Bayrasli's conversation is also available as a PS Opinion Has It podcast. [Click here]( to listen. The Interview Elmira Bayrasli: This past April, the world celebrated its 50th Earth Day. What were environmental activists fighting for back in 1970, and how have their goals changed since then? Bill McKibben: Early environmentalism was largely a response to problems that were incredibly visible. The air was brown, and you could chew it. The rivers and streams were yellow and orange, and you could light them on fire. There had just been a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, off the California coast, and on and on. So, it wasn’t completely surprising that people were ready to rally. The first Earth Day in the US had about [20 million people]( – one-tenth of the population at the time – out in the street. It may well have been the largest single day of political activity in the country’s history, and that was really important. Earth Day didn’t just get people out in the streets; they won. America soon passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and other measures that made the air far more breathable and the water far more swimmable and drinkable. The movement’s initial goals have, to a very large degree, been met, and all of us are the beneficiaries. Now, we’ve moved on to a deeper, more difficult set of environmental problems that can’t be seen quite as plainly. EB: Yet today’s protests, which have spread even farther around the world, have yet to deliver in terms of reducing GHG emissions. BM: Today’s targets are much more difficult, and the reason has a lot to do with the science. Take, as an example, one of the pollutants that people were most concerned about on that first Earth Day: carbon monoxide – carbon with an oxygen atom. It comes out of a tailpipe. It kills you if you breathe it. But you can take care of it pretty easily. Stick a catalytic converter on the back of the car and that small amount of carbon monoxide that was in the exhaust stream just disappears. Today, we’re dealing with a different kind of pollutant: carbon dioxide – carbon with two oxygen atoms. Instead of being a trace gas that you can eliminate with an exhaust filter, CO2 is what happens when you burn something. There’s no filter that can catch it. You must either stop driving a car and take a bus or a bike instead, or drive an electric car that you can run with renewable energy. So, it’s no wonder that this is far more difficult terrain. The fossil-fuel industry’s life is on the line, and they have fought with extraordinary amounts of money to keep change from happening. EB: Many commentators have pointed out that environmental issues intersect with inequality. Hurricane Katrina comes to mind, because it showed there to be a strong connection between climate risk and social justice. The poorest in New Orleans are overwhelmingly black, and they have long lived in the city’s most vulnerable areas. As climate change increases the frequency of Hurricane Katrina-type events, how has the growing awareness of its disproportionate impact on the world’s poorest shaped the environmental agenda? BM: The first, most basic thing to realize about climate change is its incredible unfairness. Those who contributed the least to it suffer first and are the hardest hit by it. That’s now widely understood – enough so that the climate movement is really morphing into the climate justice movement. The people who are most at risk are also the people doing most of the leading on these questions. EB: In the US and elsewhere around the world, there has been a reckoning this summer over police violence and other forms of racial injustice. Like the environmental movement, today’s demonstrations emanated from the grassroots. How complimentary are the two movements, and what kind of collaboration can we expect to see between them? BM: You’re seeing... [Continue reading]( [Say More: Willem H. Buiter]( Last Week in Say More [Willem H. Buiter]( – a visiting professor at Columbia University who was formerly Chief Economist at Citigroup – highlights the spectacular failure of market capitalism in the US, shows why central-bank independence is an illusion, and paints a bleak picture of a post-Brexit Britain. [Read more](. [Check out the full Say More archive]( [Don’t worry if you missed The Green Recovery live event. You can still watch all of the discussions.]( Project Syndicate publishes and provides, on a not-for-profit basis, original commentary by the world's leading thinkers to more than 500 media outlets in over 150 countries. This newsletter is a service of [Project Syndicate](. [Change your newsletter preferences](. 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