Think of everything you know about global warming. Think, especially, of the sense you might have that there are twenty, thirty, fifty years left before the Earth’s levels of climate change become truly catastrophic. Now, think again. We’re already there, says Bill McKibben in Eaarth (Times Books,), an eloquent and passionate call to action.
In fact, says McKibben, we’ve changed our planet so much that we can no longer think of it as Earth: now it’s Eaarth, a place of melting ice caps, expanding tropics, and increasingly dramatic “weather events”. And we have to learn to live there. McKibben should know what he’s talking about. A leading journalist and environmental activist, he’s been writing on this subject for more than twenty years. In 1989, his The End of Nature was the first book on global warming for a general audience. In the past two years, his nonprofit 350.org has mobilized millions of people across the world to combat climate change.
In Eaarth, he makes no bones about how serious the situation has become. We’ve already raised the temperature of the planet by one degree Celcius, he writes; as a result, the Arctic ice cap is 1.1 million square miles smaller, and (since warmer air holds more water vapor) global rainfall is increasing by 1.5 percent a decade. But this isn’t just a book full of dry statistics. McKibben is expert at explaining, lucidly and frankly, just what the numbers mean, and what we can do about them. “Forget the grandkids,” he writes. “It turns out this was a problem for our parents.”
Eaarth may be one of the most sobering books you will read this year (and make no mistake, you should read it), but it’s not all bad news. McKibben sees hope in lots of areas, from China (where solar panels are becoming popular) to the 300,000 new, small, mixed-use farms that have sprung up in the US. Most of all, though, he sees hope in people’s ability to come together in the face of a common threat. If we can “dampen our intuitive sense that the future will resemble the past”, he says — and organize sufficiently to put political pressure on our leaders — there’s every chance we’ll find solutions to keep the planet viable for many generations to come.
Recently, Planet asked McKibben about how to make sense of this “new normal”, and what each of us can do to make a difference. As we speak, oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico in what’s becoming America’s worst environmental disaster.
What lessons can we draw from this, and do you think there might be any silver lining to this tragedy?
The lesson we need to draw is: all fossil fuel is dirty stuff. We can see the ugliness easily in the Gulf. But imagine that the same oil had reached the refinery, and then the gas tank of your car. An invisible slick of CO2 would then spread out into the atmosphere, raising temperatures, acidifying every ocean, melting every frozen thing on earth. This is the ultimate in teachable moments. Let’s hope Obama, above all, seizes the chance.
Well basically, in Eaarth you say that what Americans need to learn is that the era of growth and supersizing is over, and that instead we’re in an era of “maintenance, graceful decline, hunkering down”. But “hunkering down” is a hard sell, especially to people who like their minivans and junk food and cheap gadgets. Do you really think Americans can change their uber-consumer ways?
I think we all need a series of nudges. The most important would be making the cost of fossil fuel reflect the damage it does to the environment. Look at Western Europe, where energy prices have been high for decades. The average citizen there uses half the energy of an average American.
If we do get the message and downsize, what do you envisage will happen to the empty malls, the McMansions, and the SUVs?
The malls and mansions are already emptying, simply because we overbuilt so significantly. I think we’ll start concentrating into more tightly knit communities — or at least I hope we will. The average American has half as many friends as the average American of 50 years ago. Renewed relationships will have to be the substitute for the Lincoln Navigator.
On that note, I was struck by what you said about farmer’s markets and small farms in the book.
Sociologists have found that people have ten times as many conversations at farmers’ markets than at supermarkets; they function as community centers. And they’re the fastest-growing segment of our food economy, along with small family farms.
Still, companies like Monsanto and Tyson have enormous political power. How are we going to break “Big Ag” — especially when Obama appoints someone like Tom Vilsack, a friend of Monsanto and agribusiness, as Secretary of Agriculture?
We’re going to have to organize like hell. The next opportunity will be the next Farm Bill, which is due in Congress in the next session. As Michael Pollan has said, it needs to be a Food Bill.
You document some interesting clean energy projects in China, which might surprise some people. There’s a new city, Rizhao, where 95 percent of hot water comes from solar energy, and China is doing well with its wind energy development.
Is this a drop in the bucket, or do you think industrializing nations like China and India could surpass us in “hunkering down”?
They’re defintiely going to surpass us in green tech. I was just in China, and the progress is staggering (as is the amount of coal they’re mining — they’re big players in both green energy and black energy).
In the best case scenario, what percentage of our energy requirements do you think could be met by wind and solar energy in the next few decades?
It depends entirely on how much political pressure we build. The problems aren’t technical. They’re political.
Well, okay. So what have you learned, from your current nonprofit 350.org (named for the maximum safe number of parts per million carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) and from your previous group, Step It Up, about what works and what doesn’t work in environmental activism? Any surprises?
What works is getting people up and going. Last year at 350.org, with no real resources, we managed to pull off what CNN called “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history” on any issue. There were 5,200 simultaneous demonstrations in 181 countries, all demanding that we pay attention to the science of climate change. We’re on track for even bigger actions this year, especially on 10/10/10, when we’re hosting a giant Global Work Party.
Can you tell us something about that? How can people get involved?
The Global Work Party will be great. People in thousands of places planting community gardens, building bikepaths, etc. Not because we think we can solve climate change one bike path at a time (though every bit helps). But becuase we want to send a pointed political message to our leaders: We’re getting to work — what about you? If I can climb up on the roof of my school and hammer in a solar panel, maybe you can climb up on the floor of the Senate and hammer out some legislation? Time to shame folks a little.
What are a few things each of us can do every day (or every week) to help get to the 350 ppm goal?
Organize. Make sure there’s something great happening in 10/10/10 in your community. Change your lightbulb, but don’t fool yourself into thinking it matters all that much. What matters is building a movement large enough to get largescale change. That’s what the brutal physics and chemistry of climate change demand.
As someone who spends a lot of time sifting through thousands of incredibly depressing statistics and stories about climate change, is it hard to retain a sense of hope? Deep down, do you believe humans will rise to the occasion and save the planet?
I’ve given up trying to figure out if I’m optimistic or pessimistic. I just get up in the morning and go to work. The fact that I go to work alongside millions of other 350 activists in virtually every country on Earth — that makes me willing to keep fighting hard.
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