What Bill McKibben thinks about climate change
Writer and climate campaigner; wrote The End of Nature in 1989 and founded 350.org and Third Act.
Bill McKibben did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Only Bill McKibben on climate change. See everyone on climate change
15 dated positions, c. 1989 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Bill McKibben has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsIf what we’re worried about is reining in climate change, then we have to build huge amounts of clean energy and that has to quickly drive fossil energy down to zero. If we just build lots of both, or even just a little more of clean energy than dirty, than we haven’t gotten anywhere.
↗Making the Decent the Enemy of the Desperatebillmckibben.substack.com
- 4 days earlier
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Their wordsEl Niño, likely exacerbated by climate change and definitely riding in on top of already overheated seas, will raise temperatures to places that no member of our species has yet experienced.
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Their wordsAs it happens, when you accurately inform people about the crisis we face, their desire to act goes up dramatically.
- 8 days earlier
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Their wordsIf transmission corridors are matched by new gas pipelines, we haven’t made much progress.
- 2 weeks earlier
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Their wordspoliticians routinely underestimate the potency of this whole complex of issues.
↗The Two Horsemen, Riding in Formationbillmckibben.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 8 days earlier
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Their wordsIt is entirely prudent to keep researching and testing carbon capture technology-someday it may be part of the solution to the greatest problem humanity has ever faced.
↗Facts on the groundbillmckibben.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsthere is actually one thing we do know how to do, and that is build out lots of cheap solar, wind, and batteries.
↗Facts on the groundbillmckibben.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
- 6 days earlier
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Their words"Just switching to sustainable energy" is in fact the one good, scalable weapon we have to fight that
- 2 days earlier
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Their wordsBut physics is giving us very little time now, and so the next set of elections in this country will be, I think, our last real chance to make the sea change-replacing oil and gas with sun and wind-that is our best hope for limiting warming.
↗The growing rumblebillmckibben.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
- 5 days earlier
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Their wordsBut that's not how physical systems work. You push them and then past a certain point things change.
↗Reality intrudesbillmckibben.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsWe have made it hot enough on this planet that things are going very wrong.
↗Reality intrudesbillmckibben.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsglobal warming is no longer a philosophical threat, no longer a future threat, no longer a threat at all. It’s our reality.
↗Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (St. Martin's Griffin, 2011; first published 2010)archive.org All 5 from this book
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Their wordsWe have traveled to a new planet, propelled on a burst of carbon dioxide.
↗Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (St. Martin's Griffin, 2011; first published 2010)archive.org All 5 from this book
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Their wordsBy changing the weather, we make every spot on earth man-made and artificial.
↗The End of Nature (Random House, 1989)archive.org All 7 from this book
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Their wordsWe have changed the atmosphere, and that will change the weather.
↗The End of Nature (Random House, 1989)archive.org All 7 from this book