The environment is changing, and is doing so more rapidly than many scientists believed even a year ago. In his lecture "Building the Climate Movement," Bill McKibben stressed the massive warming effect that humans have had on the planet.
"We didn't realize we were that big, we were casting that kind of shadow," McKibben said. Fortunately, he said, hope still lies in taking immediate action and changing political policies.
In the past 20 years, the temperature of the Earth has risen from 59 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Although a temperature increase of one degree may seem insignificant, the consequences have been tremendous.
The warmer air, which retains more water vapor than the air of years past, has provided a more hospitable environment for mosquitoes and thus has led to an increase in mosquito-borne diseases across Asia and Latin America. Storms have increased in number and in magnitude, and glaciers in Greenland that are one-and-a-half miles thick are melting. Unless drastic action is taken, McKibben said humans will see a five-degree temperature increase and a 10- to 20-foot rise in sea level within the next century.
The current climate situation can be compared to "going to the doctor and being told that your cholesterol is too high," McKibben said. To remedy the situation, he suggested the immediate stoppage of production of coal-fueled power plants and the phasing out of any current ones.
Many of the changes that Earth is experiencing are due to the amount of the sun's energy that humans trap in the atmosphere. Reducing the amount of carbon emissions in the atmosphere to a target number of 350 parts per million will play a large role in slowing the snowballing effects of global warming.
Ecopledge, an environmental organization at Boston College, has picked up on the need to control waste production.
"The amount of trash on campus is ridiculous," said Merril Putnam, a leader of the campaigns committee for Ecopledge and A&S '08.
"Recycling is good, but recycling five bottles of water a day leads to reusing more than you have to," Putnam said. "We need to reduce our impact in the first place."
In addition to reducing impact on a large scale, McKibben advocates political change as a necessity in fighting global warming.
"We need to change policy, not light bulbs," said McKibben.
To date, the United States remains the only industrialized nation not to have joined the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty guaranteeing the protection of the environment, McKibben said. He attributed part of the problem to a lack of organization within the environmentalist community.
"There were never any real political movements to force change," McKibbin said. "We had superstructure...but no movement, no people out there to effect change. We have that now."
Growing support for environmental awareness has also been observed at BC. Peggy Fox, another Ecopledge leader and A&S '08, described the growth of the club as progressing from about seven people just four years ago to more than 100 members this year.
"Being green is becoming trendy," Fox said.
Support for this cause is not as widespread as support for many other causes, but for good reason. "We didn't do a big march on Washington. We wanted people to capture the beauty of their own place, their own locality," said McKibben, a Vermont native.
McKibben, who has gained a reputation as a leading environmentalist from several books he has written, including The End of Nature, said he is quite content to effect change from his Vermont home. His 20 years of experience have led him to become "politically disengaged," but he encourages others to become involved.
"Exxon Mobil and other companies would like us to be politically disengaged and leave the field to them," McKibben said. His wish is to witness a movement "as passionate and engaged as the Civil Rights Movement" led in the figurative backyards of organizers.
Carrying out the fight in this manner will foster community spirit and a connection among Americans that has been gradually fading over the last 50 years, McKibben said.
He also stressed the importance of community. The people shopping at local farmer's markets are likely to "bring about the kind of change that drives other change," McKibben said. He asserted that by working together, humans can prevent the dark future that science projects as a result of climate change.
With growing appreciation for the gifts of nature, a retardation of the planet's warming seems probable, but the window of time to act is very short, McKibben concluded.
"Plan A isn't working anymore. We need Plan B, and lots of them," he said.
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