Bill McKibben wrote much of his pathbreaking book The End of Nature from his home in the Adirondacks, so even though he now lives in Vermont, we like to think of him as an Adirondacker.
In truth, though, McKibben is a citizen of the world, a guy who has been fighting to save the planet from climate change for more than two decades. But he hasn’t succeeded.
McKibben says it’s now time to take off the gloves. In an online article, he vents his anger against politicians who fiddle while the earth burns. He’s not happy with environmentalists, either. Here’s an excerpt:
“For many years, the lobbying fight for climate legislation on Capitol Hill has been led by a collection of the most corporate and moderate environmental groups, outfits like the Environmental Defense Fund. We owe them a great debt, and not just for their hard work. We owe them a debt because they did everything the way you’re supposed to: they wore nice clothes, lobbied tirelessly, and compromised at every turn.
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“By the time they were done, they had a bill that only capped carbon emissions from electric utilities (not factories or cars) and was so laden with gifts for industry that if you listened closely you could actually hear the oinking. They bent over backwards like Soviet gymnasts.”
So what should be done now? Click here to read McKibben’s full article.
One strange thing about this article. Bill seems to criticize global warming skeptics for using the record snows last year along the Atlantic seaboard as some evidence that global warming is not taking place. Then he turns right around and starts to use the record heat in the North East as evidence the planet is warming? That confuses people. Both the short term record snow as well as record heat this summer are no indication of global warming. Global warming is happening there is no doubt about that, and much of it is man made, but to continue to argue this way only confuses everybody. He is just making the same incorrect arguments that the skeptics are.