Bill McKibben’s Math: Climate Change Hits Home (in a 22-City Tour)
from YES! Magazine:
Bill McKibbens Math: Climate Change Hits Home (in a 22-City Tour)
It shouldn't take a hurricane to blow open the debate about climate change. But Sandy might help 350.org prove what's at stake in a nationwide campaign to divest university endowments from the fossil fuel industry.
by Phil Aroneanu
posted Nov 05, 2012
For two hours last Monday night, New York City got pummeled by Hurricane Sandy, along with much of the New Jersey and Connecticut coast. The windows started bowing and rattling with every gust, and rain pelted the glass sideways. Nobody was on the streets.
Sitting in our third-floor apartment in Brooklyn, my wife and I pretended to read our books and traded nervous looks each time a gust shook the hatch that leads up to our roof. I'd been following the reports closely, so I knew we weren't in danger of getting flooded. But like many people around the world, I was glued to the white glow of my smartphone as my Twitter feed flooded with images of rising waters on the Jersey shore and in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
That night, I finally understood what many of my friends in Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, and countless other places on the planet must feel each time a massive typhoon or record flooding hits. Climate change finally hit home for me: I was experiencing it in my own house and on my own skin.
For the first time since 2009, when the United States Senate voted down an ill-fated climate bill, politicians seem to be connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate change. New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo broke the election-year silence around the issue in a press conference just 36 hours after the storm passed, and Mayor Bloomberg trumpeted President Obamas climate credentials in an endorsement the next day. .............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/bill-mckibbens-math-climate-change-hits-home
codjh9
(2,781 posts)lalalu
(1,663 posts)He is the only one questioning why they were not prepared. Did they have to get parts from China?
I am waiting to see what the real plan will be during the rebuilding phase. That will show whether or not people are ready to get serious about this issue. The storm tomorrow is suppose to bring more flooding, high winds, and tides. Unbelievable that people are still in denial.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)there is some shit I want to say to these people.
Also 350 is doing an action Nov 18 in DC re:Stop Keystone XL
http://act.350.org/signup/KXL_Nov18/
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)from my notes:
math.350.org
Berkeley, California 11/9
King Middle School
1781 Rose Street
7:30pm, $10
Featuring Bill McKibben and Josh Fox
San Francisco, California 11/10
GreenFest
Concourse Exhibition Center, 8th Street and Brannan Street
Festival runs all day, Do the Math session starts at 2pm. $10.
Featuring Bill McKibben
I'm going to try to get to one of them...
More generally though, it's time for humanity to take a stand on this issue, with everything we have. We'll be unfathomably sorry later if we can't turn this around. And if it's already too late, we still need to do everything we can, because there's no way to know how much we can do until we try. Priority number one.
edited to add:
Urge President Obama to Act Aggressively on Science-based Solutions to Global Warming