Bill McKibben
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Terminator 2009
Cross-posted from TomDispatch. It’s clear now that, from her immoveable titanium bangs to her chaotic approximation of human speech, Sarah Palin is a Terminator cyborg sent from the future to destroy something — but what? It could be the Republican Party she’ll ravage by herding the fundamentalists and extremists into a place where sane fiscal […]
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Letter to Bill McKibben: don’t blame Obama for Copenhagen
Dear Bill, Yesterday, in response to the end of the Copenhagen negotiations, you issued a press release with 350.org titled “The President has wrecked the UN (and the planet),” in which you wrote: “The president has wrecked the U.N. and he’s wrecked the possibility of a tough plan to control global warming. It may get […]
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An unwelcome lesson in power politics
350.org’s Bill McKibben at a candlelight vigil Dec. 17 in Copenhagen.Matthew McDermott via FlickrCOPENHAGEN — Late last night, after the word had come down that the climate talks had ended in a four-way, non-binding, unfair, and breathtakingly unambitious agreement between the United States, China, India, and South Africa, a crowd of young demonstrators from around […]
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With climate agreement, Obama guts progressive values, argues McKibben
The President of the United States did several things with his agreement today with China, India, and South Africa: He blew up the United Nations. The idea that there’s a world community that means something has disappeared tonight. The clear point is, you poor nations can spout off all you want on questions like human […]
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‘This entire conference is an elaborate sham’
COPENHAGEN — For two weeks we’ve been listening to the story of the leaked emails from East Anglia — a media tempest in an English teapot. And all the time the biggest scandal has been directly under our noses. This afternoon at Copenhagen a document was mysteriously leaked from the UN Secretariat. It was first […]
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Only the numbers count — and they add up to hell on earth
Cross-posted from the Guardian. COPENHAGEN — The Bella Center is a swirl of chatter, the streets of Copenhagen are a swirl of protest. Depending on what hour you listen to the news bulletin, the U.N. climate negotiations have “come off the rails” or are “back on track” or have “stalled” or are “moving swiftly.” Which […]
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Bill McKibben on skunks at Copenhagen’s garden party
Cross-posted from MotherJones.com. A demonstration in support of the islands of Tuvalu, the 4th smallest country in the world, which is holding out for a legally-binding treaty in Copenhagen.Photo and caption: Oxfam InternationalCOPENHAGEN — From the distance, you could hear a little noise and rhythmic chanting cutting through the train-station drone that is the normal […]
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The world needs a dramatic climax in Copenhagen, not a lame dress rehearsal
“Calm before the storm” is how my colleague Jamie Henn described Copenhagen today. “‘Hopenhagen‘ advertising everywhere, people setting up a outdoor concert venue in downtown, a few anarchist posters wheat-pasted on signs, and I even saw a 350.dk license plate on a bicycle!” I’m still in the United States, but packing for the trip to […]
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More power, less roadkill: How one professor’s landscape has shifted
I took Environmental Studies 101 during my first college semester 20 years ago with Dick Andrus, a professor who has just marked 36 years of teaching at Binghamton University. I thought it’d be good to check back with him and see what he’s talking about in that class now. Q. What are your new Envi […]