Bill McKibben storms Barnfest

Author/activist stokes crowd to ‘Get to Work’ on 10/10/10

By SANDY LONG

ROSCOE, NY — Acclaimed author and international organizer on climate change, Bill McKibben stepped up onto a small stage framed by apple trees against a cloud-studded blue sky on July 31, and told hundreds of people perched on the rolling lawn, “I’ve been all over the world and I would not trade New York State. It’s the most beautiful place on Earth. This fight that you’re in will be up and down. We have to take on the fossil fuel industry, the most profitable industry there ever was.”

McKibben was speaking at Barnfest, an event organized by Catskill Mountainkeeper (CM) to celebrate life in the Catskills and increase awareness of issues related to natural gas exploration while raising funds in support of CM’s ongoing work. Artwork created from recycled materials and services donated by supporters throughout the area were auctioned during the day. Locally produced food and live music by the Stoddard Hollow Band and renowned folk performers Jay Ungar and Molly Mason blended beautifully in the idyllic setting.

CM executive director Ramsay Adams said the organization has been overwhelmed with local spirit and energy. “If we’re going to create a grass-roots constituency to protect this great place, it’s got to be community, from the ground up,” he said. “We’ve got issues: gas drilling, casinos, loss of farms to deal with. Like Bill’s work on climate change, we need to focus our energy to think globally while acting locally.”

With a quick apology for “being a downer,” McKibben stressed the importance of addressing Marcellus Shale development in terms of its relationship to the global issue of climate change. “We need to be clear about what it is we’re fighting and what is at the root of it,” he said. “We will not win this battle until we come to terms with the fact that fossil fuel is quickly destroying the planet. We’ve raised the temperature of the earth about one degree so far.

“In the last six weeks, NASA told us that we’ve come through the warmest six months, the warmest year and the warmest decade on record. Everything frozen on Earth is melting. Fourteen countries have set new temperature records. Climatologists have made it clear that unless we get off fossil fuel right away, we will see the temperature rise five degrees in the course of this century. If one degree melts the Arctic, we’d better not find out what five or six degrees does.”

McKibben lamented the continuing failure of the U.S. government to act. “It is not enough to sit down with our political leaders and tell them that the planet is coming to an end,” he said. “We have to figure out a way to tell them that their careers are coming to an end unless they do the right thing.

“The only way to do that is to build a movement. You’ve got the start of a good movement here. But if it’s only about the problems around the Marcellus Shale, then it’s not going to matter. If we keep pouring carbon into the atmosphere, even the most wonderful organic farmers won’t be able to do a damn thing, because if it rains 30 days in a row, or doesn’t rain for 30 days, then you can’t grow anything.”

The broader movement McKibben refers to—350.org—gained serious momentum in January 2008. “We were both horrified and elated when our greatest climatologist, Jim Hansen, put a number on our peril, which allows us a way to organize across language barriers,” said McKibben. 350 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity, according to Hansen. The atmosphere is currently at 390 ppm.

McKibben and others organized their first worldwide action in 2007, called Step It Up. That was followed last year by an event conducted on October 24 that produced 5,200 demonstrations in 181 countries in what CNN called “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history.” The movement is a force to be reckoned with as people across the globe register events on the website for this year’s Global Work Party scheduled for 10/10/10. At press time, 1,057 actions in 118 countries had already been scheduled.

“People will put up solar panels and put in community gardens so that we do not need to rely any longer on fossil fuel,” McKibben said. “We’ll send a sharp political message when we put down our shovels, pick up our cell phones and call our political leaders to action to hammer out some legislation, to say, ‘I’m getting to work; what about you?’

“If we’re not able to do it in the next few years, the consequence will be a world fundamentally altered, unable to deliver anything like the beauty and meaning and integrity of the world we inherited. There are no guarantees of victory, but all over the world, people of good conscience will keep fighting as long and as hard as they can.”

Earlier, award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo urged continued commitment. “Every now and again, we get a chance to come together as a community, and gas drilling happens to be that lousy thing that’s bringing us all together,” he said. “It’s important that we don’t tear ourselves apart over this. If we’re divided, we’re done. People have put themselves out there in a big way to change this, from the bottom up. Everyone has something to offer.”

Following his talk, McKibben reflected. “Sometimes I get worn out and despairing, but around the world, every place we go, there are thousands of people, young people especially, who are ready to go to work.”

Visit 350.org and catskillmountainkeeper.org for more information.