I got caught up in the momentum of the young revolution of the sixties. A friend invited me to a 'meeting' on Atherton Street down a stone stairway to a Rathskeller at Penn State University. It was twelve at night and only candles on the small tables passed for light. That was the night that I dedicated myself to the principles of SDS. I've been watching with high anticipation for a youth movement on the fossil fuel industry that has the same energy that I felt during a somewhat remarkable time of in-your-face revolt. I hope this is it!
And what a great idea to send in a hand-written letter—putting that on my list for Thanksgiving week! I mean how can I not, I just extolled the virtues of personal correspondence in my own Substack (https://cacaomuse.substack.com/p/letter1-my-cacao-origin-story)
At the end of the day, I've written the letter to DOE, but my voting behavior is off the table. Given the alternative, CP2, Willow, et.al. could never convince me to do anything except vote Democratic. And it is frankly depressing to consider that there are many for whom that might not be the case. The horrific results of 2016 came about -- probably -- on just such. I dearly hope these campaigns do not contribute to another such catastrophe in '24, of people too principled to make a difficult choice.
Bill, I guess I didn't read your Oct 2 Crucial Years when it came out, but it has some very important points I'm going to use in my efforts to help Biden win this most important election of our lives. My brother has twin grandchildren, now 4, for whom I wish long and fulfilling lives.
Like you, I did not vote for Carter in 1980, but a for third party candidate who didn't have much of a chance (John Anderson).
But what frustrates me is that too many people don't realize that if Biden isn't doing everything they want him to, it's because we have a razor thin majority in the Senate, which was made even thinner by Manchin an Sinema--that a leader has to deal with political forces which often preclude some, or even much of what we want presidents to do, and the GOP had the majority in the House, and that Presidents are never all powerful in our form of government, and the sooner Democrats who are thinking of not voting for Biden realize that, the better.
TikTok and the CCP are so great! We should do everything they say to destroy American energy independence and depend on their slave labor for rare earths and manufacturing.
Pumping fists for the young people of TikTok! Also want to mention Climate Defiance, who are crushing it—they get right up on stage and in the faces of the weak-spined bureaucrats: https://www.climatedefiance.org/
Thank you Mr. McKibben for a great article and so much crucial information... I wrote a piece about climate activism and current events on my own Substack page; thank you so much for inspiring me and providing these resources.
Do you know what the timeline is for decisions on the LNG export licenses? How long do we have to organize letters, the petition and any other pressure?
Could you imagine what the West would be saying right now about Putin if the Russians bombed Ukrainian civilians mercilessly for a month and a half and totally destroyed hospitals, killing doctors, patients, children, women, press and UN workers? By defending Israel Biden has made it much more likely Trump will win.
I deeply appreciate your research and thoughts and writings. I find myself toggling between despair (we hit 2 degrees! LNG exports could wipe out our gains since 2005) and elation (renewables costs plummeting!, Biden & Xi agreeing on climate commitments !). There is much reason for both despair and elation. Let's use them both to keep us acting as if we can create a positive future. I'm goosing my network and put together a website (leaning very heavily on Bill's analyses) to explain the LNG issue and promote the petition and letter writing https://www.climateaction.center/stop-the-lng-climate-bomb
I'm upset about the arrogant and insane 100+ billion spent by Exxon and Chevron on natural gas/petrol investments recently. I watched a well done little film last night on Netflix about Mr Rustin, main organizer of the now legendary Civil Rights March on Washington DC where MLK gave his famous 'I have a Dream' speech. I think you could relate to it Bill because of your 360.org organizing the big Climate Action March in NYC and around the world back in 2018 and others in the past and even more recently. I thought with all the extreme weather disasters and hottest temps ever recorded in the past few years - the urgency would be bigger than it is and citizens would be more pro-active in demanding an end to fossil fuels. You see it with young peoples around the world but hardly anything with adults. It seems insanity fed by apathy is the new normal.
I love the work you do, Bill Mckibben, but your comment about X/twitter becoming an "anti-semitic playground" jumped out at me. What evidence do you have for that? Why would you drop that into this valuable plea regarding our global environment?
thanks for your kind words. I was thinking about Musk's endorsement yesterday of the great replacement theory--and truthfully my feed is now full of really vile stuff, including a lot of not-very-veiled attacks on George Soros. I feel like I need a shower after checking in there, and am gradually breaking my habit of doing so
Let me offer several other possible interpretation of Musk's cryptic comment. He forgot the question mark. He, like most scientific minds, does not believe in such a thing as "actual truth" outside of specifically defined equations. He was making fun of the guy. He was making fun of us. Etc. I would like to retain my respect for you in hearing an answer to my question - did you actually look at the source, or did you regurgitate the interpretation of others?
thank YOU for responding! I sincerely hope you will not take offense to my reply, so I am going to begin by emphasizing my deep admiration for you - how brave and seemingly tireless you are, and how hard you have tried to make a difference. You have spoken truth to power, but also to inconsequential and generally powerless people like me. I remember happening upon one of your articles in a magazine before I had internet, and speaking to others about it... and who can calculate how our trajectory in life will be changed, or its momentum increased, by chance encounters? Now I am in my fifties, maintaining a composting toilet system and growing a stunning amount of food on my tiny quarter acre urban Kansas City lot. Your book Falter is on my shelf. I have nothing but the deepest respect and gratitude. Where would we be without people like you?
However... about this "antisemitism" business... well, I've been seeing that word bandied about an awful lot lately. Since you are a Science Guy, and a writer of note, I'm sure you can appreciate the importance of defining terms. Does it mean "critical of Israel", or "hatred of Jews", or "against people who are ethnically Semitic (which I believe also includes Arabs)", or "anti-zionist" etc?
But beyond that, I am surprised by the wording of your response - "Musk's endorsement yesterday of the great replacement theory"- because it is exactly the wording I came across in an overwhelming number of news items and nearly hysterical editorials during my search for what exactly Musk had said and what exactly he was replying to. Folks seem eager to talk about this "endorsement" (a pretty strong word) but hesitant to post it up so that we, the regular people, might think about it and decide for ourselves. It took me quite a while to find The Hideous Tweet itself (I don't dwell in X much and lack navigation skills, alas). Here I must ask - Did you, an erudite independent thinker who understands how the lies and propaganda of the oil industry buried the clear and mounting evidence of climate change, go to the source material of this uproar before using your own platform to "endorse" this widespread, or just widely repeated-until-true, interpretation? Please forgive me, but... I looked at Musk's tweet, and the (somewhat incoherent) comment he was responding to, which was itself a response to a commercial of a dad disturbed by his own son's flippant antisemitic online commentary ... and what I got from the whole thing was that Musk is annoyed by hypocrisy, full stop.
I , too, often feel sullied when I dive into these platforms. Yet I am equally inspired, wowed, amazing, comforted, educated... I would not wish to limit or censor a thing. Thank you for all you do. I am grateful to find your writing here, and will endeavor to dig back and see what I have been missing, as I am somewhat new to substack. Cheers-
yes, and it seems fine. i confess that part of me wants to use the Twitter implosion as a reason to back away from social media entirely, but I guess that's irresponsible
I hear you Bill, feel the same way about most social media platforms. Much prefer communities like this where people can have actual conversations. But, our work does require a bigger megaphone... and that's especially true for larger voices like yours... they need to span the globe! Much respect and gratitude for what you do. 🙏🏽
TokTok is undoubtedly a good tool for mobilizing outrage to fuel protest politics.
Will that result in a new global energy economy purpose-built for habitat security and social equity?
An alternative worth considering: Advisory Trials before Citizen Juries of Fiduciary Faithfulness by Pensions & Endowments in the prudent exercise of plenary powers of discretionary authority over tens of trillions of society's shared savings aggregated, collectively, worldwide, into social superfunds for the social purpose of provision Workplace Pensions and Civil Society Endowments as "forever" machines.
Imagine a complaint being filed alleging that Pensions & Endowments have the power to finance the acquisition of hydrocarbons companies out of public markets ownership, placing them, instead into fiduciary stewardship, where they can be direct to become, and supported in being participations in the rapid reconfiguration of the global energy technologies portfolio, adding new energy technologies that will not geoengineer habitats on earth that humans cannot inhabit, so that we can delete energy extraction from hydrocarbons that is geonengineering habitats on earth that we humans will not be able to live in.
Some questions for the citizens sitting in the jury:
Do Pensions & Endowments, in fact, have such power?
If they have it, should they be using it?
If they do have it, and are not using it, does that put them in breach of their fiduciary duties?
If they are in breach, what is the remedy?
Imagine these juries being held in communities all across the country, and around the world.
Imagine a new solutions journalism reporting on these diverse proceedings, to include a wider population in the deliberations, through a new global conversation at the vanguard of a new global public discourse.
Imagine how Pensions & Endowments might react to such public criticism of their fiduciary faithlessness in not doing all they can to ensure habitat security in the future for their promises, and in consequence, for all of humanity, as well.
To learn more, consider zooming in to the December Knowledge Session from Legal Voices for the Future: Is Growth Fiduciary? It's free.
Would I be right to assume that you know your imaginings about Advisory Trials before Citizen Juries of Fiduciary Faithfulness by Pensions & Endowments are fictions, interesting thought experiments with no path to being realized?
I got caught up in the momentum of the young revolution of the sixties. A friend invited me to a 'meeting' on Atherton Street down a stone stairway to a Rathskeller at Penn State University. It was twelve at night and only candles on the small tables passed for light. That was the night that I dedicated myself to the principles of SDS. I've been watching with high anticipation for a youth movement on the fossil fuel industry that has the same energy that I felt during a somewhat remarkable time of in-your-face revolt. I hope this is it!
And what a great idea to send in a hand-written letter—putting that on my list for Thanksgiving week! I mean how can I not, I just extolled the virtues of personal correspondence in my own Substack (https://cacaomuse.substack.com/p/letter1-my-cacao-origin-story)
At the end of the day, I've written the letter to DOE, but my voting behavior is off the table. Given the alternative, CP2, Willow, et.al. could never convince me to do anything except vote Democratic. And it is frankly depressing to consider that there are many for whom that might not be the case. The horrific results of 2016 came about -- probably -- on just such. I dearly hope these campaigns do not contribute to another such catastrophe in '24, of people too principled to make a difficult choice.
agreed. i laid out my reasons here https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/in-which-i-clumsily-tie-one-hand
Bill, I guess I didn't read your Oct 2 Crucial Years when it came out, but it has some very important points I'm going to use in my efforts to help Biden win this most important election of our lives. My brother has twin grandchildren, now 4, for whom I wish long and fulfilling lives.
Like you, I did not vote for Carter in 1980, but a for third party candidate who didn't have much of a chance (John Anderson).
But what frustrates me is that too many people don't realize that if Biden isn't doing everything they want him to, it's because we have a razor thin majority in the Senate, which was made even thinner by Manchin an Sinema--that a leader has to deal with political forces which often preclude some, or even much of what we want presidents to do, and the GOP had the majority in the House, and that Presidents are never all powerful in our form of government, and the sooner Democrats who are thinking of not voting for Biden realize that, the better.
TikTok and the CCP are so great! We should do everything they say to destroy American energy independence and depend on their slave labor for rare earths and manufacturing.
Thank you, Bill, may your mind remain sharp and your pen handy! I'm getting out my pen after reading this helpful directive from you. Onward!
thank you very very much--that was just the response i was hoping for!
Pumping fists for the young people of TikTok! Also want to mention Climate Defiance, who are crushing it—they get right up on stage and in the faces of the weak-spined bureaucrats: https://www.climatedefiance.org/
Thank you Mr. McKibben for a great article and so much crucial information... I wrote a piece about climate activism and current events on my own Substack page; thank you so much for inspiring me and providing these resources.
Do you know what the timeline is for decisions on the LNG export licenses? How long do we have to organize letters, the petition and any other pressure?
Could you imagine what the West would be saying right now about Putin if the Russians bombed Ukrainian civilians mercilessly for a month and a half and totally destroyed hospitals, killing doctors, patients, children, women, press and UN workers? By defending Israel Biden has made it much more likely Trump will win.
I deeply appreciate your research and thoughts and writings. I find myself toggling between despair (we hit 2 degrees! LNG exports could wipe out our gains since 2005) and elation (renewables costs plummeting!, Biden & Xi agreeing on climate commitments !). There is much reason for both despair and elation. Let's use them both to keep us acting as if we can create a positive future. I'm goosing my network and put together a website (leaning very heavily on Bill's analyses) to explain the LNG issue and promote the petition and letter writing https://www.climateaction.center/stop-the-lng-climate-bomb
thank you man!
Thank YOU. So you have any idea about the timeline of these export license decisions? How long we have to get letter etc in?
I'm upset about the arrogant and insane 100+ billion spent by Exxon and Chevron on natural gas/petrol investments recently. I watched a well done little film last night on Netflix about Mr Rustin, main organizer of the now legendary Civil Rights March on Washington DC where MLK gave his famous 'I have a Dream' speech. I think you could relate to it Bill because of your 360.org organizing the big Climate Action March in NYC and around the world back in 2018 and others in the past and even more recently. I thought with all the extreme weather disasters and hottest temps ever recorded in the past few years - the urgency would be bigger than it is and citizens would be more pro-active in demanding an end to fossil fuels. You see it with young peoples around the world but hardly anything with adults. It seems insanity fed by apathy is the new normal.
Looking forward to your long distance reporting on COP 28!
I love the work you do, Bill Mckibben, but your comment about X/twitter becoming an "anti-semitic playground" jumped out at me. What evidence do you have for that? Why would you drop that into this valuable plea regarding our global environment?
thanks for your kind words. I was thinking about Musk's endorsement yesterday of the great replacement theory--and truthfully my feed is now full of really vile stuff, including a lot of not-very-veiled attacks on George Soros. I feel like I need a shower after checking in there, and am gradually breaking my habit of doing so
Let me offer several other possible interpretation of Musk's cryptic comment. He forgot the question mark. He, like most scientific minds, does not believe in such a thing as "actual truth" outside of specifically defined equations. He was making fun of the guy. He was making fun of us. Etc. I would like to retain my respect for you in hearing an answer to my question - did you actually look at the source, or did you regurgitate the interpretation of others?
thank YOU for responding! I sincerely hope you will not take offense to my reply, so I am going to begin by emphasizing my deep admiration for you - how brave and seemingly tireless you are, and how hard you have tried to make a difference. You have spoken truth to power, but also to inconsequential and generally powerless people like me. I remember happening upon one of your articles in a magazine before I had internet, and speaking to others about it... and who can calculate how our trajectory in life will be changed, or its momentum increased, by chance encounters? Now I am in my fifties, maintaining a composting toilet system and growing a stunning amount of food on my tiny quarter acre urban Kansas City lot. Your book Falter is on my shelf. I have nothing but the deepest respect and gratitude. Where would we be without people like you?
However... about this "antisemitism" business... well, I've been seeing that word bandied about an awful lot lately. Since you are a Science Guy, and a writer of note, I'm sure you can appreciate the importance of defining terms. Does it mean "critical of Israel", or "hatred of Jews", or "against people who are ethnically Semitic (which I believe also includes Arabs)", or "anti-zionist" etc?
But beyond that, I am surprised by the wording of your response - "Musk's endorsement yesterday of the great replacement theory"- because it is exactly the wording I came across in an overwhelming number of news items and nearly hysterical editorials during my search for what exactly Musk had said and what exactly he was replying to. Folks seem eager to talk about this "endorsement" (a pretty strong word) but hesitant to post it up so that we, the regular people, might think about it and decide for ourselves. It took me quite a while to find The Hideous Tweet itself (I don't dwell in X much and lack navigation skills, alas). Here I must ask - Did you, an erudite independent thinker who understands how the lies and propaganda of the oil industry buried the clear and mounting evidence of climate change, go to the source material of this uproar before using your own platform to "endorse" this widespread, or just widely repeated-until-true, interpretation? Please forgive me, but... I looked at Musk's tweet, and the (somewhat incoherent) comment he was responding to, which was itself a response to a commercial of a dad disturbed by his own son's flippant antisemitic online commentary ... and what I got from the whole thing was that Musk is annoyed by hypocrisy, full stop.
I , too, often feel sullied when I dive into these platforms. Yet I am equally inspired, wowed, amazing, comforted, educated... I would not wish to limit or censor a thing. Thank you for all you do. I am grateful to find your writing here, and will endeavor to dig back and see what I have been missing, as I am somewhat new to substack. Cheers-
I can't do Twitter anymore. Never really could but especially not now. Have you tried Bluesky?
yes, and it seems fine. i confess that part of me wants to use the Twitter implosion as a reason to back away from social media entirely, but I guess that's irresponsible
I hear you Bill, feel the same way about most social media platforms. Much prefer communities like this where people can have actual conversations. But, our work does require a bigger megaphone... and that's especially true for larger voices like yours... they need to span the globe! Much respect and gratitude for what you do. 🙏🏽
More advertisers are leaving that platform now as a result of recent antisemitic remarks by Elon Musk.
Elon really stuck his foot in it this time. I didn’t see the post but it was a doozy!
TokTok is undoubtedly a good tool for mobilizing outrage to fuel protest politics.
Will that result in a new global energy economy purpose-built for habitat security and social equity?
An alternative worth considering: Advisory Trials before Citizen Juries of Fiduciary Faithfulness by Pensions & Endowments in the prudent exercise of plenary powers of discretionary authority over tens of trillions of society's shared savings aggregated, collectively, worldwide, into social superfunds for the social purpose of provision Workplace Pensions and Civil Society Endowments as "forever" machines.
Imagine a complaint being filed alleging that Pensions & Endowments have the power to finance the acquisition of hydrocarbons companies out of public markets ownership, placing them, instead into fiduciary stewardship, where they can be direct to become, and supported in being participations in the rapid reconfiguration of the global energy technologies portfolio, adding new energy technologies that will not geoengineer habitats on earth that humans cannot inhabit, so that we can delete energy extraction from hydrocarbons that is geonengineering habitats on earth that we humans will not be able to live in.
Some questions for the citizens sitting in the jury:
Do Pensions & Endowments, in fact, have such power?
If they have it, should they be using it?
If they do have it, and are not using it, does that put them in breach of their fiduciary duties?
If they are in breach, what is the remedy?
Imagine these juries being held in communities all across the country, and around the world.
Imagine a new solutions journalism reporting on these diverse proceedings, to include a wider population in the deliberations, through a new global conversation at the vanguard of a new global public discourse.
Imagine how Pensions & Endowments might react to such public criticism of their fiduciary faithlessness in not doing all they can to ensure habitat security in the future for their promises, and in consequence, for all of humanity, as well.
To learn more, consider zooming in to the December Knowledge Session from Legal Voices for the Future: Is Growth Fiduciary? It's free.
Details are here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/is-growth-fiduciary-tickets-750796541667?aff=oddtdtcreator
Would I be right to assume that you know your imaginings about Advisory Trials before Citizen Juries of Fiduciary Faithfulness by Pensions & Endowments are fictions, interesting thought experiments with no path to being realized?
What chain of reasoning did you follow to arrive at that conclusion?