It's just 1°, right?

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Women in India participate in the 350 movement

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On Wednesday I had the pleasure to witness Bill McKibben, Vermont climate change super star, speak at St. Michaels College. He has been one of the first advocates concerning climate change, starting the organization 350.org and as a result starting the largest social movement of our generation. Bill’s message from the intro to the conclusion of his speech was that climate change is not an issue to be dealt with in the future. It is a problem right now and it will only get worse if we do not make drastic changes.

            When it comes to our class on Ecosystem Ecology, let’s just say the class will look quite different in the next 20 years. Something like ecology is a discipline that has been taught the same way since its creation. However, we will never again see and learn about the planet that we were born into, the way it has been for thousands of years. Bill said, last summer alone melted so much glacial ice that the physical feature is broken and can never be brought back.   The ocean is 30% more acidic because of atmospheric carbon. The biggest issue is that we have raised the temperature of our planet 1°. As human beings, we have only ever known a stable planet and now we are seeing how fragile it really is. That 1° causes the warmer air to hold more water, making it 5% more wet, resulting in an increase of floods and draughts. 2012 was the hottest year in American history. 1° cuts grain yields 10%, imagine what would happen to food prices if we raised the temperature another degree, or two?

            It is not a lack a technology that is keeping us from changing our behavior. We have the ability to produce 99.9% US energy needs by sun and wind if we created a national grid. We have the technology, so what is the problem? Scientists are repeatedly ignored by our government due to the huge amount of oil company money that is given to our leaders. The political will is lacking, and the public, my peers and myself, are up against high power, wealthy campaigns.

            So what does Bill suggest? He suggests the power of the social movement. 350.org has made a global movement against climate change. It is in every country except North Korea. And the current campaign? STOP THE XL PIPELINE. It has been said this pipeline would surely raise the global carbon level to 540 ppm, verse the 350 ppm which is the maximum amount our planet can tolerate.  So 350.org is demanding, “yes Obama, we can…stop the pipeline!” We demand no more than 2° increase on our planet, which we could reach in 16 years at this rate.

            On February 17^th, Bill Mckibben is expecting 20,000 people in Washington, some getting arrested, some fighting on the frontlines, and everyone demanding that the oil company’s business plan is a death sentence to our planet.

If you are interested in joining go to www.350.org to find bus information!