182 Quotes by Bill McKibben

I would like to draw three main conclusions. Number one, the earth is warmer in 1988 than at any time in the history of instrumental measurements. Number two, the global warming is now large enough that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship to the greenhouse effect. And number three, our computer climate simulations indicate that the greenhouse effect is already large enough to begin to effect the probability of extreme events such as summer heat waves.

At the moment, the 4 percent of us in this country produce a quarter of the world’s carbon dioxide – once you look at maps of rising sea levels and spreading mosquitoes, you realize that we’ve probably never figured out a way to hate our neighbors around the world much more effectively.

We all need to be reminded that democracy isn’t just voting for the president every four years and then trusting him to fix things. Democracy is about getting together with your community to think together about your future.

In the world we grew up in, our most ingrained economic and political habit was growth; it’s the reflex we’re going to have to temper, and it’s going to be tough.

If it’s wrong to wreck the planet, it’s wrong to profit from the wreckage.

Without a movement pressing for change, there’s little hope. We’ve got to work the political system to make this happen fast. The physics and chemistry are daunting. The resources on the other side are very large.

We’ve built a new Earth. It’s not as nice as the old one; it’s the greatest mistake humans have ever made, one that we will pay for literally forever.

What makes us different? We’re the creature that can decide not to do something that we are capable of doing.

The world hasn’t ended, but the world as we know it has-even if we don’t quite know it yet.