The Bill McKibben

In the 1980s, Bill McKibben became one of the first journalists to warn of the perils of . Since then he has parlayed his extensive environmental writing and the reach of digital media into a grassroots campaign against the fossil fuel industry, the Keystone XL pipeline in particular. How did this writer-turned-activist become the bane of the Canadian oil patch? And what is his vision for the future?

How eBill McKibben Changed Environmental Politics nt and Took On the OIl Patch O pon by Matthew C. Nisbet 28 OPTIONS POLITIQUES POLICY OPTIONS 28 29 OPTIONS POLITIQUES POLICY OPTIONS 29 AVRIL-MAIAVRIL 2013 2013 p APRIL-MAYAPRIL 2013 AVRIL-MAIAVRIL 2013 2013 APRIL-MAY 2013 n a cold day this past February on the National Mall in Washington, DC, an Oestimated 30,000 people gathered to protest the Keystone XL pipeline, the controver- sial project intended to link the Alberta oil sands in Canada with Gulf of Mexico refineries and dis- tribution centres in the United States. “All I ever wanted to see was a movement of people to stop climate change,” declared activist Bill McKibben, addressing the crowd from a stage. “And now,” he told them, “I’ve seen it.”

McKibben’s oil patch opponents in Canada may have derided the size of the crowd as smaller than expected, but the turnout was only a partial demonstration of the power this writer turned environmental activist has amassed against them. Through his writing and his grassroots activist organization 350.org, targeting fossil fuel industries, McKib- ben has emerged as a major obstacle for those in the Can- adian government and oil sands industry who see the pipe- line as key to getting the Alberta product to global markets. He has melded his long, personal struggle to sound the alarm against the perils of climate change with pioneering methods of social protest, combining traditional face-to-face organizing strategies with the potency of social media and the storytelling ability of a bestselling author. In the process, McKibben has become the most visible environmental activ- ist in the United States, redefining the way environmental groups practise politics and extending his influence into one of the biggest issues in Canada. McKibben’s journey from writer to movement leader started in 1989, when he was still in his 20s and published The End of Nature, recognized as the first popular book about climate change. In it, he warned that humans had become the “most powerful source for change on the planet,” a pot- entially catastrophic achievement that marked an end to our traditional understanding of nature. Climate change, unlike other environmental problems, was not conventionally solvable; our best hope was to avert would dramatically reorganize society, ending our addiction the most devastating impacts, McKibben wrote. Yet he was to fossil fuels, economic growth and consumerism. deeply skeptical of technological approaches to the problem. The End of Nature established the core audience, themes The only possible path to survival, he argued, was through a and focus for almost all of McKibben’s subsequent books fundamental reconsideration of our worldviews, aspirations and writing. Over the past two decades, he has paired his and life goals and the creation of a new consciousness that books with 10 to 20 magazine articles and major newspaper opinion pieces annually — and more recently dozens of blog posts — all aimed at warning a mix of environment- Matthew C. Nisbet is associate professor of communication alists, college students, liberal baby boomers, outdoor en- and co-director of the Center for Social Media at American thusiasts and progressive Christians about the dangers of University, Washington, DC. This article is adapted from a carbon-fuelled economic growth. March 2013 discussion paper published by the Joan Shorenstein The audiences he cultivated over the years with his Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard books and magazine articles not only increased his profile­ University’s Kennedy School of Government. as a public intellectual, they also formed part of the grass-

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Grassroots power: McKibben says traditional environmental groups have lost their way. roots activist base for the organization clearly that we’re going to need to build Photo: Steve Liptay he founded in 2008, 350.org (the name some power if we’re going to mount a was derived from the amount of carbon serious challenge.” dioxide in the atmosphere — meas- Or, as he told in the ured in parts per million — that the same year, “We assumed that because NASA scientist regards scientists had said the world was as the safe upper limit for the planet). coming to an end that that would be As he told newspaper in enough to motivate our political sys- 2010: “I think my assumption when I tem to act. As it turns out, that’s not was 27 was that explaining rationally how politics works. You need to meet all the trouble we’re in would be suffi- power with power.” cient, and that politicians and whoever would act. I’m older now and I think cKibben as societal storyteller, I’ve come to understand a little more Mexplainer and advocate is not

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unique. He is part of a special class of cial change that contributes to a more Making matters worse, in the cli- writers and journalists who, as public just, sustainable, and peaceful world.” mate change debate, the advertising, intellectuals, have gained prominence It also funds McKibben’s 350.org. public relations and lobbying strat- and influence over the past two decades. McKibben has masterfully navi- egies of powerful fossil fuel companies Rather than straight reporting of events, gated this online media ecosystem have manufactured doubt in the public these “knowledge journalists” specialize through frequent contributions to the realm about the reality of man-made in the translation of complex subjects, Huffington Post, TomPaine.com, Grist. climate change. Along with conserv- often also championing specific policy org and other left-leaning Web sites. ative allies, they have exaggerated the positions or causes. Similarly, his efforts on behalf of 350. economic costs of action, ridiculed en- Knowledge journalists in popular org are frequently covered and dis- vironmentalists, intimidated scientists discussion remain loosely identified cussed on these outlets and others such and manipulated the use of scientific as celebrity authors who trade in big as InsideClimateNews and Mother Jones expertise in policy-making. ideas, coin trends, drive book sales and magazine. Over his career, McKibben Because of its incredibly com- inspire movements. Leading contem- has also been a regular contributor to plex nature and political divisiveness, porary examples include the a host of environmental, outdoors and climate change today “has more po- Times columnist David Brooks (author religious magazines. The fragmented tency…as a mobilising idea than it does of The Social Animal), CNN/Time maga- nature of online news that leads news as a physical phenomenon,” argues sci- zine’s Fareed Zakaria (The Post-American organizations to focus on driving traffic entist Mike Hulme in Why We Disagree World), the Nation’s Naomi Klein (The to specific stories by way of search en- about Climate Change: Understanding Shock Doctrine) and University of Cal- gines, aggregators and social networks Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. ifornia journalism professor Michael heightens the prominence of popular “We won’t understand climate change Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma). Yet knowledge journalists like McKibben. through science and economics alone,” the members of this new class of public Similarly, these dynamics can he writes. “We need to understand the intellectuals are also criticized for im- transform the original analysis or per- ways in which we talk about climate posing their point of view; for lacking spective offered by knowledge journal- change, the variety of myths we con- specialized credentials, or for reducing ists from a piece of journalism into a struct, and through which we reveal to explanations to a single idea, theory or noteworthy, if pseudo, event. McKib- ourselves what climate change means field. Sometimes, as in McKibben’s case, ben has been able to use niche media to us.” they are accused of blurring the lines to engage readers already concerned between journalism and activism. about climate change, even as it be- orn in 1960, McKibben attended In the digital media landscape, comes increasingly difficult to capture Bhigh school in Lexington, Massa- however, highly motivated individuals the wider public’s attention for the chusetts, where he wrote for the local can consume, contribute, recommend, problem, or to shift conservative-lean- newspaper and was a state champion share and comment on their preferred ing news consumers away from media debater. When McKibben’s father was topics across preferred media outlets sources in the other ideological silo arrested in 1971 at a protest in support and platforms. This makes it very easy that reinforce their doubts about the of the right of Vietnam Veterans Against for an ideologically minded audience to science of climate change. the War to assemble on the town green, follow only sites or blogs that reflect and Yet knowledge journalists prob- the event left an impression on his confirm their opinions. They often pre- ably have their greatest impact on 10-year-old son. He was “furious that fer writers who advocate for their cause. what political scientist Amitai Etzioni he wasn’t allowed to be arrested with Meanwhile, specialized, not- calls in a 2006 book “communities his father,” McKibben’s mother told the for-profit news organizations, such of assumptions,” the shared world- Boston Globe in 2012. “It really had an as InsideClimateNews.org, which views and mental models that shape impact on him. It taught him that you won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage the judgments of experts, political stand up for what you believe.” of a 2010 pipeline oil spill in Mich- insiders and other journalists. These At Harvard, McKibben’s “leftism igan’s Kalamazoo River, are emer- assumptions “serve as the frameworks grew more righteous,” he wrote in a ging as important complements to that influence the ways numerous 1996 essay. He worked on many caus- traditional news organizations. Yet specific public and private policies es, but none felt truly his own. McKib- these ­foundation-funded operations are received and evaluated,” writes ben balanced his activism with his pas- also raise new questions about the Etzioni. Ideologically aligned media sion for journalism, serving as editor boundaries between reporting and ad- offering self-confirming narratives de- of the Harvard Crimson newspaper. On vocacy. One of the main backers of livered by trusted public intellectuals election night in 1980, McKibben “got InsideClimateNews, for example, is make it all too easy for experts and grimly drunk,” spending the next day the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which political insiders to retreat on an issue in bed before waking to write a 3,000- describes its mission as advancing “so- into the comfort of an echo chamber. word essay that “defined the ground

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I’d cover in the years to come.” Ron- ing on the edge of the wilderness,” and ald Reagan’s victory was “the choice with the philosophical writings of the for a kind of pretend where deep ecologists that he admired. From we would agree that we didn’t have this he concluded in The End of Nature to face limits, change any habits,” he that “we may not judge everything later recalled. from our point of view — that all na- After graduating from Harvard in ture is not ours to subdue.” 1982, McKibben joined , Yet nature, McKibben discovered, spending the next five years living in was changing. “I’d begun reading the New York, sharing an apartment with occasional reference to something film critic , putting called the ‘greenhouse effect,’” he re- most of his money in the bank and called in 2008. “The more I studied limiting his personal belongings. “He’s what little science was available, the always been other directed,” Edelstein harder I was hit by the realization that told Outside magazine in 2012. “Almost the world I had suddenly woken up to as if it would be unseemly to dwell on was just as suddenly in mortal danger.” his own problems.” Edelstein recalled For decades, scientists had been that McKibben was tear-gassed during studying climate change, then more a protest against a nuclear power plant. commonly called global warming or “He was attracted to nonviolent resis­ the greenhouse effect. But tance. He used to hand out pamphlets scholars point to 1988 as the outside the theater where Gandhi was year that climate change as a showing. He thought it was the best social problem became a part movie he’d ever seen.” of national discussion. Rec- He also contributed short political ord early summer heat gener- McKibben wrote essays for the “Notes and Comment” ated stories about the green- section of the magazine, modelling his house effect as a cause. These that “the world work after that of fellow staff writer claims gained greater legit- I had woken up Jonathan Schell. In his 1982 book The imacy when NASA scientist Fate of the Earth and other works, Schell James Hansen testified to the to was in mortal warned of the risk of a nuclear holocaust, Senate, “We can ascribe with serving as an inspiration to the nuclear a high degree of confidence a danger.” disarmament movement. “It was from cause-and-effect relationship him that I learned how great reporting between the greenhouse ef- could produce critical thinking,” recalls fect and observed warming.” McKibben. “It was a liberating reprieve In December 1988, Mc- from the twin straitjackets of ‘objective Kibben published an essay in the reporting’ and ‘punditry.’” New York Review of Books detailing the For a story on the homeless, his handful of reports and studies on cli- editor urged him to live on the street, mate change, and a few months later, where he met his wife, Sue Halpern, a The End of Nature was published. Mc- former Rhodes Scholar and writer who Kibben devotes nearly 80 pages — or was working as an advocate for the 40 percent — of The End of Nature to homeless. McKibben quit the New York- describing this emerging science, care- er in 1987 and moved with Halpern to ful in most cases to underscore uncer- the Adirondack Mountains in upstate tainties where they existed, and draw- New York. Working as a freelancer, he ing parallels to acid rain and ozone spent considerable time hiking, skiing depletion. “The science, however, was and watching wildlife. At the sugges- only one part of the book,” wrote Mc- tion of his wife, McKibben studied the Kibben in 2006, “and not the most Book of Job from the Hebrew Bible. The important.” Instead, the science was story of Job, wrote McKibben in a later a warning that humans — through essay, delivers the moral lesson that their pollution — had for the first time “man is not at the center of all things.” become “the most powerful force for Job resonated with his experience “liv- change on the planet.”

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possible, and unbelievable’ is an act of warned against the moral perils of gene hope as much as of reason.” therapy, cloning, nanotechnology and The only moral path to survival, robotics. McKibben concluded McKibben, was to break In 2007, McKibben published Deep out of our “rut, a system of beliefs in Economy: The Wealth of Communities doesn’t believe which we are trapped,” a direction and the Durable Future, and he followed in “smart” “that is the opposite of the defiant, it in 2010 with Eaarth: Making a Life on consumptive course we’ve tradition- a Tough New Planet. The first book fea- growth...Our ally followed.” To define this alterna- tured his most extensive, optimistic and environment, he tive path, McKibben drew on the hopeful exposition on a different, more arguments of the deep ecology move- rewarding kind of life, detailing the vir- says, has “met its ment. For energy, people would start tues of community, local agriculture and to turn to “appropriate technology,” local economies. The second represents match.” and link their work more directly to the most deeply pessimistic outlook of their food, returning to farming and his career. Just as he had in 1988, Mc- agriculture as a livelihood. Developed Kibben credited James Hansen with cata- countries would have to transfer lyzing the shift in his thinking toward wealth to the developing world, and a new sense of urgency about climate global population would have to change. In a 2007 presentation, Hansen grow gradually smaller, to anywhere explained that he now thought that the from 100 million to 1-2 billion. “safe” level for carbon dioxide levels was Different from other man-made In the New York Review of Books, 350 ppm, a level of emissions that had interventions, humans’ role in climate historian Daniel Kevles wrote in 1989 already been crossed. “The day that Jim change was all pervasive and stretched that McKibben’s book was “part popu- Hansen announced that number,” wrote to every part of the planet. “By lar science and part poetry, a sensitive McKibben, “was the day I knew we’d changing the weather, we make every and provocative essay of alarm, a kind never again inhabit the planet I’d been spot on earth man made and artificial,” of song for the wild, a lament for its born on, or anything close to it.” he wrote in The End of Nature. “We loss, and a plea for its restoration.” But Eaarth argues forcefully against the have deprived nature of its independ- Kevles also found fault with the core well-intentioned assertions by prom- ence and that is fatal to its meaning.” argument that ecosystems should take inent New York Times columnist Tom At risk of disappearing was a “certain priority over human suffering. “Mc- Friedman, economist Jeffrey Sachs and way of thinking about God — a certain Kibben’s eagerness to preserve the in- others that “smart” growth and sus- language by which to describe the in- human in nature leads him to a pos- tainable development are still possible. describable. We can no longer imagine ition that — perhaps without his real- If major investments in clean energy that we are part of something larger izing it — is inhumane,” Kevles wrote. and societal transformation had been than ourselves — that is what this all In the years following The End of launched decades ago there might be boils down to.” Nature, McKibben kept writing at a pro- the chance of success, wrote McKib- lific pace, the topics crossing the per- ben. But today, he didn’t believe that ociety’s best hope, explained Mc- sonal with the political: 1995’s Hope: the “growth paradigm can rise to the SKibben, was widespread collective Human and Wild advocated on behalf occasion; I think the system has met action that would force world leaders of a new localized politics and eco- its match.” As he argued in Deep Econ- to “stabilize” emissions and climate im- nomics, relating examples from New omy, “our systems and economies have pacts “at some sort of only fairly horrific England, Brazil and India to “imagine a gotten too large,” and “we need to start level,” keeping the “temperature in- future vastly different from the present, building them back down. What we creases at 3 or 4 degrees, not 15 or 30.” one where people consume much less need is a new trajectory, toward the But McKibben cast doubt on techno- and restrain themselves more.” Hun- smaller and more local.” In Eaarth, he logical fixes as a way to get there. He dred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More puts this path in more blunt terms, argued against the views of the econo- Joyful Christmas told of his experience arguing that we “choose instead to try mist Julian Simon, who predicted that leading a campaign among neighbours to manage our descent. That we might human imagination and knowledge and church members to spend less, aim for a relatively graceful decline.” could be relied upon to find solutions but get more out of the holiday, “more On energy, McKibben agreed that to problems like climate change. For music, more companionship, more “the fight to slow carbon emissions McKibben, these views were unrealis- contemplation, more time outdoors, is so desperate that it’s wrong to rule tically utopian and premised on faith: more love.” Other books examined anything out,” but the future’s “more “Believing in something ‘fantastic, im- the question of overpopulation and exciting possibilities lie elsewhere, in

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Meeting power with power: Protestors gather in February 2013 at the National Mall in Washington calling on President Obama to smaller community-scale power sys- Elizabeth Kolbert in the Boston Globe. reject the Keystone XL pipeline. tems.” He advocated starting with ma- Yet the Guardian in January 2008 also Photo: CP Photo jor improvements in energy efficiency, called attention to an “American liberal and then pursuing other options such smugness” about Deep Economy: “At the as requiring every new home to have heart of the book is the silly idea that solar roof tiles and window shutters, we can all…spend six months living scattering windmills across towns and sustainably, off local sources of fruit, relying on local grids supplemented by vegetables, grain and power. The aspir- small-scale power plants. ation isn’t silly, but few live, like him, Upon its release in 2007, many in middle-class comfort in some idyllic reviewers praised the optimistic out- small town in upper .” look and paradigm-shifting aims of Reviewers were generally more Deep Economy. “One of the book’s great critical of Eaarth. “The opening three strengths is that it presses beyond the chapters of the book create an apocalyp- statistics to imagine a different way of tic vision that almost begs the question doing things,” wrote the New Yorker’s why we should bother trying to reduce

POLICY OPTIONS 35 APRIL-MAY 2013 emissions now, and it is only in the final chapter that McKibben offers any glimpses of optimism,” wrote economist Nicholas Stern in the New York Review of Books. Despite the important sense of ur- gency conveyed, Stern found McKibben to be “too pessimistic about the ability of the world to respond. Such pessimism can be self-fulfilling.” Stern also found fault with McKib- ben’s views on economic growth. “For billions of people, economic develop- ment is the only way out of poverty and McKibben will alienate many with his dismissal of the concept of sustain- able growth,” wrote Stern. At issue is McKibben’s adherence to the Limits to Growth thesis, which, according to Stern, underestimates the potential to find substitutes for fossil fuels. “The assumptions that allowed [the authors of Limits to Growth] to claim that growth can, will, and should end are precisely what we must now counter in order to create a low-carbon economy,” wrote Stern. To do so, we need to base our understanding on other growth theories “that show that we can invest in discov- ering and deploying new technologies, that such deployment itself will have strong effects on saving energy, and that technological output and the natural en- vironment are closely bound together.”

n February 2005, as a scholar in Iresidence at , McKibben began meeting informally with students to discuss strategies for ­mobilizing societal action on climate change. Their original plan in 2006 was to lead a march to the Burlington, Vermont, federal building. But after the police informed McKibben that

Knowledge journalists: McKibben is part of a growing class of new public intellectuals who champion specific policy positions and causes. Photo: by Milan Ilnyckyj

36 OPTIONS POLITIQUES AVRIL-MAI 2013 the opponentxxx they were unlikely to be arrested, they was to use Internet-enabled organiz- noted that he respected McKibben’s organized instead a 1,000-person, five- ing strategies to increase the intensity and James Hansen’s choice to protest day hike. of political activity among those al- the pipeline, but “I haven’t joined them Their success prompted them in 2007 ready deeply concerned about climate because — while I would love to see to organize national “Step It Up” days of change. In targeting this segment, Mc- America and the world cut oil appetites action, which they coordinated by way Kibben was appealing directly to the – I see more promising routes to mean- of the Step It Up Web site. The site was base of readers and fans he had built up ingful progress on that front.” Such a similar to MeetUp.com, featuring materi- over the past 20 years. plan, he wrote, would involve President als to help individuals organize actions In August 2011, 350.org and their Obama incorporating the “need for ranging from marches to performance allies mobilized activists to protest in more domestic energy exploration and art to bicycle rallies in their commun- front of the White House, and more development (done responsibly) with ities. The site compiled these events in a than 1,200 participants were arrested. a long-term plan that also stresses con- searchable database by city and state. To They followed in November by turn- servation, efficiency and innovation.” share insight about their new model for ing out an estimated 15,000 activists Along with opposition to the XL organizing, McKibben and his five co-or- who encircled the White House in a pipeline, McKibben in 2012 turned ganizers published in 2007 Fight Global last push to convince President Barack his focus to pressuring universities and Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Obama to reject the pipeline. Later in other institutions to divest their finan- Action in Your Community. February 2012, after Obama had de- cial holdings from fossil fuel compan- Changing personal behaviour will layed the decision until 2013, the Sen- ies, a campaign that draws direct par- not have much of an impact on climate ate took up legislation revisiting the allels to the anti-apartheid movement. change, argued McKibben and his co-au- pipeline. In response, McKibben and In this case again, McKibben used his thors: “The change we need is so sweep- 350.org joined with other environ- influence as a prominent journalist and ing and so rapid that only by mobilizing mental groups to generate more than public intellectual to catalyze a new ourselves through our government will 800,000 messages to senators, an effort movement aimed directly at college stu- we be able to make enough progress in that aided the defeat of the bill. dents, contributing a 6,000-word arti- the time we have left.” Instead, what is On his influentialNew York Times cle to the August 2012 issue of Rolling needed, they contend, is political activ- Dot Earth blog, Andrew Revkin has been Stone magazine that warned of “Global ities that reflect “local affection and local critical of McKibben’s effort, arguing in Warming’s Terrible New Math.” history,” since “a sense of place is invalu- 2011 that the relevance of the Alberta McKibben cited a 2011 analysis by able for effective organizing and for cre- tar sands to climate change is “far less the Carbon Tracker Initiative, which ating a brighter future.” significant than some claim, particular- estimated that the proven oil, gas and Yet in Fight Global Warming Now, ly given the reality that oil consump- coal reserves of fossil fuel companies McKibben and his co-organizers also tion rates are what matters — not the and countries like Kuwait or Saudi Ara- warned that effective action would amount of gigatons of carbon sitting in bia was 2,795 gigatons, or “five times come only through “real-life, on-the- deposits of this sort in the ground.” He as much oil and coal and gas on the ground affairs, with neighbors coming wrote that while the issue is “a potent books as climate scientists think is safe together in the flesh to demand change. symbol and convenient rallying point to burn. We’d have to keep 80 percent We feel strongly that the Internet is for campaigners, it’s a distraction from of those reserves locked away under- best used to get people together face- core issues and opportunities on energy ground to avoid that fate,” warned to-face. Too many organizations have and largely insignificant if your concern McKibben. put a blind faith in the Internet, think- is averting a disruptive buildup of car- “Given this hard math, we need to ing that simply having a basic online bon dioxide in the atmosphere.” view the fossil-fuel industry in a new presence will immediately transform In a 2012 profile of McKibben light,” he argued. “It has become a rogue their group to a cutting-edge miracle in Outside magazine, Revkin said he industry, reckless like no other force on of advocacy and activism.” He argued considered McKibben “an incredible Earth. It is Public Enemy ­Number One that traditional methods of political organizer and motivator, particular- to the survival of our planetary civil- negotiation and compromise pursued ly for young people. But we’ve drawn ization.” Drawing comparisons to the by organizations like the Environment- different conclusions about several anti-apartheid effort, McKibben urged al Defense Fund have failed and are no important aspects of the science and a mass movement pressuring univer- longer capable of achieving the rapid approaches to getting traction on relat- sities, colleges, churches and local societal transformations that are ur- ed energy issues. I prefer 350’s days of ­governments to divest their holdings in gently needed. action to its focus on a number, which fossil fuel companies. The success of Step It Up led to the I think doesn’t have sufficient meaning Building on this attention, in creation in 2008 by McKibben and his unless it’s accompanied by ‘350 when’ November 2012, McKibben and 350. co-organizers of 350.org. The main goal and ‘350 how.’” At his blog, Revkin org launched the “Do the Math” tour,

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­visiting 21 cities to encourage attendees puses across the country had pressured to call on their colleges, churches and their institutions to divest from fossil local governments to divest from fossil fuel industries, with the most intense fuel companies. “During the 1980s, 155 efforts occurring at smaller Northeast- schools came out against the South Afri- ern colleges. Perhaps most notably, the can apartheid, and so we’re modeling a city of Seattle announced that it would lot of what we’re doing now on that,” Ja- divest its $2-billion retirement fund. mie Henn of 350.org told the Guardian in And announced it February 2013. “So, it made perfect sense was setting up a “social choice fund” for us to start with universities, as these separate from its endowment, where institutions have a special responsibility donations to the fund would be in- to make their investments live up to their vested “in one or more external mutual missions. Many have publicly committed funds that take special account of social to sustainability and solving the big issues responsibility considerations.” of the day, yet many are still putting tens Despite the visibility and early of millions of dollars into companies that success of the Do the Math tour, Cary are wreaking havoc on the planet.” Krosinsky, co-founder of the Carbon It is too early to assess the full im- Tracker Initiative, has raised concerns A new sense of urgency: pact of McKibben’s divestment cam- about the campaign’s overall strategy. James Hansen, American climate paign. As of February, 350.org claimed In a 2012 blog post at GreenBiz.com, scientist, proposes that safe levels of carbon dioxide emissions have that students at more than 200 cam- he argued that there were few social- already been crossed. Photo: cp photo

38 OPTIONS POLITIQUES AVRIL-MAI 2013 the opponentxxx ly responsible mutual funds fully di- by McKibben. These authors, and summits, these goals can be pursued vested from fossil fuel companies. thought leaders like Tom Friedman through bilateral negotiations with Similarly, in the Web magazine En- and Jeffrey Sachs, tend to agree that specific countries like Indonesia, sia, veteran business journalist Marc limits to growth should be respect- China, India or Russia. Gunther noted in 2013 that those few ed, but they also assume limits can “If we pursue the route of seeking “deep green” investment funds that be stretched if the right policies are ever larger and grander solutions to were likely to be fossil fuel free offer adopted, enabling environmentally climate change we will continue to lower returns on investments than sustainable development to continue end up frustrated and disillusioned,” traditional investment options. These indefinitely. They advocate increas- warns Hulme in Why We Disagree deep green funds might become more ing the cost of carbon-based energy about Climate Change. “Global deals competitive if governments started to through “pricing mechanisms” like will be stymied, science and econom- take action to regulate emissions from fossil fuel sources, but until then, in- vestors would have to accept greater risks and lower returns. Some of McKibben’s critics see As Krosinsky concluded in weigh- ing investment options, at issue was business leaders as partners in the a “severe systemic problem, one that requires really serious conversations, fight against climate change. scenario analysis and consideration. Let’s stop with the flag-waving and finger-pointing, roll up our sleeves cap-and-trade legislation or a carbon ics will remain battlegrounds for rear- and figure out what we really should tax so that solar, wind and other re- guard actions, global emissions will be doing.” A more significant driver newables become more competitive continue to rise, and vulnerabilities of change, he argued, would be for and industries more energy efficient. to climate risks will remain.” students to advocate for a positive In this, business leaders and industry As alternatives, Hulme points to approach to investing that rewarded are viewed as valuable partners, and the framework put forward by Gwyn clean energy companies: “What if action on climate change defined as Prins of the London School of Eco- universities, as well as teachers and potentially profitable. nomics, Oxford University’s Steve their pensions, combined to invest en To be sure, McKibben and those Rayner and others, who argue that masse in the clean-tech technologies like Thomas Friedman in the green climate change requires a portfolio and infrastructure of tomorrow? This growth tradition share many of the of “clumsy” policy solutions, imple- would be a worthy movement.” same goals, endorsing at times similar mented across levels of government policies. McKibben has joined growth and through the private and nonprof- nlike conventional environ- advocates in urging passage of strong it sectors. Umental threats like smog or acid national climate change legislation In the United States, carbon di- rain, climate change is more accurate- that would set a clear price on carbon, oxide emissions from power plants ly defined as a “wicked problem,” the a step that he argues is necessary to in- dropped in 2011 from the previous product of multiple social, ecological fluence the choices of China, India and year’s level, a decline driven by the and technological systems that are other developing countries. revolution in natural gas drilling, difficult to define, have no clear solu- But critics of McKibben and the which has shifted energy production tion and are seemingly intractable, pricing mechanism approaches to away from coal and toward clean- often plagued by chronic policy fail- climate change point out the need er-burning natural gas. A recent an- ures and intense disagreement. Like to break down the wicked nature of alysis by the Clean Air Task Force poverty or ethnic and religious con- climate change into smaller, inter- argues that Obama can meet his ad- flict, climate change is not something connected problems, making prog- ministration’s goals for reducing US likely to be solved, eliminated or end- ress on these smaller challenges more without ed, but rather a condition that society likely. At the international level, ex- the need for major legislation. These will struggle to do better or worse at amples include reducing especially ­strategies include finalizing Environ- in managing. powerful greenhouse gases like black mental Protection Agency rules on That awareness drives another carbon (or soot) from diesel cars and emissions from new power plants, group of public intellectuals, who dirty stoves, and methane from leaky proposing limits on existing power argue for a course of action on cli- gas pipes. A similar strategy focuses plants and aggressively regulating mate change that differs in funda- on slowing the rate of deforestation. methane leaks and environmental mental ways from that advocated In contrast to endless international risks from natural gas drilling.

POLICY OPTIONS 39 APRIL-MAY 2013 matthew C. nisbet

ursuit of more incremental policy sion of societal change, detailed first in Web site in 2011: “Suggesting that renew- Papproaches can benefit from the The End of Nature and most recently in ables will let us phase rapidly off fossil grassroots pressure generated by 350. Deep Economy and Eaarth. fuels in the United States, China, India, or org. Yet today, McKibben and his allies In this pastoral future free of con- the world as a whole is almost the equiva- appear to have little tolerance for polit- sumerism or material ambition, Amer- lent of believing in the Easter Bunny and ical pragmatism, as they voice extreme icans would rarely travel and experience Tooth Fairy.” dissatisfaction with Obama’s track rec- the world instead via the Internet; grow In this case, it is useful to see the ord on climate policy. McKibben’s work much of their own food; power their contrast between McKibben and en- as an advocate risks distracting from communities through solar and wind; vironmentalists like Stewart Brand and progress on the problem. The contro- and divert their wealth to developing Mark Lynas, who have urged their peers versy over the XL pipeline is a leading countries. McKibben’s romantic vision to adopt a new outlook on technologic- example, as the editors at the respected of a New-England-style utopia seems al innovation. Sharing many of the science journal Nature and others have to have blinded him to alternative ap- same political aims as McKibben over argued. proaches that may be not only more ef- the course of his career, Lynas has de- veloped a very different perspective about technology and humans’ relation McKibben downplays “hard” to nature. In his most recent book, The God Species: How the Planet Can Survive technological approaches like the Age of Humans, Lynas argues that nuclear energy or carbon capture “we cannot afford to foreclose powerful technological options like nuclear, syn- and storage. thetic biology and [genetic engineer- ing] because of Luddite prejudice and Having spent months studying Mc- fective at curbing greenhouse gas emis- ideological inertia.” Kibben’s books, writing and career, I hold sions and providing for the material In a recent essay titled “Wicked a deep admiration for his ability to con- needs of large, diverse populations, but Polarization,” Michael Shellenberger vey the urgency of climate change and also more politically probable. and Ted Nordhaus describe progress on to articulate a better approach to life that McKibben is perhaps at even great- climate change and similarly complex includes more time for family, reflec- er fault for downplaying the need for social problems as obstructed by experts tion and nature. His work as an activist “hard” technological approaches like nu- and public intellectuals who have “come is equally impressive. From his start in clear energy or carbon capture and stor- to frame virtually every national problem 2006, working with a handful of college age, and focusing instead on “soft” tech- as a consequence of the irrationality, ig- students, to his leadership today of 350. nologies like solar, wind and efficiency. norance, and immorality of the political org, McKibben has helped shift the US His favoured technologies are unlikely to Other.” In this light, arguments for action from an al- alter the dynamics of fossil-fuel energy on climate change that evoke idealized most exclusive focus on insider lobbying, use and dependency worldwide. Consid- visions of small-scale, hyperefficient legal strategies and think-tank-style influ- er that globally, an estimated 1,200 coal agrarian communities powered by wind ence to focus greater resources on grass- power plants are scheduled for construc- and solar reflect the priorities and val- roots organizing and mobilization. tion, three-quarters of them in China and ues of like McKibben, Yet as a public intellectual, McKib- India. Compounding the challenge, ac- rather than a pragmatic set of choices de- ben has failed to offer pragmatic and cording to University of Manitoba energy signed to effectively manage the problem achievable policy ideas. Instead, reflect- analyst Vaclav Smil in his 2010 book, and align a diversity of political interests ing his intellectual roots in the deep solar and wind energy sources are unlike- in support of compromise. ecology movement, McKibben’s goal ly to be able to overcome the problems of “The problem is not that we are in a has been to generate a mass conscious- intermittency, storage capacity and cost, post-truth age but rather that we have not ness in support of limiting economic and to be scalable in time to compete learned to adapt to it,” Shellenberger and growth and consumption, with the with coal power worldwide. Nordhaus write. “Perhaps a good place to hope of shifting the United States to- In other words, innovative technolo- begin is by recognizing our own biases, ward localized economies, food systems gies are needed that can not only power perspectives, and agendas and attempt- and “soft” energy sources. I wonder the mega-cities of Asia but also limit emis- ing to hold them more lightly. Bringing how many of the people turning out to sions from the thousands of coal plants an end to our ideological arms race will protest the Keystone XL pipeline, work- already in place and scheduled to be built ultimately require that we force partisans ing on behalf of divestment, or follow- around the world. In advocating for nu- out of their comfort zone by redefining ing along on Twitter and Facebook are clear energy, even McKibben’s long-time those problems in ways to which parti- aware of McKibben’s long standing vi- inspiration Hansen is blunt, saying on his sans do not already know the answers.”

40 OPTIONS POLITIQUES AVRIL-MAI 2013 the opponent

McKibben’s activism is now expanding into a divestment campaign. Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK As a complement to activists like one on the same page. What’s possible McKibben — and to the powerful voice is a world where different stakeholders of his oil patch opponents — we urgently ‘get’ that the world looks different to need to bridge these polarized narratives people who hold different stakes.” The around climate change. In our digital, question that the Bill McKibbens pose algorithmic media culture we must find to us, then, is not whether our fate lies ways to hear each other, to listen as well in a choice between a mythologized pas- as test our assumptions. And that be- toral past and apocalyptic visions of the gins by accepting that total victory for future. It is whether our new media cul- a single point of view is unachievable. ture can be a path to the understanding “There is no kumbaya moment,” argued of others, or force us even deeper into New York University’s Jay Rosen in a our ideological bunkers. n 2012 speech outlining ways to improve media coverage of wicked problems like climate change. “You never get every-

POLICY OPTIONS 41 APRIL-MAY 2013