Bill McKibben Wows Exeter During Two-Day Visit

February 7, 2012

Journalist and environmental activist Bill McKibben came to Exeter in late January with this message: Global warming is "the great challenge of our time," one he compared to the Civil Rights Movement for an earlier generation. He added, "It's a challenge we are currently losing and losing pretty badly."

"The stakes for you are very, very high," McKibben told assembly, as he encouraged Exonians to get involved. It's time for action, and the current high school generation is looking at "a long 70 years," he added, if the world doesn't start taking effective steps. Exonians gave him a heartfelt standing ovation at assembly.

During his visit, he met with 3 classes - Macroeconomic Issues in the United States, Human Populations and Resource Consumption: Implications for Sustainability, and The Ethics of the Marketplace - and lunched with the student-run Environmental Action Committee. Conversation moved across the spectrum from actuarial tables ("one of the most important inventions in the world," said McKibben), jobs creation ("fossil fuel is a remarkably poor jobs environment"), and economic costs ("the oil and coal industries are the only guys who get to put their waste into the atmosphere for free") to feeding populations as the climate warms ("try to imagine planet Earth with 25-30% fewer calories") and the basic question of happiness ("for a very long time, economists took utility as a proxy for happy").

McKibben's ability to tie together many diverse topics kept class discussions lively. "The number of Americans happy with their lives peaked in 1956," he announced to the economics class, referencing annual polls. He then challenged the students to figure out why. What has been the major expenditure change since 1956? "War," answered 1 student. "We've poured money into suburban sprawl," answered McKibben, with people living more isolated lives than previously. He cited a current study showing that "the average American has half as many close friends today as half a century ago. . . . It's beginning to look like there aren't enough iPods on the planet to make up for this loss," McKibben said. And the class went on to discuss whether economic growth is the "proper goal" going forward. 

Throughout the visit, McKibben - widely acknowledged as the author of the 1st general audience book on climate change, The End of Nature, published in 1989 – gave a constant drumbeat: "We knew 23 years ago most of what we need to know. What we didn't know was how fast and how hard global warming was going to pinch."

McKibben's assembly focused largely on the work of 350.org, an organization he founded with 7 Middlebury College students in 2008. 350.org's 1st major initiative was the 2009 International Day of Climate Action, in which Exeter participated. 350.org's name is based on the number that leading scientists identify as the safe human limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – 350 parts per million.

"I cannot guarantee to you that it's a test we can win," McKibben told the students. "I do want to tell you there is, around the country and the world, effective opposition rising." He concluded, "I hope you will join us in this work."

As students left Assembly Hall, many commented on McKibben's impact. "He's awesome," said 1 upper.

Assembly was followed by an impromptu Q-and-A session with students, faculty and staff. Students asked many questions, including:

"Can you compare the effectiveness of personal change vs. working for political change?"

"What about nuclear energy as a solution?"

"What is the responsibility of the scientific community?"

"Are there foreseeable negative impacts of reducing fossil fuel use?"

As a direct result of the excitement engendered by McKibben's visit, Exeter is planning to start a 350.org chapter on campus, to include students, faculty and staff.

During his visit to Exeter, McKibben also met with a PEA faculty book group to discuss Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, his most recently published book, and he spoke at a local church. More than 450 people attended McKibben's talk at the Congregational Church, including many students, faculty and staff.

"McKibben was fabulous," says Betsy Stevens, Exeter's sustainability education coordinator, who attended McKibben's presentation at the Congregational Church. "He gave a brilliant talk that progressed from funny to serious to inspirational. By the end, I felt that he had the crowd ready to go out and make change. He called it a moral responsibility for us all."

MicKibben's visit was sponsored by the O'Boyle Sustainability Lecture Series.

Interested in learning more?

Read about Exeter's involvement in the 2009 International Day of Climate Action, organized by 350.org...

Learn about Exeter's Step It Up 2007 rally, a nationwide movement to urge Congress to pass progressive climate change legislation, started by McKibben... 

Read about the September 2010 trip to Maine that allowed Exonians to meet McKibben at the start of his "Put Solar On It" road trip to Washington, D.C., whose goal was to convince President Obama to install solar panels on the White House...

Find out more about Exeter's Sustainability program...

Watch McKibben discussing the impact of "relentless economic expansion" on climate change and human happiness:

— Nicole Pellaton