Randolph
“We are in trouble as never before, and we’d better rise to the occasion,” environmentalist and author Bill McKibben told a rapt audience of almost 500.
His warning came toward the end of a 90-minute exchange on stage with Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, the global news program based in New York.
McKibben, who teaches at Middlebury College and lives in Ripton, Vt. (population 588) has gained international recognition for his work over almost 30 years on the consequences of global warming. Goodman, recipient of many awards, has co-authored six New York Times bestsellers, the latest of which, Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America, was on display in the Chandler lobby.
The conversation focused mainly on Goodman and McKibben’s recent environmental reporting or advocacy — her coverage of the police crackdown on Native Americans protesting the proposed Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation and his efforts in helping establish 350.org, an anti-carbon campaign group now active globally. The number 350 was formulated by climate scientist Jim Hansen as the target for reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from current levels of about 400 parts per million to less than 350 ppm, according to McKibben.
The speakers also expressed deep concern about key cabinet nominees by President-elect Donald Trump who have denied or seriously questioned the science behind accelerated climate change.
McKibben pointed to statements last week before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee by former ExxonMobil Chairman Rex Tillerson, nominated for U.S. secretary of state. Tillerson said he did not view climate change as an imminent national security threat as some specialists do and added that much of the literature on the issue remains “inconclusive,” despite the consensus of the scientific community about the impact of humanity activity.
“He also said he didn’t recall lobbying (by Exxon of Congress) against sanctions on Russia,” McKibben said. “But the committee chairman (Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.) reminded him ‘Rex, you called me about that.’ ”
Goodman — whom a North Dakota prosecutor sought to charge with inciting a riot for her coverage of the police crackdown before a judge threw out the charge — noted that Trump nominee for secretary of energy, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, once vowed during his own presidential campaign to eliminate the Energy Department entirely.
Both speakers complained about what they termed the failure of major television outlets and newspapers to cover major environmental protest events.
“Major media ignored the pipeline protests until we produced images showing security guards using pepper spray and unleashing dogs to bite people,” Goodman said. “Those images got 14 million hits on Facebook and then it became a big story … ‘trickle up journalism’ I call it.”
McKibben admitted to being “a little bewildered … the country has turned in such an unbelievable direction. We used to assume that if we could bring attention to basic facts of a problem, we could mobilize effective action. But facts don’t seem to matter anymore.”
He said 2016 was “a rotten year for me personally,” explaining that he was a target of a Republican opposition research group America Rising with a “campaign normally reserved for presidential candidates.” He said the group hired cameramen to videotape his every move.
“In one series, they shot me in my local store packing groceries into plastic bags. … I didn’t bring my cloth ones. And you can’t do that in Vermont,” he said.
Asked by Goodman to conjecture about the future of the environment and the climate change movement in a Trump administration, McKibben said that “progress is going to be slim.” He said there is hope for constructive change at the state and local levels “and even the corporate level … pressure on banks and others to divest from investments that harm the planet.”
He said he was inspired by the successful protest efforts of Native Americans at Standing Rock.
“To see young people riding bareback … campfires across a beautiful landscape … a scene from the 1840s,” he said. “Day after day entire communities stood up with discipline, non-violent unity. That is the lesson, the model for the future.”
Tom Blinkhorn can be reached at tblinkhorn@gmail.com.