What is climate change? How is it affect our planet? What consequences does it have on our lives? And must we – and can we – do soften them? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Bill McKibben in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.

An expert on climate change, Bill McKibben is a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He’s gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers. McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.

In this episode, McKibben discusses the current condition of our planet. He also considers the role of governments and private companies in fighting climate change and its consequences, and looks at what powers like China and the United States are doing – and not doing – to address these issues. He also examines how the lobbying power of the fossil fuel industry interest groups have made the climate crisis worse. Finally, he discusses how the falling prices if renewable sources of energy give us some cause for optimism, in a conversation well worth listening to. 

More on this topic

• The End of Nature, Bill McKibben, 1989

• Fight Global Warming Now, Bill McKibben, 2007

• Eaarth, Bill McKibben, 2011

• The Global Warming Reader, Bill McKibben, 2011

• Bill McKibben on how climate change is “the greatest challenge humans have ever faced”

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/16/713829853/climate-change-is-greatest-challenge-humans-have-ever-faced-author-says?t=1660062740657

• Bill McKibben on “What We've Learned About Climate Change in the Last 30 Years”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfm6mfU5uko

• Bill McKibben on “Fossil Fuel Divestment”

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/bill-mckibben-discusses-fossil-fuel-divestment/

Other references in Portuguese

• Essay of the Foundation “Alterações Climáticas” by Filipe Duarte Santos

https://www.ffms.pt/publicacoes/detalhe/5409/alteracoes-climaticas

• Essay of the Foundation “Riscos Globais e Biodiversidade” by Maria Amélia Martins-Loução

https://www.ffms.pt/publicacoes/detalhe/5682/riscos-globais-e-biodiversidade

• Essay of the Foundation “Os Incêndios Florestais em Portugal” by António Bento-Gonçalves

https://www.ffms.pt/publicacoes/detalhe/5205/os-incendios-florestais-em-portugal

• Podcast [IN] Pertinente “Alterações Climáticas: Ainda vamos a tempo?” with Johan Rockström

https://www.ffms.pt/conferencias/detalhe/5799/alteracoes-climaticas-ainda-vamos-a-tempo-uma-entrevista-a-johan-rockstrom

• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa “Como responder aos desafios das alterações climáticas?” with  Filipe Duarte Santos e António Costa Silva

https://www.ffms.pt/podcasts/da-capa-a-contracap