Bill McKibben and Moving Planet

Written by Bright Sky

Tuesday, August 9th 2011

Moving Planet

For the SHIRE's summer season, I've taken the opportunity to escape Texas' heat and migrate North to explore New York's six million acre Adirondack Park.

Last week, I attended a lecture in the Adirondack Museum by author and activist Bill McKibben. I was interested to hear more about his organization 350.org, and their next global day of action called Moving Planet.

I was seeking clarification to a question I had posed myself: is it better to demand, protest, and otherwise seek to control the actions of other groups, companies, and countries, or is my energy better spent engaging in local-scale conversion to resilient communities?

Bill McKibben

Mr. McKibben at first seemed to be solidly in the first camp. Most of his efforts are spent directed at government policy both at home and abroad. And for good reason; climate news of the past 18 months is worrying: 2010 was the hottest year on record, record precipitation, floods, and droughts. Pakistan broke the Asian continent heat record this summer at 139 degrees. At this point the planet has only warmed one degree. Carbon has a 40 year turn-around, so we've got another degree already in the pipeline.

We can avoid the catastrophe of a 4 - 5 degree increase, he says, but that window is closing fast. His proposal is a price on carbon. Hence, the lobbying effort. Certainly we can't hope to combat this catastrophic future by planting tomatoes in our backyards.

Or can we? 350's first big event was simple: folks around the world showing their support for this scientific data through a stream of photos and collaborative demonstrations.

It was then I realized that 350 is more than a lobbying effort - it is a creative synthesis between those two separate intentions I first proposed. People across the globe found support and organization in their own communities and used that momentum to send a strong message to policymakers.

Their next event in 2010 was a Global Work Party. Communities again gathered but instead of showing simple solidarity, they demonstrated the amazing power of human energy and collaboration. They got to work planting gardens, building bike paths, or, in the SHIRE's case, working on cob insulation.

This year's theme day, to take place on September 24th, is called Moving Planet, and it is a celebration of mobility.

This evolution of action seems to be our best hope for adapting to life on this new planet, "Eaarth." We will find our salvation in the simple and strong connections of our neighborhoods, our cities, and our families. These synchronized global gatherings are exercises in awareness of our own indeterminate power. We are moving from the mind-set of survival of the fittest to flourishment of the most collaborative.

A garden might not stop the billowing coal plants, but it might ensure a source of food for the future. A bike ride won't make our cars more efficient, but it makes a person more efficient and healthy. A photograph won't change our laws that protect polluters, but it might change the heart of a million (or billion) people who see it and feel the same. That is a strategy for any weather.

Last update: August 10, 2011
07:19 pm

Published in : Articles, Sustainable Philosophy