This morning I read a profile on Bill McKibben, a climate change activist who was arrested this year for protesting the Keystone Oil pipeline. McKibben is the mind behind 350.org, a website calling people to do something about the growing carbon problem in the atmosphere.
I've heard much of what was said in the article before, here are some of the often repeated facts about the global warming debate:
- The global climate has warmed by one degree Celsius (44).
- Poor countries (such as Bangladesh) suffer more from climate change than the rich countries (45).
- The atmosphere is in a dangerous state of change after it passed 350 carbon parts per million (ppm) (47).
- If the United States rejects Canadian oil sands pipelines, the oil will just travel to China (47).
What really strikes me in this article is the clearly divided tone. The last image shows McKibben leading a group of protesters with a sign that says "Big Oil Bought Congress." His hand is up in the air and it looks like he's yelling. In the article, the government and oil companies are clearly ignoring the factual claims of the scientists. McKibben, in the first quote, states "While the scientists were talking patiently into our leaders' ear, the fossil fuel industry has been screaming into the other" (46). The rest of the article circles Obama's political decisions to reject the Keystone pipeline—which happened after McKibben lead protests against it.
McKibben's last quote continues the us-them theme, saying "the only way to win is to spend our bodies on this, and we'll do that" making him the environmental martyr (47). At the end, I recognize the significance of such a large political vote against a jobs-creating opportunity. It seems that Obama is not willing to risk the environmental toll taken that the oil sand industry. But the article divides the sides too clearly and ignores the millions of Americans who still only here McKibben's yelling as another wacko who things the apocalypse will begin in our backyard tomorrow.
