The most dangerous cliff we are facing is not a financial one but rather the climate one. The warming of the Earth’s temperature and what it portends is not just for penguins and polar bears but will have serious consequences for everyone. A new report commissioned by the World Bank says failure to respond aggressively to climate change will put “unprecedented stresses on human systems” and “will render parts of the Earth uninhabitable.” If steps are not taken now, the planet’s temperature will rise by 4 degrees Celsius, that’s more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit, by the end of the century. Both the scale and the pace of the peril have increased substantially. Yet, fossil fuel corporations continue to place profits before human life and the eco system. We now seem to be nearing tipping points past which cataclysmic damage would be inevitable.
Speaker(s):
Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben was one of the first to sound the alarm on climate change with his bestselling book “The End of Nature.” A scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College, he is a leading activist, journalist and author on the environment. His other books include “The Age of Missing Information” and “Hope, Human and Wild,” “Deep Economy,” and “Eaarth.” He is co-founder of 350.org.
Program #MCKB006. Recorded in Boulder, CO on December 02, 2012.