The mainstream environmental movement is unintentionally re-creating Dr. Strangelove, a cautionary tale about the perils of unexamined beliefs and one of the greatest films in cinematic history
Thank you for this important and well-argued critique of McKibben and his ilk.
Is the "Carbon Tunnel Vision" graphic yours? It's very good at illustrating the myopia of mainstream environmental narratives. All environmentalism has been reduced to climate issues and climate issues have been reduced to carbon. The other contributor to climate change is land use, but that gets left out because it can't be monetized, and addressing it would mean addressing industrial civilization. It's a big scam for sure.
Fantastic. Love the cover photo. The one thing McKibben and the others will never admit to, is that CO2 isn't the only cause of climate change, so is land destruction. That's right, destroying habitat also destroys climate, because climate is a creation of the living Earth, not some physical accident. Great work.
Thanks for the article! McKibben's "But we’re at a hinge moment now..." is a classic case of an individual claiming some god-like right to speak for the "we" yet not defining that "we", and typically that's a privileged "we" that excludes so-called minorities and Indigenous/Original Peoples who are most prominent in the "21 examples" list. And the eugenicist hubris is shown with the quote, “master plan outlining what is good for other people”.
Excellent article, as always. I was hoping you might have spent a little more time mentioning one other thesis that McKibben tossed into his article. That we need the same amount of energy as we are currently using. It is so important for those of us in the rich part of the rich world to accept that we will have to consume much less. We will either have degrowth soft landing or a hard landing.
I'm a Native Burlington Vermonter, and I've heard Bill McKibben speak here in my current town at NRG Systems in Hinesburg (my ex-husband worked there). My daughter did field research at the Texas wind farms to determine bat deaths (and birds). Let's just say, the corpses were indeed there!!!! As far as McKibben? Check out the film, "Planet Of The Humans" (free on YouTube) and note his profiting. Please check out, https://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/2010/wind-turbine-syndrome-pierpont/?var=wts and Esther Wrightman's fight against Nextera Energy in Canada and her videos of this "green" company ripping down, destroying endangered Bald Eagle nests with babies in them!!! And the endangered whales washing up dead on my northeastern shores due to seabed "exploration'' for massive offshore wind farms! Please watch this: https://rumble.com/v28ctko-web.html - I know about this; I did video-documenting for Sea Shepherd in 2017 in Taiji, Japan.
It takes epic arrogance and hubris to believe in and promote 'green energy' because you have to completely or more commonly silence the non-human and indigenous people who actually live there and who have managed to do just fine without all the 'magnificent bribes' that modern world seems to feel entitled to. This will not end well for anyone.
Thank you. I have much respect for this essay, and the sound critique. I appreciate your voice, and work. I assume this means you wish to avoid hypocrisy so offer “no master plan”, yet beyond NOPE, what do you propose — every homestead find their own way as we transition? Surely a few principles apply without needing to be a limiting, imposed “plan.” IE: If we’re accepting of the coming collapse (environmental, of course intertwined with “modern 1st world lifestyle) can you offer your thoughts on the key aspects of the transitions that will cause the least near future (and long term) suffering?
As one of the arrest participants with McKibben in the 2011 Tar Sands Action, it's beyond challenging to me to see his allegiance continuing to be with civilization instead of the wild world. His refusal to accept the reality of our global predicament is utterly confusing, as he definitely has to know the bright green lies he is pushing are only making everything worse. And, he has participated in causing deep division in the environmental movement, perhaps the worst crime of all. I really can't imagine the work he has to do each day to look at himself in the mirror.
Max! So good. I appreciate this piece for helping me clarify my thinking on some things.
I am one of those people who mostly read (often old) books, and I'm frequently behind the curve on public figures' latest pronouncements and thinking in their fields. My exposure to McKibben has been almost entirely through his books, which I've been reading for a long time, decades maybe. I've always liked the thought processes he shared there. Granted, I haven't read him in a few years, and I never pay attention to the "big green" orgs like 350, so I was kind of off in fantasy land regarding where he's gotten to, I guess. Anyway, I had no idea he'd swung so far in the direction of being an industrial energy booster. Ugh. That's a bummer.
When I ran the Pacific Wolf Coalition several years back, I remember complaining that all our grant funders suddenly started wanting to hear how our work benefitted the climate crisis in some way, as funding portfolios were moving away from pure wildlife work and toward climate work. If your program couldn't fit into the "climate adaptation" box, your funder would drop it. Now, most of the enviro funders are requiring nonprofits to also show how our work is benefitting human communities in some way. Human supremacy always finds a way in. So, we dodge and weave, and look for new ways to work on behalf of nature. Capitalism always finds a way in, too. If capitalism and human supremacy are not completely the same thing, then they are at least mostly overlapping, I suppose.
Long comment, sorry. Final thought: I'm noticing a trend of adults giving up their smartphones and going as low-tech as you can and still be reached by your loved ones (in the absence of functioning landlines). Lots of pieces being written about that lately. And of course the rising awareness of how harmful smartphone culture is to young people. I think/hope these may be the harbinger of some sort of voluntary simplifying away from all the energy-intensive and extractive devices and networks we thought we "needed" for life in the modern world. I for one am happier reading paper books after a walk to my local coffee shop, than I ever was scrolling a smartphone in line at Starbucks. And I am seeing that more and more in others around me. It's small yet, but I do think there are a growing number of people who don't want our bloated electro-civilization to continue as it's trending. It enshittifies our lives, and people are starting to get it. Whether that shift toward way less energy use will be voluntary in the long-term or not is debatable, but it's coming regardless. I just hope we have some functioning ecosystems left when it does.
Thanks again for sharing your thinking in this piece.
I remember a good friend of mine reading from McKibben's book, "The End of Nature," on the radio back in the late 1980s, and there were passages in that book so beautiful and full of love for the natural world that it sometimes brought tears to my eyes as I listened. Now, when I hear what has become of him, I cry different kinds of tears. I wonder how much money it took to buy him.
Thanks for another great and provocative piece of writing, Max. At some point in the near future we will need to talk seriously about the pros and cons of continuing to use electricity. It just seems that there is no safe way to continue with it. The more that I investigate the science and think about what ALL of the energy sources that humans use are doing to our only planet, the more I think that the whole modern industrial way of life needs to be abandoned. Humanity needs to become "unplugged." Many people will likely say to that, "Don't throw out the baby with the bath water!", or, "We can just greatly reduce our consumption and live this way in moderation." Well, just considering the cultural conditioning of most humans, due to capitalism, advertising and the growth imperative, I don't see that happening. I think that the only thing that could stop the blazing momentum of Homo colossus is to hit the brick wall of scarcity, collapse, and an utter impossibility of living this way anymore.
Thanks, Max, for talking truth to "alternative" power.
Here is renowned climate scientist/educator Paul Beckwith a couple of days ago pushing "renewables" in the belief that a transition to them is not only possible but necessary, not at all questioning International Energy Agency assertions made in its annual report. VERY dismaying.
"This would entail a gargantuan expansion in solar and wind energy production (and electrical transmission lines to carry this energy), a wholesale shift from gas and diesel vehicles to electric cars, and the electrification of everything from steel and concrete production — both very dependant on fossil fuels and highly polluting — to the heating of homes and office buildings."
Wishful thinking anyway, trucks, construction vehicles and ships cannot be powered by electricity.
Max, do you mean communities saying "no" to green/renewables?
& "throw money at them" is one of biggest epidemics; but ya know, money doesn't grow on trees rather trees are chopped down to make paper money; further enviro irony or what?
The truth about green growth and the ideal of ecomodernism that lays behind is even darker and more cynical than you think. How for example Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhus, supported by billionaire money, use the green growth narrative to downplay the climate crisis.
The green growth narrative is now living its own life at universities, companies and even at municipal/state level. Even here in Norway it stands strong sadly. But it is interesting to see how ecomodernism started from a place of downplaying the climate and ecological crisis.
“They tell a tempting story: by swapping out the energy sources powering society, we can solve global warming while simultaneously boosting business, creating jobs, and achieving prosperity.”
Patently incorrect.
There are two prerequisites for the odds of complex
life to remain.
1 STOP extracting fossil fuels
2 Carbon sequestration from the atmosphere
There are at least 12 groups doing that now for between 600 and $1200 per ton. Quality carbon fiber retails at $32,000 per ton.
Quality steel is currently around $700 per time for the possibilities are endless.
Thank you for this important and well-argued critique of McKibben and his ilk.
Is the "Carbon Tunnel Vision" graphic yours? It's very good at illustrating the myopia of mainstream environmental narratives. All environmentalism has been reduced to climate issues and climate issues have been reduced to carbon. The other contributor to climate change is land use, but that gets left out because it can't be monetized, and addressing it would mean addressing industrial civilization. It's a big scam for sure.
Fantastic. Love the cover photo. The one thing McKibben and the others will never admit to, is that CO2 isn't the only cause of climate change, so is land destruction. That's right, destroying habitat also destroys climate, because climate is a creation of the living Earth, not some physical accident. Great work.
Thanks for the article! McKibben's "But we’re at a hinge moment now..." is a classic case of an individual claiming some god-like right to speak for the "we" yet not defining that "we", and typically that's a privileged "we" that excludes so-called minorities and Indigenous/Original Peoples who are most prominent in the "21 examples" list. And the eugenicist hubris is shown with the quote, “master plan outlining what is good for other people”.
Excellent article, as always. I was hoping you might have spent a little more time mentioning one other thesis that McKibben tossed into his article. That we need the same amount of energy as we are currently using. It is so important for those of us in the rich part of the rich world to accept that we will have to consume much less. We will either have degrowth soft landing or a hard landing.
I'm a Native Burlington Vermonter, and I've heard Bill McKibben speak here in my current town at NRG Systems in Hinesburg (my ex-husband worked there). My daughter did field research at the Texas wind farms to determine bat deaths (and birds). Let's just say, the corpses were indeed there!!!! As far as McKibben? Check out the film, "Planet Of The Humans" (free on YouTube) and note his profiting. Please check out, https://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/2010/wind-turbine-syndrome-pierpont/?var=wts and Esther Wrightman's fight against Nextera Energy in Canada and her videos of this "green" company ripping down, destroying endangered Bald Eagle nests with babies in them!!! And the endangered whales washing up dead on my northeastern shores due to seabed "exploration'' for massive offshore wind farms! Please watch this: https://rumble.com/v28ctko-web.html - I know about this; I did video-documenting for Sea Shepherd in 2017 in Taiji, Japan.
It takes epic arrogance and hubris to believe in and promote 'green energy' because you have to completely or more commonly silence the non-human and indigenous people who actually live there and who have managed to do just fine without all the 'magnificent bribes' that modern world seems to feel entitled to. This will not end well for anyone.
Thank you. I have much respect for this essay, and the sound critique. I appreciate your voice, and work. I assume this means you wish to avoid hypocrisy so offer “no master plan”, yet beyond NOPE, what do you propose — every homestead find their own way as we transition? Surely a few principles apply without needing to be a limiting, imposed “plan.” IE: If we’re accepting of the coming collapse (environmental, of course intertwined with “modern 1st world lifestyle) can you offer your thoughts on the key aspects of the transitions that will cause the least near future (and long term) suffering?
As one of the arrest participants with McKibben in the 2011 Tar Sands Action, it's beyond challenging to me to see his allegiance continuing to be with civilization instead of the wild world. His refusal to accept the reality of our global predicament is utterly confusing, as he definitely has to know the bright green lies he is pushing are only making everything worse. And, he has participated in causing deep division in the environmental movement, perhaps the worst crime of all. I really can't imagine the work he has to do each day to look at himself in the mirror.
Max! So good. I appreciate this piece for helping me clarify my thinking on some things.
I am one of those people who mostly read (often old) books, and I'm frequently behind the curve on public figures' latest pronouncements and thinking in their fields. My exposure to McKibben has been almost entirely through his books, which I've been reading for a long time, decades maybe. I've always liked the thought processes he shared there. Granted, I haven't read him in a few years, and I never pay attention to the "big green" orgs like 350, so I was kind of off in fantasy land regarding where he's gotten to, I guess. Anyway, I had no idea he'd swung so far in the direction of being an industrial energy booster. Ugh. That's a bummer.
When I ran the Pacific Wolf Coalition several years back, I remember complaining that all our grant funders suddenly started wanting to hear how our work benefitted the climate crisis in some way, as funding portfolios were moving away from pure wildlife work and toward climate work. If your program couldn't fit into the "climate adaptation" box, your funder would drop it. Now, most of the enviro funders are requiring nonprofits to also show how our work is benefitting human communities in some way. Human supremacy always finds a way in. So, we dodge and weave, and look for new ways to work on behalf of nature. Capitalism always finds a way in, too. If capitalism and human supremacy are not completely the same thing, then they are at least mostly overlapping, I suppose.
Long comment, sorry. Final thought: I'm noticing a trend of adults giving up their smartphones and going as low-tech as you can and still be reached by your loved ones (in the absence of functioning landlines). Lots of pieces being written about that lately. And of course the rising awareness of how harmful smartphone culture is to young people. I think/hope these may be the harbinger of some sort of voluntary simplifying away from all the energy-intensive and extractive devices and networks we thought we "needed" for life in the modern world. I for one am happier reading paper books after a walk to my local coffee shop, than I ever was scrolling a smartphone in line at Starbucks. And I am seeing that more and more in others around me. It's small yet, but I do think there are a growing number of people who don't want our bloated electro-civilization to continue as it's trending. It enshittifies our lives, and people are starting to get it. Whether that shift toward way less energy use will be voluntary in the long-term or not is debatable, but it's coming regardless. I just hope we have some functioning ecosystems left when it does.
Thanks again for sharing your thinking in this piece.
Stewart Brand, co-founder of the "Whole Earth Catalog", is another who would make a deal with the devil to get out of our self-caused climate demise.
Brand advocates nuclear power, in effect leaping from the oily frying pan into the nuclear fire.
But Walt Kelly, in his "Pogo" cartoon for the first Earth Day in 1970, identified the problem: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
Unfettered rampant capitalism has caused the climate crisis (among others).
Capitalism will not save us.
We need to evolve a new socially responsible and ecologically accountable system.
I remember a good friend of mine reading from McKibben's book, "The End of Nature," on the radio back in the late 1980s, and there were passages in that book so beautiful and full of love for the natural world that it sometimes brought tears to my eyes as I listened. Now, when I hear what has become of him, I cry different kinds of tears. I wonder how much money it took to buy him.
Thanks for another great and provocative piece of writing, Max. At some point in the near future we will need to talk seriously about the pros and cons of continuing to use electricity. It just seems that there is no safe way to continue with it. The more that I investigate the science and think about what ALL of the energy sources that humans use are doing to our only planet, the more I think that the whole modern industrial way of life needs to be abandoned. Humanity needs to become "unplugged." Many people will likely say to that, "Don't throw out the baby with the bath water!", or, "We can just greatly reduce our consumption and live this way in moderation." Well, just considering the cultural conditioning of most humans, due to capitalism, advertising and the growth imperative, I don't see that happening. I think that the only thing that could stop the blazing momentum of Homo colossus is to hit the brick wall of scarcity, collapse, and an utter impossibility of living this way anymore.
Thanks, Max, for talking truth to "alternative" power.
Here is renowned climate scientist/educator Paul Beckwith a couple of days ago pushing "renewables" in the belief that a transition to them is not only possible but necessary, not at all questioning International Energy Agency assertions made in its annual report. VERY dismaying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO2CvWSxktg
"This would entail a gargantuan expansion in solar and wind energy production (and electrical transmission lines to carry this energy), a wholesale shift from gas and diesel vehicles to electric cars, and the electrification of everything from steel and concrete production — both very dependant on fossil fuels and highly polluting — to the heating of homes and office buildings."
Wishful thinking anyway, trucks, construction vehicles and ships cannot be powered by electricity.
https://energyskeptic.com/2021/diesel-finite-where-are-electric-trucks/
and
https://energyskeptic.com/2024/off-road-vehicles-and-equipment-need-diesel-fueled-engines-for-power-mobility-and-efficiency/
and
https://energyskeptic.com/2024/prime-movers-of-civilization-diesel-engines-and-gas-turbines/
Max, do you mean communities saying "no" to green/renewables?
& "throw money at them" is one of biggest epidemics; but ya know, money doesn't grow on trees rather trees are chopped down to make paper money; further enviro irony or what?
I can recommend reading this article from Paul D. Thacker:
https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/the-new-denial-is-delay-at-the-breakthrough
The truth about green growth and the ideal of ecomodernism that lays behind is even darker and more cynical than you think. How for example Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhus, supported by billionaire money, use the green growth narrative to downplay the climate crisis.
The green growth narrative is now living its own life at universities, companies and even at municipal/state level. Even here in Norway it stands strong sadly. But it is interesting to see how ecomodernism started from a place of downplaying the climate and ecological crisis.
“They tell a tempting story: by swapping out the energy sources powering society, we can solve global warming while simultaneously boosting business, creating jobs, and achieving prosperity.”
Patently incorrect.
There are two prerequisites for the odds of complex
life to remain.
1 STOP extracting fossil fuels
2 Carbon sequestration from the atmosphere
There are at least 12 groups doing that now for between 600 and $1200 per ton. Quality carbon fiber retails at $32,000 per ton.
Quality steel is currently around $700 per time for the possibilities are endless.