WEBVTT

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(PULSING ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

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- Remember this moment.

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This is when we got serious.

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- Joining me now is Bill
McKibben, author of "Earth:

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Making a Life on a Tough New
Planet" and founder of 350.org,

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which has launched a Do the Math Tour,
focusing on the hard numbers behind climate

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change and advocates a new strategy to
create political leverage for a solution.

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Well Bill McKibben, I slightly
facetiously greeted you as a rock star,

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because you're selling out these
big venues across the country.

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I've been seeing people tweeting about it.

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People watching right now that
are not familiar with "the math"

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that you are talking
about, what is the math?

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What are you trying to
communicate on this tour?

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- This came out of this piece
I wrote for Rolling Stone

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this summer that went strangely viral,
became one of their most shared pieces.

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And it's because it laid out,
finally, the rock and the hard place.

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If we're going to keep the temperature
from going up past two degrees --

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which is what everybody in the
world, including the US government,

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has said is too high, that's the red
line -- if we're going to do that,

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the scientists tell us we can burn
about 550 gigatons more carbon.

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Which sounds like a hell of a lot.

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But we get about 15 years of current
rates before we shoot past that threshold.

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And that's the good news.

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The bad news -- the third number, the
really scary one -- is that last year,

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a group of financial analysts added up how
much carbon the fossil fuel industry had

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in its reserves.

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That number is about 2,800
gigatons, or five times as much.

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And they're going to burn it.

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I mean, unless we figure
out how to stop them,

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there's no longer any room for
doubt about where this story goes.

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We're on horribly firm ground.

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I wish we weren't.

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I wish that there was something
shaky about any of this stuff.

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The thing that's so...

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- I don't question the numbers.

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I just mean that one of the challenges
historically with motivating or organizing

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people around this problem has been
that it's all sort of "more is worse",

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but identifying red lines is...

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- Yeah, well, there's some of that.

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But 350.org sort of staked
its claim from the beginning

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on difficult, wonky numerical analysis.

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And for some reason, it
hasn't slowed us down at all.

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I mean, we organize
effectively in 191 countries.

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You don't have to know
everything about climate science

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to know that if scientists have
said 350 is how much we should have

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and right now we're at 395, that's too much.

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It's the opposite of fear-mongering
or scare-mongering or alarmism.

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It's just absolutely pure reality.

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I mean, we'll have a few thousand
people out there tonight for something

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that's been billed as "Do the Math."

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It's just like...

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we couldn't be working harder to
make it more just kind of real.

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- This came out of a
conversation that Bill and I had.

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We had both seen this
research coming out of England

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about what they were calling the
carbon bubble, this kind of think-tank

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called Carbon Tracker Initiative.

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And they had crunched all these
numbers and found that the fossil fuel

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companies had five times more
carbon already in reserve

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than is compatible with life on Earth.

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Their whole report was a
warning to regulators in the UK

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that there was a bubble in the market.

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Governments had agreed to keep
temperatures below two degrees,

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but these companies had
gone ahead and purchased

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all of this carbon that would take
us to like six or eight degrees.

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So obviously that can't be
burned, so this is a bubble --

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much like the housing bubble
or the dot com bubble.

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In other words, these are
worthless assets, right?

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Now, I read this going, excuse
me, you guys have it wrong.

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What's actually happening is
that the fossil fuel companies

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have looked at what governments are pledging
to do and decided that it's bullshit,

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and that they're not going to do it.

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And that, in fact, they are free
to go ahead and cook the planet.

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What we realized is that this isn't
a bubble unless we make it a bubble.

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(INSTRUMENTAL HIP HOP MUSIC)

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- These are really important times to
think about reframing the whole situation.

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And music and art and literature
and all these things, these guys

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are just an incredible force of nature.

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(INSTRUMENTAL HIP HOP MUSIC)

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(APPLAUSE)

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- Hello, y'all!

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Thank you so much for being here tonight.

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It is such a pleasure to get to be here.

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Thank you so much.

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As always, you know, New York is
sort of the center of everything.

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And we've been circling around the
country but being sort of drawn inexorably

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to New York City.

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And we are so happy to be here with you all.

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I gotta begin by telling you the
truth, which is that part of me

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is very aware that we should
not have to be here tonight.

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I remember 25 years ago, when the world's
climate scientists started telling us

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that this was exactly what would happen.

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- Dr. Hansen, if you'd start
us off, we'd appreciate it.

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- Number one, the Earth is warmer in
1988 than at any time in the history

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of instrumental measurements.

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Number two, the global
warming is now large enough

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that we can ascribe with a
high degree of confidence

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a cause and effect relationship
to the greenhouse effect.

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- I played my small part in that thing
by writing the first book about this,

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a book called "The End of Nature," way back
in 1989 -- so before many you were born.

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If our leaders and our institutions
had acted as they were supposed to act,

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they would have heeded those warnings, and
25 years ago we would have gotten to work,

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and we'd be a long way now
toward solving this problem.

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But that did not happen.

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So here we are.

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That's Naomi Klein up on the
screen, getting arrested.

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You're going to meet her in a minute.

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Next to her is my old friend Gus Speth.

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This was at the beginning
of this big protest

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about Keystone that turned into the largest
civil disobedience action in 30 years.

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- Into the park, please.

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- It's hard doing the thing
that you're doing today.

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Law-abiding people don't
like to go get arrested.

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We are used to doing what
the police tell us to do.

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- The sidewalk is closed.

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Move up into Lafayette Park.

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- So it is a hard thing that you're doing
today, a difficult thing, and a brave one.

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It will feel uneasy for a moment.

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But I hope it also feels
incredibly, incredibly powerful.

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Because of what you've done
over the last two weeks,

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an issue that really wasn't a
national issue two weeks ago

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has emerged as the crux test between
now and the election for Barack Obama.

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Now, we should not have had
to have been there, either.

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Three months before that, Jim Hansen
of NASA, our greatest climatologist,

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Jim had said, "Burn those tar sands on
top of everything else you're burning,

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and it's game over for the climate."

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He was speaking, you would
think, in language simple enough

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that even politicians would
be able to understand it.

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But nobody blinked, not the government, not
industry, not the Obama administration --

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full-speed ahead until brave people went
and interposed their bodies in the way.

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And so I'm thinking about
something that Gus said to me.

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We were in adjoining
cells, so through the bars.

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He had done every rational, respectable
thing you could possibly do.

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He'd founded the National
Resources Defense Council.

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He'd been chair of the President's
Council on Environmental Quality.

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He'd headed the whole
UN Development Program.

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He'd been a dean at Yale.

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The sentence he sent out from jail
to the reporters, the one sentence,

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was, "I've held a lot of important
positions in this town, but none of them

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seem as important to me as
the one I'm in right now."

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Truth be told, no night seems as important
to me as these nights on this tour.

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We started in Seattle the
night after the election.

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We're headed out all over the country.

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I feel as if, for me, it may be in a
sense the last campaign I get to fight --

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not because I'm tired, though truthfully
the sleeping on the bus is more romantic

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in theory than in practice, it turns out.

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But it's not me that's tired.

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It's the planet that's tired.

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It's running into really serious
limits, that's running out of time.

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Every New Yorker knows that now.

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But that doesn't depress me, in the end.

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In a sense, it excites me.

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Because I think we're closer now than
we've ever been to what we need to do.

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I think we've peeled away the layers of the
onion and gotten to the heart of things.

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As of tonight, we're going
after the fossil fuel industry.

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(CHEERING)

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- One of the things that you really feel
from people in the room, it's like people

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are so ready for this.

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In fact, they're kind of
like, "What took you so long?"

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I think we're going to see a merging
of different movements, movements

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that were focused on Wall
Street, on economic inequality,

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and now on the fossil fuel industry.

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So I think a lot of threats
are coming together here.

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- Has Sandy changed the way
that this tour has evolved?

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- 350 did our best to pitch in with
the really great people at Occupy

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who were organizing the relief effort.

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Because that's important.

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Those of us who have
been through these things

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know that for the first moment,
that's what really matters.

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Since I live in Vermont, I got
to go through all this last year

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when Hurricane Irene veered around New
York, and we're still not back to normal.

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And it won't be.

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It's not like three weeks from now
everything will be fine in New York

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and everyone will just be able
to forget about it, whatever.

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It takes a long time and a lot of money.

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- And I think particularly in
this city, people were hit so hard

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by the economic crisis, by
the collapse on Wall Street,

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and now dealing with the ecological crisis.

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And I think people actually
see connections, especially

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the connection of having to
pay for somebody else's crisis,

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being stuck with the bill for actions
driven by extraordinary greed.

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- This stuff doesn't have to happen.

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It only has to happen
because the fossil fuel

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industry is addicted to the level
of profit that they've been making.

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They make more money than
anybody in the world ever made,

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and they're trading the world for that
money -- our world for that money.

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But Sandy has definitely helped change the
way the world understands what's going on.

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It clearly was unsettling
to all kinds of people,

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because you all saw the cover three
days later of that radical rag

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Businessweek, "It's Global Warming, Stupid."

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- Joshua knows the deal.

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- And then you'll do a chant or two the
second time when we're doing the photo.

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Your timing has us ending at 3:15 here?

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- At 3:20, right?

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- Look who's here!

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The good doctor himself.

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(LAUGHTER)

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- Good to see you, brother.

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- Good to see you, too.

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- How are you?

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- I'm going to make you
stand up early in the program

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today, so just be ready
to stand up and wave.

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- Whatever you say.

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OK, I can do that.

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That's good.

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That's in my repertoire.

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- Look who's here!

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Everybody's here.

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- Hey!

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- How are you?

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- I'm good.

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- Thank you so much for being here.

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- Oh, man.

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I got something for you.

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You gotta make sure you're in here.

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- Oh, you made my day,
week, and month, brother.

00:13:47.467 --> 00:13:48.400
- That's important.

00:13:48.400 --> 00:13:48.434
- That's good.

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And I've got hats, we got
hat envy from this guy.

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- That's it.

00:13:53.234 --> 00:13:54.234
That's it.

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- One, two, three.

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- All right.

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All right.

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I think we're all set, everybody.

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- Good to see you, too.

00:14:02.701 --> 00:14:07.067
(CHATTER)

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- When I was a young guy here in DC,
in 1992 I came past the Warren Theater.

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And I saw people lined up outside, excited.

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And I didn't know what
they were excited about,

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but they were excited to be
coming into the building.

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And these two gentlemen said,
"Tonight is Frank Sinatra's night."

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(LAUGHTER)

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Now, I am the Hip Hop Rev. So I didn't
quite get the Frank Sinatra thing.

00:14:40.300 --> 00:14:41.667
(LAUGHTER)

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But when I saw their excitement and
I saw how pumped up they were to be

00:14:48.300 --> 00:14:53.334
in the building, when I left there
-- I'm gonna date myself now --

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I went out and bought me a record...

00:14:54.734 --> 00:14:56.734
(LAUGHTER)

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..."The Best of Frank Sinatra."

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For the past 20 years, I've
been listening to Frank Sinatra.

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(CHEERING)

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I've got Frank on Pandora.

00:15:06.267 --> 00:15:10.234
And I check out Frank all
because of the excitement.

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Check it now, you might have missed it.

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There was nothing but a group of
people coming to see Frank Sinatra.

00:15:15.467 --> 00:15:18.367
And this little black guy
here in DC walked past,

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and because of their excitement of what was
going on that night, I -- 20 years later --

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still listen to Frank Sinatra.

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Now you wanna get folks excited
in DC, you've got to be excited!

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So one time, make some noise!

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(CHEERING)

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(CHEERING)

00:16:09.567 --> 00:16:12.133
(CHEERING)

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(TYPING)

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- Bill knows that data matters, and
he's going to show you some math.

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And as a biologist, I also believe in data.

00:16:52.534 --> 00:16:55.667
But I know that for data
on climate change to be

00:16:55.667 --> 00:17:03.167
able to catapult us past paralyzing despair
and into no-surrender action requires

00:17:03.167 --> 00:17:05.734
a personal epiphany as well.

00:17:05.734 --> 00:17:09.167
And here's a one-minute story about my own.

00:17:09.167 --> 00:17:12.367
A few years ago when my
son was four years old,

00:17:12.367 --> 00:17:15.767
he asked to be a polar bear for Halloween.

00:17:15.767 --> 00:17:21.400
So I went to work turning a chenille
bedspread into a polar bear costume.

00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:24.234
And at some point while I
was hand-stitching the ears,

00:17:24.234 --> 00:17:31.067
I realized that this costume was very
likely going to outlast the species.

00:17:31.067 --> 00:17:33.400
And that night while I
was out trick-or-treating

00:17:33.400 --> 00:17:38.334
in the streets of my own village,
I saw many children dressed up

00:17:38.334 --> 00:17:43.234
as species heading for extinction
because of climate change:

00:17:43.234 --> 00:17:51.067
monarch butterflies, Kermit the Frog,
a bumblebee, my son the polar bear,

00:17:51.067 --> 00:17:56.501
and the icon of Halloween
itself, the little brown bat.

00:17:56.501 --> 00:18:01.601
Thanks to climate change, absent
our immediate intervention,

00:18:01.601 --> 00:18:04.734
they're all going the way of the dodo.

00:18:04.734 --> 00:18:11.601
And I began to wonder if children would
still dress up as vanished species,

00:18:11.601 --> 00:18:14.434
or if these costumes
were going to be hanging

00:18:14.434 --> 00:18:20.767
in closets when their real-life
antecedents were no longer among us.

00:18:20.767 --> 00:18:27.167
And my grief at that thought, at that
image, literally brought me to my knees.

00:18:27.167 --> 00:18:33.033
So there I was with the plastic pumpkin full
of Kit-Kat bars, on my knees in the street.

00:18:34.767 --> 00:18:40.400
What got me up again was love, and
a belief in the abidingness of life,

00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:43.300
and the realization that
my life's work was now

00:18:43.300 --> 00:18:48.000
going to be to speak about
the atrocity of fossil fuels.

00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:54.601
And in that, I take Rachel Carson, a native
of Pennsylvania, as my guiding spirit.

00:18:54.601 --> 00:19:03.267
She said, "To sin by silence when they
should protest makes cowards out of men."

00:19:03.267 --> 00:19:09.667
"To sin by silence when they should
protest makes cowards out of men."

00:19:09.667 --> 00:19:12.133
She gives us our voices.

00:19:12.133 --> 00:19:17.501
And by that measure, the good folks of
350 are about the bravest people I know.

00:19:17.501 --> 00:19:19.100
So welcome 350.

00:19:19.100 --> 00:19:21.133
Thank you for everything that you have done.

00:19:21.133 --> 00:19:24.167
And thank all of you for everything
that you are about to do.

00:19:24.167 --> 00:19:25.167
Welcome to Pennsylvania.

00:19:25.167 --> 00:19:26.067
(APPLAUSE)

00:19:26.067 --> 00:19:31.467
(INSTRUMENTAL HIP HOP MUSIC)

00:21:03.601 --> 00:21:04.734
- Let's get to work.

00:21:04.734 --> 00:21:08.000
We're calling this the Do the Math Tour.

00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:08.767
But don't worry.

00:21:08.767 --> 00:21:11.267
It's not calculus, really.

00:21:11.267 --> 00:21:17.367
Three numbers -- I first wrote about them
this summer in a piece for Rolling Stone

00:21:17.367 --> 00:21:19.200
that went oddly viral.

00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:21.701
It was the issue with
Justin Bieber on the cover.

00:21:21.701 --> 00:21:22.300
(LAUGHTER)

00:21:22.300 --> 00:21:23.400
But here's the weird thing.

00:21:23.400 --> 00:21:25.634
I got a call from the
editor a few days later.

00:21:25.634 --> 00:21:27.367
He said, "Something strange is going on.

00:21:27.367 --> 00:21:31.701
Your piece has 10 times as many
likes on Facebook as Justin's."

00:21:31.701 --> 00:21:36.701
Clearly that's partly due to
my soulful stare and things.

00:21:36.701 --> 00:21:40.167
But mostly, it was due to
the fact that it really, I

00:21:40.167 --> 00:21:46.601
think, described for people just in very
straightforward, real terms where we are.

00:21:46.601 --> 00:21:48.167
I'm going to give you three numbers.

00:21:48.167 --> 00:21:52.033
Before I get to them, I'm just going
to tell you where we are right now.

00:21:52.033 --> 00:21:55.701
So far, human beings have burned
enough coal and oil and gas

00:21:55.701 --> 00:21:59.200
to raise the temperature about one degree.

00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:00.701
And what has that done?

00:22:00.701 --> 00:22:06.067
Well, one day in September this
headline ran in the newspaper:

00:22:06.067 --> 00:22:09.100
"Half the Polar Ice Cap is Missing."

00:22:09.100 --> 00:22:12.100
Literally, if Neil Armstrong were
looking down from the moon now,

00:22:12.100 --> 00:22:16.300
there would be half as much
ice as there was 40 years ago.

00:22:16.300 --> 00:22:22.100
We've taken one of the great physical
features on Earth, and we have broken it.

00:22:22.100 --> 00:22:23.133
OK?

00:22:23.133 --> 00:22:25.701
And the other ones are
following close behind.

00:22:25.701 --> 00:22:31.067
The ocean out there -- the beautiful,
broad Atlantic -- that ocean,

00:22:31.067 --> 00:22:35.434
like all the other oceans, is 30%
more acid than it was 40 years ago.

00:22:35.434 --> 00:22:38.767
The oceans are our metaphor
for bigness, for vastness,

00:22:38.767 --> 00:22:41.400
but we have altered them profoundly.

00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:45.501
Chemistry of seawater changes as it
absorbs carbon from the atmosphere.

00:22:45.501 --> 00:22:48.367
Think about the atmosphere itself, OK?

00:22:48.367 --> 00:22:54.601
Because warm air holds more water vapor
than cold -- an absolute, bottom-line,

00:22:54.601 --> 00:23:00.701
basic physical fact for this century -- the
atmosphere is 5% wetter than it was when I

00:23:00.701 --> 00:23:02.133
was born, OK?

00:23:02.133 --> 00:23:08.067
That's a staggering physical change
in a basic parameter of the planet.

00:23:08.067 --> 00:23:11.267
And what it does is load the
dice for drought and flood.

00:23:11.267 --> 00:23:13.400
So think about what this year was like.

00:23:13.400 --> 00:23:16.033
Think about the Midwest
of the United States,

00:23:16.033 --> 00:23:19.734
where it just got too hot
and too dry to grow anything

00:23:19.734 --> 00:23:22.734
in the most fertile farmland
on the face of the Earth.

00:23:22.734 --> 00:23:29.167
July 2012 was the warmest month any
month in a year in American history.

00:23:29.167 --> 00:23:33.033
We saw, of course, what it
looked like in New York.

00:23:33.033 --> 00:23:36.167
There's not supposed to
be water in the subways.

00:23:36.167 --> 00:23:40.601
Those pictures just stabbed
everyone in the heart,

00:23:40.601 --> 00:23:45.300
even before we saw the images
of the devastation where

00:23:45.300 --> 00:23:51.133
people were living in Brooklyn and Queens
and Long Island and the Jersey Shore.

00:23:51.133 --> 00:23:55.300
I wish that what we were talking
about tonight was how to get us back

00:23:55.300 --> 00:23:59.234
to the Holocene -- back to the place
where we'd been for the last 10,000 years,

00:23:59.234 --> 00:24:00.467
erasing that degree.

00:24:00.467 --> 00:24:02.634
But we do not have that luxury.

00:24:02.634 --> 00:24:05.734
The momentum behind
climate change is fierce.

00:24:05.734 --> 00:24:11.601
All we have the power to do
now is avoid complete calamity.

00:24:13.234 --> 00:24:15.334
- This flag is from the future.

00:24:17.267 --> 00:24:19.634
This message is from the future.

00:24:19.634 --> 00:24:22.601
Greetings from the future.

00:24:22.601 --> 00:24:26.767
People of 2012, we remember you well.

00:24:26.767 --> 00:24:32.167
You are us at a turning
point, a moment of decision.

00:24:32.167 --> 00:24:33.567
Greetings from the future.

00:24:33.567 --> 00:24:37.701
People of the so-called first world
nations, we remember you well.

00:24:37.701 --> 00:24:43.167
Recognize the world's an island
now, and the water level's rising.

00:24:43.167 --> 00:24:45.300
Who will sing the songs that turn the tide?

00:24:47.567 --> 00:24:53.634
(GUITAR PLAYING)

00:24:57.567 --> 00:25:02.033
(RAPPING) It's a cloudy day in the first
world, we can't quite handle the severity.

00:25:02.033 --> 00:25:06.167
It's a cloudy day in the first world,
so we make a mockery of disparity.

00:25:06.167 --> 00:25:10.100
It's a cloudy day in the first world, we're
looking for a new source of sincerity.

00:25:10.100 --> 00:25:12.200
But when Mother Nature
proposes austerity, we're

00:25:12.200 --> 00:25:14.667
all gonna need to resort to solidarity.

00:25:14.667 --> 00:25:18.367
It's a cloudy day in the first world,
loud debate now the alters are changing.

00:25:18.367 --> 00:25:20.667
We all know how to wait
for the cursor swirl,

00:25:20.667 --> 00:25:22.501
we all want to sing out for the same thing.

00:25:22.501 --> 00:25:26.667
We need safety, we need fantasies, we
just want to find a way to live carefree.

00:25:26.667 --> 00:25:31.033
We have babies, we have families, we have
a reason to try to proceed carefully.

00:25:31.033 --> 00:25:34.033
But the mural they plastered the
church with detracts from its purpose.

00:25:34.033 --> 00:25:35.601
The paint's got cracks in the surface.

00:25:35.601 --> 00:25:37.467
The slogans and the raps are worthless.

00:25:37.467 --> 00:25:39.300
And nobody's around to enact the verses.

00:25:39.300 --> 00:25:42.601
I said the murals they plastered the
church with detracts from its purpose.

00:25:42.601 --> 00:25:43.667
The paint's got cracks in the surface.

00:25:43.667 --> 00:25:45.434
The slogans and the raps are worthless.

00:25:45.434 --> 00:25:47.167
And nobody's around to enact the verses.

00:25:48.701 --> 00:25:55.033
But if it's more than an observation,
if there's faith in the congregation,

00:25:55.033 --> 00:25:59.067
if the audience believes the song,
then it might come to life when we sing

00:25:59.067 --> 00:26:06.267
along and say, we can do better than this.

00:26:06.267 --> 00:26:08.434
We can do better than this.

00:26:08.434 --> 00:26:10.601
We can do better than this.

00:26:10.601 --> 00:26:12.734
We can do better than this.

00:26:12.734 --> 00:26:15.000
We can do better than this.

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:17.033
We can do better than this.

00:26:17.033 --> 00:26:18.767
We can do better than this.

00:26:18.767 --> 00:26:21.100
Go ahead and sing along.
(SINGING) Better than this.

00:26:21.100 --> 00:26:23.033
We can do better than this.

00:26:23.033 --> 00:26:25.067
We can do better than this.

00:26:25.067 --> 00:26:27.067
We can do better than this.

00:26:27.067 --> 00:26:29.000
We can do better than this.

00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:30.767
We can do better than this.

00:26:30.767 --> 00:26:32.701
We can do better than this.

00:26:32.701 --> 00:26:34.734
We can do better than this.

00:26:34.734 --> 00:26:38.267
2012 we can't go on, worshipping
wealth like nothing is wrong.

00:26:38.267 --> 00:26:40.200
Their water is scarce, we're watering lawns.

00:26:40.200 --> 00:26:42.000
That isn't fair so we've gotta respond.

00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:45.334
People are strong, people are weak,
people need help, people need sleep.

00:26:45.334 --> 00:26:47.734
People of faith let's sing in
the streets, speaking this way

00:26:47.734 --> 00:26:50.734
so that people believe that
we can do better than this.

00:26:50.734 --> 00:26:52.567
We can do better than this.

00:26:52.567 --> 00:26:54.267
We can do better than this.

00:26:54.267 --> 00:26:56.267
We can do better than this.

00:26:56.267 --> 00:26:57.734
We can do better than this.

00:26:57.734 --> 00:26:59.567
We can do better than this.

00:26:59.567 --> 00:27:01.334
We can do better than this.

00:27:01.334 --> 00:27:03.267
We can do better than this.

00:27:03.267 --> 00:27:06.601
2012, not enough jobs, kids on
the block decide to sell drugs.

00:27:06.601 --> 00:27:10.133
Unemployment alleviation, end
up locked in the police station.

00:27:10.133 --> 00:27:11.701
Tar Sands blockade Eastern Texas.

00:27:11.701 --> 00:27:13.300
Tasered, shocked, and then arrested.

00:27:13.300 --> 00:27:15.434
Still young and old stand
side by side, hold hands

00:27:15.434 --> 00:27:19.100
while the pepper spray stings their
eyes because we can do better than this.

00:27:19.100 --> 00:27:20.400
We can do better than this.

00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:22.133
We can do better than this.

00:27:22.133 --> 00:27:24.100
We can do better than this.

00:27:24.100 --> 00:27:25.501
We can do better than this.

00:27:25.501 --> 00:27:27.100
We can do better than this.

00:27:27.100 --> 00:27:29.067
We can do better than this.

00:27:29.067 --> 00:27:30.467
We can do better than this.

00:27:30.467 --> 00:27:35.300
The world is an island, the water level's
rising, now who will turn the tide?

00:27:35.300 --> 00:27:35.701
Yeah.

00:27:35.701 --> 00:27:37.067
Now who will turn the tide?

00:27:37.067 --> 00:27:37.467
Yeah.

00:27:37.467 --> 00:27:40.501
The world is an island,
the water level's rising,

00:27:40.501 --> 00:27:46.234
and we will turn the tide when we finally
decide that we can do better than this.

00:27:46.234 --> 00:27:47.634
We can do better than this.

00:27:47.634 --> 00:27:49.234
We can do better than this.

00:27:49.234 --> 00:27:50.601
We can do better than this.

00:27:50.601 --> 00:27:52.601
We can do better than this.

00:27:52.601 --> 00:27:54.200
We can do better than this.

00:27:54.200 --> 00:27:55.734
We can do better than this.

00:27:55.734 --> 00:27:57.067
As loud as you can, Boulder!

00:27:57.067 --> 00:27:58.167
(SINGING) Better than this!

00:27:58.167 --> 00:27:59.467
We can do better than this.

00:27:59.467 --> 00:28:01.067
We can do better than this.

00:28:01.067 --> 00:28:03.033
We can do better than this.

00:28:03.033 --> 00:28:04.434
We can do better than this.

00:28:04.434 --> 00:28:06.434
We can do better than this.

00:28:06.434 --> 00:28:08.033
We can do better than this.

00:28:08.033 --> 00:28:10.033
We can do better than this.

00:28:10.033 --> 00:28:14.000
We can do better than this.

00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:16.000
Welcome to Do the Math.

00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:21.767
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

00:28:25.300 --> 00:28:27.601
- And the first number
that I want to talk about

00:28:27.601 --> 00:28:32.267
is the way that the world has
defined complete and utter calamity.

00:28:32.267 --> 00:28:34.367
That number is two degrees.

00:28:34.367 --> 00:28:37.167
Two degrees Celsius, all right?

00:28:37.167 --> 00:28:39.234
In scientific terms, it's too hot.

00:28:39.234 --> 00:28:41.000
One degree melted the Arctic.

00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:44.701
We should not be finding out
what two degrees is going to do.

00:28:46.234 --> 00:28:49.334
But in political terms, it's the
only thing about climate change

00:28:49.334 --> 00:28:52.100
that we've been able to get the
world's governments to agree on.

00:28:52.100 --> 00:28:58.300
You remember that completely horrible
climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009?

00:28:58.300 --> 00:29:00.601
The place that, has this
been a Hollywood movie,

00:29:00.601 --> 00:29:03.667
we would have had the happy ending
where the world comes together and does

00:29:03.667 --> 00:29:04.400
the right thing.

00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:08.701
But instead, nobody came together,
and the whole thing fizzled.

00:29:08.701 --> 00:29:13.133
The only thing they did at
the end was sign a two-page,

00:29:13.133 --> 00:29:18.033
sort of scribbled-together document
with no penalties and no timetables

00:29:18.033 --> 00:29:20.234
and exactly one number in it.

00:29:20.234 --> 00:29:21.701
That number was two degrees.

00:29:21.701 --> 00:29:26.033
Every signatory pledged to make sure that
the temperature wouldn't rise above that.

00:29:26.033 --> 00:29:28.367
Everybody -- EU, Russia, Japan.

00:29:28.367 --> 00:29:33.267
The most conservative, recalcitrant,
reluctant countries on Earth -- China,

00:29:33.267 --> 00:29:36.701
even the United States
-- signed onto this, OK?

00:29:36.701 --> 00:29:40.167
If the world officially believes
anything about climate change

00:29:40.167 --> 00:29:44.701
it's that two degrees is too much,
that it is the reddest of red lines.

00:29:44.701 --> 00:29:46.601
Two degrees.

00:29:46.601 --> 00:29:49.767
To help us with the
second number to remember,

00:29:49.767 --> 00:29:55.567
I want to welcome my really dear friend,
a board member at 350.org and one

00:29:55.567 --> 00:29:58.100
of the great writers in the
English language: Naomi Klein.

00:29:58.100 --> 00:30:01.100
(APPLAUSE)

00:30:01.100 --> 00:30:03.501
- Thank you, Bill.

00:30:03.501 --> 00:30:05.501
Hey, everybody.

00:30:05.501 --> 00:30:06.501
(CHEERING)

00:30:06.501 --> 00:30:07.100
Hey.

00:30:09.467 --> 00:30:11.067
Thank you so much, Bill.

00:30:13.467 --> 00:30:14.734
So here's the second number.

00:30:16.467 --> 00:30:20.434
The second number is 565 gigatons.

00:30:20.434 --> 00:30:24.400
565 billion tons.

00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:28.734
That's how much more carbon dioxide
can pour into the atmosphere

00:30:28.734 --> 00:30:33.601
and still give us a realistic
hope of staying below two degrees.

00:30:33.601 --> 00:30:38.167
The number comes from a 2009 paper
by a scientist named Meinshausen,

00:30:38.167 --> 00:30:42.100
and it's been confirmed by
dozens of other computer models.

00:30:42.100 --> 00:30:48.467
Now 565 gigatons sounds like a hell of a lot
of carbon, like it's a pretty high limit.

00:30:48.467 --> 00:30:50.033
And it is a lot.

00:30:50.033 --> 00:30:54.367
Again, a gigaton is a
billion tons of carbon.

00:30:54.367 --> 00:30:58.534
The trouble is, the world emits
30 gigatons a year already.

00:30:58.534 --> 00:31:02.467
And that number is increasing by 3% a year.

00:31:02.467 --> 00:31:07.334
That means in 16 years, we'll have
poured enough carbon into the atmosphere

00:31:07.334 --> 00:31:10.467
to take us past that two-degree threshold.

00:31:10.467 --> 00:31:13.100
And that's very bad news, obviously.

00:31:13.100 --> 00:31:17.133
- But unfortunately it's
not the worst news, OK?

00:31:17.133 --> 00:31:19.467
The third number is the really scary one.

00:31:19.467 --> 00:31:20.400
It's the new one.

00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:22.534
It's what caused me to write that article.

00:31:22.534 --> 00:31:25.300
And it's what's causing
us to do this tour that

00:31:25.300 --> 00:31:31.300
launches this campaign that will
take up, I hope, some of your lives

00:31:31.300 --> 00:31:33.701
for a while to come.

00:31:33.701 --> 00:31:36.434
The scariest number is the third one.

00:31:36.434 --> 00:31:42.634
It comes from a group of financial analysts
in the UK who set out to add up how much

00:31:42.634 --> 00:31:47.200
carbon the world's fossil fuel companies
and the kind of countries that operate like

00:31:47.200 --> 00:31:50.133
fossil fuel companies --
think Venezuela or Kuwait --

00:31:50.133 --> 00:31:53.267
how much they had in their reserves.

00:31:53.267 --> 00:31:58.067
They have to tell the SEC and various
government agencies and things

00:31:58.067 --> 00:31:59.734
how much they have.

00:31:59.734 --> 00:32:07.400
And when they added it all up, the number
was 2,795 gigatons worth of carbon,

00:32:07.400 --> 00:32:14.501
or five times as much as 565 -- five times
as much as even the most conservative

00:32:14.501 --> 00:32:18.567
government on Earth says is safe
to burn, and yet it will be burned.

00:32:18.567 --> 00:32:21.000
That stuff is still
physically below the ground,

00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:23.300
but economically it's above the ground.

00:32:23.300 --> 00:32:27.367
That's what Exxon uses
to set its share price.

00:32:27.367 --> 00:32:31.300
When Peabody Coal goes to borrow money,
this is what they use as collateral.

00:32:31.300 --> 00:32:35.501
At current market prices,
it's worth about $20 trillion.

00:32:35.501 --> 00:32:40.267
And unless we figure out a way to
intervene, it is going to be burned.

00:32:40.267 --> 00:32:44.601
The point of these numbers is that
there's no longer any room for speculation

00:32:44.601 --> 00:32:49.167
or wishful thinking or wishful
thinking or speculation about what's

00:32:49.167 --> 00:32:50.567
going to happen with the planet.

00:32:50.567 --> 00:32:55.567
Unless we intervene dramatically,
this story has been written.

00:32:55.567 --> 00:32:57.701
These numbers show...

00:32:57.701 --> 00:33:00.100
and I really want to make this clear.

00:33:00.100 --> 00:33:06.367
They show -- if you remember nothing else
-- that these industries have become a kind

00:33:06.367 --> 00:33:08.467
of rogue force.

00:33:08.467 --> 00:33:10.000
They're outlaws.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:12.734
They're not violating
the laws of the nation.

00:33:12.734 --> 00:33:14.534
They get to write those.

00:33:14.534 --> 00:33:18.367
But they are violating the
laws of chemistry and physics.

00:33:18.367 --> 00:33:22.467
And if they carry out their
business plan, the planet tanks.

00:33:22.467 --> 00:33:27.167
Exxon alone in its reserves
has 7% of the carbon

00:33:27.167 --> 00:33:28.734
necessary to take us past two degrees.

00:33:28.734 --> 00:33:30.734
One company.

00:33:30.734 --> 00:33:35.267
Either Exxon has to give in
or physics has to give in.

00:33:35.267 --> 00:33:40.267
It's going to be harder than
heck to get Exxon to give in.

00:33:40.267 --> 00:33:45.534
They made more money last year than any
company in the history of money, OK?

00:33:45.534 --> 00:33:50.200
But my guess is it's going to be
easier to get Exxon to give in

00:33:50.200 --> 00:33:53.234
then to get physics to relent, OK?

00:33:53.234 --> 00:33:56.234
Since those are our choices,
we gotta get to work.

00:33:56.234 --> 00:34:01.200
(DISSONANT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC)

00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:29.133
The good news is... and
we've had plenty of bad news,

00:34:29.133 --> 00:34:31.167
so let's have good news for a minute.

00:34:31.167 --> 00:34:35.100
The good news is that we know
how to do what we need to do.

00:34:35.100 --> 00:34:39.067
We need to make the leap to renewable
energy, and we have to do it fast.

00:34:39.067 --> 00:34:41.000
Now, it's going to be hard.

00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:45.267
It'll take the kind of footing that we've
had to go on when we went to war and things

00:34:45.267 --> 00:34:46.567
in the past.

00:34:46.567 --> 00:34:48.167
But it's not impossible.

00:34:48.167 --> 00:34:54.634
There's one large nation on Earth,
one non-Scandinavian nation, that's

00:34:54.634 --> 00:34:56.634
done its best to deal with this problem.

00:34:56.634 --> 00:34:57.701
And that's Germany.

00:34:57.701 --> 00:35:03.434
There were days this summer when Germany
generated more than half the power it

00:35:03.434 --> 00:35:05.667
used from solar panels within its borders.

00:35:05.667 --> 00:35:07.033
(APPLAUSE)

00:35:07.033 --> 00:35:08.334
All right?

00:35:08.334 --> 00:35:17.167
And Germany is kind of foggy
and Wagnerian, you know?

00:35:17.167 --> 00:35:20.667
I mean, Munich is north of Montreal, OK?

00:35:20.667 --> 00:35:25.300
It's not Texas and California
and Nevada, or even New York.

00:35:25.300 --> 00:35:30.601
It's perfect testimony to the fact
that what's lacking is not technology.

00:35:30.601 --> 00:35:31.701
It's political will.

00:35:31.701 --> 00:35:34.467
You can see the same thing in other places.

00:35:34.467 --> 00:35:35.567
Go to China.

00:35:35.567 --> 00:35:40.367
The solar hot water panels are
just ubiquitous on the roofs, OK?

00:35:40.367 --> 00:35:45.434
25% of Chinese, 250 million people,
when they take a shower at night,

00:35:45.434 --> 00:35:48.200
the hot water is coming from
solar panels on the roof.

00:35:48.200 --> 00:35:52.067
25% compared with about 1% in this country.

00:35:52.067 --> 00:35:55.567
And most of that 1% goes
to heat swimming pools.

00:35:55.567 --> 00:35:58.067
China doesn't have better engineers.

00:35:58.067 --> 00:36:00.534
Germany doesn't have better entrepreneurs.

00:36:00.534 --> 00:36:04.400
What they have is the
political will to get it done.

00:36:04.400 --> 00:36:07.033
That became so clear to
me one day when I was

00:36:07.033 --> 00:36:11.300
in the office of the guy who put
the most of those solar panels up.

00:36:11.300 --> 00:36:16.300
A guy named Huang Ming, who runs Himin
Solar, put up millions of these arrays.

00:36:16.300 --> 00:36:17.601
And as a result, he's a rich man.

00:36:17.601 --> 00:36:20.667
And at the end of our long talk,
he took me into his private museum

00:36:20.667 --> 00:36:22.701
with many interesting things in it.

00:36:22.701 --> 00:36:26.434
But pride of place on the floor
is this rusting solar panel, OK?

00:36:26.434 --> 00:36:27.734
He says, "You know what that is?"

00:36:27.734 --> 00:36:28.334
No.

00:36:28.334 --> 00:36:29.267
What is that?

00:36:29.267 --> 00:36:34.334
"That's one of the solar panels that Jimmy
Carter put on the White House in 1979"...

00:36:34.334 --> 00:36:40.767
(APPLAUSE) ...and Ronald Reagan took down
in 1985 because he wanted manlier forms

00:36:40.767 --> 00:36:41.501
of energy.

00:36:41.501 --> 00:36:46.033
Proof if you ever needed it that
it's not technology we lack.

00:36:46.033 --> 00:36:48.267
It's political will.

00:36:48.267 --> 00:36:51.300
Our engineers and our entrepreneurs
are completely up to the job.

00:36:51.300 --> 00:36:54.033
They're actually beginning to put
in a fair amount of this stuff,

00:36:54.033 --> 00:36:56.400
but not fast enough to
rise to the challenge.

00:36:56.400 --> 00:37:00.701
And the reason that it's not fast
enough is not because they're inept.

00:37:00.701 --> 00:37:05.067
It's because the fossil
fuel industry cheats.

00:37:05.067 --> 00:37:09.100
Alone among industries, they get
to pour out their waste for free.

00:37:09.100 --> 00:37:12.133
- And I'm willing to bet that if
they did have to pay for the damage

00:37:12.133 --> 00:37:14.234
that their products do to
the atmosphere, we would

00:37:14.234 --> 00:37:19.467
be moving a lot faster towards the renewable
energy world Bill was just describing.

00:37:19.467 --> 00:37:22.767
And we could do it without
bankrupting any of us.

00:37:22.767 --> 00:37:25.033
But there's a problem.

00:37:25.033 --> 00:37:29.033
Paying for their waste like everyone else
would hurt the fossil fuel industry's

00:37:29.033 --> 00:37:33.100
profits, and that's why they've battled
every effort to put a price on carbon.

00:37:33.100 --> 00:37:35.601
Now occasionally, they'll pretend
that they have seen the light.

00:37:35.601 --> 00:37:41.133
A decade ago, BP announced that its
initials now stand for "Beyond Petroleum."

00:37:41.133 --> 00:37:42.434
They changed their logo.

00:37:42.434 --> 00:37:45.534
They threatened to sue anyone who
called them British Petroleum.

00:37:45.534 --> 00:37:49.200
They put solar panels on
top of a few gas stations.

00:37:49.200 --> 00:37:52.367
But the truth is, they invested
very little in renewable energy.

00:37:52.367 --> 00:37:56.667
And two years ago they officially
announced that they were now

00:37:56.667 --> 00:38:00.033
returning to their core
business, which turned out

00:38:00.033 --> 00:38:03.100
to be wrecking the Gulf of Mexico.

00:38:03.100 --> 00:38:07.067
So why are these guys so
fixated on hydrocarbons?

00:38:07.067 --> 00:38:09.467
It's not because that's
the only way to make money.

00:38:09.467 --> 00:38:12.167
It's because that's where
the stupid money is.

00:38:12.167 --> 00:38:18.100
The top five oil companies last
year made $137 billion in profit.

00:38:18.100 --> 00:38:22.000
That's $375 million per day.

00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:26.567
They got $6.6 million in
federal tax breaks every day.

00:38:26.567 --> 00:38:32.033
They spent $440,000 every
day lobbying Congress, OK?

00:38:32.033 --> 00:38:37.567
Rex Tillerson, the CEO of
Exxon, made $100,000 every day.

00:38:37.567 --> 00:38:42.067
The only problem is that the world's
scientists are now watching in real time

00:38:42.067 --> 00:38:43.601
as these guys pull off their heists.

00:38:43.601 --> 00:38:46.367
So it's getting harder
to deny what's going on.

00:38:46.367 --> 00:38:50.634
Last summer, the head of Exxon finally
owned up and admitted what every one of his

00:38:50.634 --> 00:38:54.567
predecessors had denied --
that climate change was real.

00:38:54.567 --> 00:38:56.434
- And clearly there's going to be an impact.

00:38:56.434 --> 00:39:01.534
So I'm not disputing that increasing
CO2 emissions in the atmosphere

00:39:01.534 --> 00:39:02.667
is going to have an impact.

00:39:02.667 --> 00:39:04.133
It will have a warming impact.

00:39:04.133 --> 00:39:06.200
- But since the only way
to stop that impact would

00:39:06.200 --> 00:39:08.634
be to take a hit to the
company's profitability,

00:39:08.634 --> 00:39:10.467
he immediately tried to change the subject.

00:39:12.567 --> 00:39:16.267
- It's an engineering problem,
and it has engineering solutions.

00:39:16.267 --> 00:39:16.767
- Really?

00:39:16.767 --> 00:39:21.501
What kind of engineering solutions
did you have in mind, Mr. Tillerson?

00:39:21.501 --> 00:39:25.234
- Changes to weather patterns that
move crop production areas around --

00:39:25.234 --> 00:39:26.367
we'll adapt to that.

00:39:28.234 --> 00:39:33.434
- Look, all respect, but that's crazy talk.

00:39:33.434 --> 00:39:38.667
We cannot move crop
production areas around, OK?

00:39:38.667 --> 00:39:42.467
"Crop production areas" are
what normal people call farms.

00:39:42.467 --> 00:39:47.167
We already have farms everywhere
that there's soil to grow anything.

00:39:47.167 --> 00:39:50.300
Yes, Exxon has melted the tundra for us.

00:39:50.300 --> 00:39:54.167
That does not mean that you
can move Iowa to the tundra

00:39:54.167 --> 00:39:57.667
when you make it too hot to grow
corn in Iowa because there's no soil.

00:39:57.667 --> 00:40:03.033
A team at Stanford and the University of
Washington concluded two years ago that

00:40:03.033 --> 00:40:07.767
from this point on, every degree increase
in global temperature would cut grain yields

00:40:07.767 --> 00:40:12.767
10% -- which is pretty easy to understand
given what we saw across the Midwest this

00:40:12.767 --> 00:40:13.567
summer.

00:40:13.567 --> 00:40:17.400
That drought and the failed
harvest caused the price of corn

00:40:17.400 --> 00:40:21.334
to rise 40% around the world, OK?

00:40:21.334 --> 00:40:27.000
Now if you make $100,000 a day, what do
you care if the price of corn goes up 40%?

00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:32.434
Most of the people we work with around
the world, they make $1 or $2 or $3 a day.

00:40:32.434 --> 00:40:36.767
And if that's the case, then the
40% increase in the price of corn

00:40:36.767 --> 00:40:39.434
is by far the biggest thing
that happened to you this year.

00:40:39.434 --> 00:40:45.167
It means that you are not filling your
belly tonight because you cannot afford it.

00:40:45.167 --> 00:40:49.167
Those people are our brothers and sisters.

00:40:49.167 --> 00:40:51.300
And not one of those
people, almost none of them,

00:40:51.300 --> 00:40:54.133
will ever make $100,000 in a lifetime.

00:40:54.133 --> 00:40:55.634
OK?

00:40:55.634 --> 00:41:01.434
But they count every bit as
much as any oil tycoon counts.

00:41:01.434 --> 00:41:04.367
(APPLAUSE)

00:41:04.367 --> 00:41:07.400
They have done nothing
to cause this problem.

00:41:07.400 --> 00:41:08.467
Nothing at all.

00:41:08.467 --> 00:41:10.501
They just get to pay the price.

00:42:45.400 --> 00:42:49.400
We sent out the word
along the 350.org network

00:42:49.400 --> 00:42:54.133
in April, said we want
people to rally in places

00:42:54.133 --> 00:42:58.000
that have already felt the sting of
climate change to kind of bear witness

00:42:58.000 --> 00:42:59.767
to the world, OK?

00:42:59.767 --> 00:43:03.501
And we called it "Connect the Dots."

00:43:03.501 --> 00:43:08.367
Groups responded by the thousands,
from places all around the world.

00:43:08.367 --> 00:43:11.767
Because all around the
world, this is going on.

00:43:11.767 --> 00:43:13.667
I could show you pictures all night.

00:43:13.667 --> 00:43:17.067
The day began, of course,
in the far Pacific.

00:43:17.067 --> 00:43:19.033
And there, the people
in the Marshall Islands

00:43:19.033 --> 00:43:22.167
were rallying underwater
on their coral reef.

00:43:22.167 --> 00:43:26.467
It's being eaten away by that hot,
acidic ocean that we're building.

00:43:26.467 --> 00:43:28.501
There were pictures coming from Afghanistan.

00:43:28.501 --> 00:43:31.167
You would think that
people in Afghanistan have

00:43:31.167 --> 00:43:33.200
things that they need to worry about more.

00:43:33.200 --> 00:43:39.200
But the fact that the Kabul River is drying
up, that's just about as tough as it gets.

00:43:39.200 --> 00:43:43.501
There were pictures coming from
across the border in Pakistan, where

00:43:43.501 --> 00:43:48.567
20 million people were
dislocated from their homes

00:43:48.567 --> 00:43:53.734
by flooding when the Indus River
left its banks in September of 2010.

00:43:53.734 --> 00:43:58.033
20 million people out of their
homes, just unbelievable.

00:43:59.501 --> 00:44:00.601
This picture is from India.

00:44:00.601 --> 00:44:03.300
It was one of hundreds that
came in from around India.

00:44:03.300 --> 00:44:06.534
It's not particularly big, but
it came with just a little note

00:44:06.534 --> 00:44:08.467
attached to it that I read.

00:44:08.467 --> 00:44:14.033
All it said in the note was, "There
is no water behind our dam anymore."

00:44:14.033 --> 00:44:17.234
In Micronesia, the problem
is way too much water.

00:44:17.234 --> 00:44:21.534
They're figuring out how they're going to
evacuate their country as the ocean rises.

00:44:21.534 --> 00:44:24.634
In Siberia, the problem is too much fire.

00:44:24.634 --> 00:44:30.434
It was like Colorado or New Mexico this
year -- just rampant, endless wildfire.

00:44:30.434 --> 00:44:34.200
The picture that stuck with me
maybe most of all was from Haiti.

00:44:34.200 --> 00:44:36.701
It was maybe the smallest
rally of the day, just

00:44:36.701 --> 00:44:42.033
people standing in a road
turning into a kind of river.

00:44:42.033 --> 00:44:47.067
But the sign that those two are holding on
the side that said, "YOUR ACTIONS AFFECT

00:44:47.067 --> 00:44:49.300
ME" really got to me.

00:44:49.300 --> 00:44:51.200
And of course, it's absolutely true.

00:44:51.200 --> 00:44:56.100
As many people died from Sandy
in Haiti as in New York, OK?

00:44:56.100 --> 00:45:01.467
And now in its wake, there's a full-on
cholera outbreak going on down there.

00:45:01.467 --> 00:45:03.234
"YOUR ACTIONS AFFECT ME."

00:45:03.234 --> 00:45:05.601
But it doesn't work in reverse.

00:45:05.601 --> 00:45:09.534
There's nothing anybody can
do in Haiti to slow this down.

00:45:09.534 --> 00:45:13.300
They can't stop burning fossil fuel
because they're not burning any now.

00:45:13.300 --> 00:45:17.267
They don't have the headquarters of
the world's fossil fuel companies

00:45:17.267 --> 00:45:18.667
in their country.

00:45:18.667 --> 00:45:21.033
They're not a superpower.

00:45:21.033 --> 00:45:22.601
That's us.

00:45:22.601 --> 00:45:26.033
That's our responsibility to take on.

00:45:26.033 --> 00:45:27.300
That's our job.

00:45:45.434 --> 00:45:48.067
- Continue 49 miles.

00:45:48.067 --> 00:45:53.434
(BANJO MUSIC)

00:47:32.234 --> 00:47:33.467
- It's funny that you say that.

00:47:33.467 --> 00:47:38.234
Afterwards talking to kids in the lobby, so
many of the college kids said like, "Wow,"

00:47:38.234 --> 00:47:40.434
it's like you wrote these quotes for them.

00:47:40.434 --> 00:47:43.300
Like the first girl I
talked to was like, "I just

00:47:43.300 --> 00:47:45.734
felt like I didn't know what
to do about climate change,

00:47:45.734 --> 00:47:48.534
and now they said exactly
what we're supposed to do.

00:47:48.534 --> 00:47:49.534
And I'm really glad."

00:47:49.534 --> 00:47:52.300
I was like, wow, you just
got the complete message

00:47:52.300 --> 00:47:55.000
that they were trying to send
out to you, just in a nutshell.

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:57.667
- So in a weird sense,
this is what organizing is.

00:47:57.667 --> 00:48:01.567
And I gotta say, I was thinking more
about what you asked about why I did...

00:48:01.567 --> 00:48:07.167
you know what one of the real answers
to why I ended up doing this, I think?

00:48:07.167 --> 00:48:09.601
I mean, I've spent for
the last 15 or 20 years

00:48:09.601 --> 00:48:11.667
going around and giving a lot of speeches.

00:48:11.667 --> 00:48:14.267
And for 10 years, I would
go and give speeches

00:48:14.267 --> 00:48:19.300
at which I was perfectly good at explaining
all the horrible things that were going on

00:48:19.300 --> 00:48:24.567
but not having anything, really, for anybody
to do beyond a kind of set of vague policy.

00:48:24.567 --> 00:48:28.701
And at certain points, it's
like, this feels wrong.

00:48:28.701 --> 00:48:33.400
If you're going to make
people unhappy about this,

00:48:33.400 --> 00:48:36.400
then you have to give them
something to do about it.

00:48:36.400 --> 00:48:41.000
And so, I mean, I suppose
there's some small, tiny sense

00:48:41.000 --> 00:48:46.234
out of which 350 just grew
out of my own frustration

00:48:46.234 --> 00:48:50.033
at wanting to be able to
give people something to do.

00:48:50.033 --> 00:48:51.567
That's what organizing is...

00:48:51.567 --> 00:48:53.467
- Is planting your
thoughts into their heads?

00:48:53.467 --> 00:48:54.067
- No.

00:48:55.567 --> 00:48:56.367
Not at all.

00:48:56.367 --> 00:49:00.601
Because it's giving people an opportunity.

00:49:03.601 --> 00:49:05.267
This stuff's hard, right?

00:49:05.267 --> 00:49:08.467
It's like, here's me.

00:49:08.467 --> 00:49:10.300
I'm a student at Colorado State.

00:49:10.300 --> 00:49:11.601
And here's Exxon.

00:49:11.601 --> 00:49:18.701
Like, I don't immediately see the way
that I can effectively take on Exxon.

00:49:18.701 --> 00:49:22.767
So organizing isn't doing all the stuff.

00:49:22.767 --> 00:49:28.367
It's just -- at least the way we do --
it's like "Here's an opening you could go

00:49:28.367 --> 00:49:28.767
through.

00:49:28.767 --> 00:49:31.367
We'll help you try to go through it."

00:49:31.367 --> 00:49:36.667
But we have a staff of 40
who work in 191 countries.

00:49:36.667 --> 00:49:39.767
So we're clearly not going
to come do it for anybody.

00:49:39.767 --> 00:49:41.767
They're going to figure it out themselves.

00:49:41.767 --> 00:49:46.434
But organizing is giving people
enough direction and enough confidence

00:49:46.434 --> 00:49:50.000
that they can go start doing that,
and then figure out how to do it.

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:50.701
And they will.

00:49:50.701 --> 00:49:54.367
(LAUGHING)

00:49:54.367 --> 00:49:55.367
- Wow.

00:49:55.367 --> 00:49:56.334
- Do that again.

00:50:00.767 --> 00:50:02.100
- Wow.

00:50:02.100 --> 00:50:03.534
- Unbelievable.

00:50:03.534 --> 00:50:08.334
Ira Glass is a slight-of-hand master.

00:50:08.334 --> 00:50:11.601
(CHATTER AND LAUGHTER)

00:50:11.601 --> 00:50:13.167
- Well, you just made our cut.

00:50:13.167 --> 00:50:14.167
(LAUGHING)

00:50:14.167 --> 00:50:20.133
(ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC)

00:50:20.133 --> 00:50:25.133
(CHATTER)

00:50:33.100 --> 00:50:36.100
(APPLAUSE)

00:50:36.100 --> 00:50:41.467
(BANJO BEING PLAYED)

00:50:45.501 --> 00:50:47.467
Do we have any fracktivists in the house?

00:50:47.467 --> 00:50:49.534
(CHEERING)

00:50:49.534 --> 00:50:55.767
Now we have stopped fracking from occurring
in New York State for the past four years.

00:50:55.767 --> 00:50:57.100
(CHEERING)

00:50:57.100 --> 00:51:03.133
We have stopped fracking from occurring in
the Upper Delaware for the past four years.

00:51:03.133 --> 00:51:05.667
When I first heard about this, I
thought this was something that

00:51:05.667 --> 00:51:08.701
was just happening to me and my community.

00:51:08.701 --> 00:51:11.167
And then when I looked
at this map, I realized

00:51:11.167 --> 00:51:14.567
it was going on in 34
states across the nation.

00:51:14.567 --> 00:51:21.000
And that that was a part of a paradigm
shift to something called "extreme energy."

00:51:21.000 --> 00:51:27.234
You heard Bill talk about tar sands, the
Deepwater Horizon, deep water drilling,

00:51:27.234 --> 00:51:30.501
mountaintop removal -- where literally
they blow the top off of mountains.

00:51:30.501 --> 00:51:36.534
And, of course, fracking for natural gas
-- injecting millions of gallons of water

00:51:36.534 --> 00:51:40.067
laced with toxic chemicals
into shale formations,

00:51:40.067 --> 00:51:43.667
fracturing them at enormous
pressure, and bringing up gas.

00:51:43.667 --> 00:51:47.434
Extreme energy, like Bill says,
is sort of like extreme sports.

00:51:47.434 --> 00:51:49.334
It's not skiing down the mountain slope.

00:51:49.334 --> 00:51:52.033
It's like skiing down the
Empire State Building.

00:51:52.033 --> 00:51:53.501
It's much more polluting.

00:51:53.501 --> 00:51:55.033
It's much more dangerous.

00:51:55.033 --> 00:51:58.767
It emits more and more greenhouse
gases, carbon dioxide, and methane

00:51:58.767 --> 00:52:00.734
into the atmosphere.

00:52:00.734 --> 00:52:07.367
But what it's also done is
something actually quite remarkable.

00:52:07.367 --> 00:52:12.467
What we're seeing in those drilling areas,
in those places where the fossil fuel

00:52:12.467 --> 00:52:17.734
industry is literally bearing down on
people in their homes, as it has done to me,

00:52:17.734 --> 00:52:23.033
is a really growing consciousness
of the fact that we're all in this

00:52:23.033 --> 00:52:25.767
together, that this is one movement.

00:52:25.767 --> 00:52:29.434
The movements about mountaintop
removal and fracking,

00:52:29.434 --> 00:52:33.534
deep water drilling, tar
sands, and climate change,

00:52:33.534 --> 00:52:37.133
are coming together in
one consciousness that

00:52:37.133 --> 00:52:41.334
says, "We have to take the
fossil fuel industry on head-on."

00:52:41.334 --> 00:52:44.234
We could win in New York against fracking.

00:52:44.234 --> 00:52:48.267
We could win in the Upper
Delaware against fracking.

00:52:48.267 --> 00:52:52.033
But we could lose everything we love about
New York State and the Upper Delaware

00:52:52.033 --> 00:52:54.000
to climate change.

00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:56.667
We can't win this battle
by fighting one state

00:52:56.667 --> 00:53:01.067
at a time, one frack well at a time, one
pipeline at a time, one mountain at a time.

00:53:01.067 --> 00:53:05.000
What we have to do is take all those
fingers together and make a fist.

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:10.701
(ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC)

00:53:42.467 --> 00:53:44.234
- This is what I want you to know.

00:53:44.234 --> 00:53:47.467
We went to see Bill in 2006.

00:53:47.467 --> 00:53:51.067
And Bill, I hope you don't mind if
I say that you were discouraged.

00:53:51.067 --> 00:53:54.167
Imagine the weight on the
shoulders of a writer when

00:53:54.167 --> 00:53:57.467
you wrote a book in 1989,
"The End of Nature,"

00:53:57.467 --> 00:54:01.000
that you were carrying that knowledge
of global warming and very few people

00:54:01.000 --> 00:54:02.167
were listening.

00:54:02.167 --> 00:54:05.601
But on a personal note, what I can
tell you is that 23 years ago I

00:54:05.601 --> 00:54:08.767
wrote Mr. McKibben a
letter, asking him if he

00:54:08.767 --> 00:54:12.601
would come to talk to us at the
Utah Museum of Natural History.

00:54:12.601 --> 00:54:13.501
I was nervous.

00:54:13.501 --> 00:54:17.300
I thought, I wonder if he would
consider coming to speak to us here?

00:54:17.300 --> 00:54:21.200
I got a phone call almost immediately
after he received the letter.

00:54:21.200 --> 00:54:23.734
And he said, "I'd love to
come, but on one condition.

00:54:23.734 --> 00:54:25.400
Can I stay at your house?"

00:54:25.400 --> 00:54:28.434
And I thought, this is an unusual person.

00:54:28.434 --> 00:54:29.667
He didn't care about the money.

00:54:29.667 --> 00:54:31.601
He didn't want to stay in a hotel.

00:54:31.601 --> 00:54:34.100
And I think nothing has changed.

00:54:34.100 --> 00:54:36.400
He's now riding a bus.

00:54:36.400 --> 00:54:40.400
I can also tell you that we
have become lifelong friends.

00:54:40.400 --> 00:54:46.000
We were in Mexico, and as he and his wife
Sue Halpern were holding their daughter

00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:51.400
Sophie -- who was a year and a half old
-- we were watching monarchs fluttering

00:54:51.400 --> 00:54:54.300
in the forests that are now gone.

00:54:54.300 --> 00:54:57.534
It was Bill who said, "Close your eyes.

00:54:57.534 --> 00:54:58.634
Listen.

00:54:58.634 --> 00:55:01.300
We can hear the mind of God."

00:55:01.300 --> 00:55:06.067
So I've watched this man, who was a
literary figure, a political figure,

00:55:06.067 --> 00:55:09.133
become actually a spiritual figure.

00:55:09.133 --> 00:55:11.033
And this is his calling.

00:55:11.033 --> 00:55:14.767
Each of us in our own way are making
decisions at this moment in time

00:55:14.767 --> 00:55:18.033
in the name of climate justice
-- which is human justice,

00:55:18.033 --> 00:55:19.767
which is justice for the planet.

00:55:19.767 --> 00:55:22.067
This is our time.

00:55:22.067 --> 00:55:26.100
And it is not about despair,
but prosperity and health.

00:55:26.100 --> 00:55:31.067
And we know this well, that beauty is not
optional, but a strategy for survival.

00:55:44.033 --> 00:55:45.601
- (SPEAKING ANISHINAABE DIALECT)

00:55:45.601 --> 00:55:48.434
That means, "Hello, my relatives."

00:55:48.434 --> 00:55:49.634
Thanks for coming out.

00:55:49.634 --> 00:55:55.100
I came in from Minnesota because I
saw what this movement was doing,

00:55:55.100 --> 00:55:58.167
and I wanted to support all of this.

00:55:58.167 --> 00:55:59.767
In our Anishinaabe prophecies...

00:55:59.767 --> 00:56:01.133
I'm Anishinaabe.

00:56:01.133 --> 00:56:02.300
I'm from the North.

00:56:02.300 --> 00:56:06.067
In our prophecies, they say a long time
ago these prophets came to our people,

00:56:06.067 --> 00:56:08.367
as they do to most.

00:56:08.367 --> 00:56:12.467
And when those prophets came, they
talked about the times ahead of us.

00:56:12.467 --> 00:56:16.534
They call this the Time of the Seventh Fire.

00:56:16.534 --> 00:56:21.634
And in that time, they said that
our people, the Anishinaabe, we

00:56:21.634 --> 00:56:25.234
would be faced with two paths, two mikana.

00:56:25.234 --> 00:56:29.234
And one path, they said, was
well worn but it was scorched.

00:56:31.634 --> 00:56:37.434
The other path, the other mikana, they
said, was not well worn and it was green.

00:56:37.434 --> 00:56:40.767
And it would be our choice
upon which path to embark.

00:56:40.767 --> 00:56:45.534
And I'm pretty sure that that does not just
have to do with us as Anishinaabe people.

00:56:45.534 --> 00:56:47.234
I'm pretty sure that that is now, here.

00:56:50.100 --> 00:56:53.200
And we are those people that have
this choice upon which path to embark,

00:56:53.200 --> 00:56:56.634
and we certainly have a lot of technology.

00:56:56.634 --> 00:56:59.300
We certainly have a lot of
knowledge about what to do.

00:56:59.300 --> 00:57:01.734
It's a question of if we're
going to make it happen.

00:57:01.734 --> 00:57:02.601
So have the courage.

00:57:04.767 --> 00:57:08.767
Those generations that didn't yet
arrive, they need your courage.

00:57:08.767 --> 00:57:11.467
We need us all to stand up.

00:57:11.467 --> 00:57:16.434
And those generations and relatives
that look like us, they have hands,

00:57:16.434 --> 00:57:22.367
but they also have fins and wings
and hooves and paws and roots.

00:57:22.367 --> 00:57:26.467
(APPLAUSE)

00:57:26.467 --> 00:57:30.534
And we're the ones who got
a shot at protecting them.

00:57:30.534 --> 00:57:38.667
(ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC)

00:57:38.667 --> 00:57:39.434
- How you doing?

00:57:39.434 --> 00:57:40.601
- I'm really tired.

00:57:40.601 --> 00:57:41.434
- I'm sure you are.

00:57:43.434 --> 00:57:44.400
This is hard, huh?

00:57:44.400 --> 00:57:47.267
- I'm an old man, and
this is a little crazy.

00:57:47.267 --> 00:57:48.567
- But it must be fun, though.

00:57:48.567 --> 00:57:49.767
- It is fun.

00:57:49.767 --> 00:57:50.667
So far so good.

00:57:50.667 --> 00:57:52.734
It's been quite remarkable.

00:57:52.734 --> 00:57:59.534
Each night, we leave behind a lot of people
who are now prepared, organized, connected,

00:57:59.534 --> 00:58:02.033
ready to go, organizing.

00:58:02.033 --> 00:58:02.701
Which is the point.

00:58:02.701 --> 00:58:04.267
The point is not to have a show.

00:58:04.267 --> 00:58:06.734
The point of the show is to have a campaign.

00:58:06.734 --> 00:58:10.534
Having made that fist, the
question is what to do with it.

00:58:10.534 --> 00:58:13.501
We think that the one thing the
fossil fuel industry cares about,

00:58:13.501 --> 00:58:15.734
the only thing they care about, is money.

00:58:15.734 --> 00:58:17.634
So that's what we're going to go after.

00:58:17.634 --> 00:58:21.734
And we're going to try
not just to play defense.

00:58:21.734 --> 00:58:24.501
We're going to try and play offense, too.

00:58:24.501 --> 00:58:25.467
(APPLAUSE)

00:58:25.467 --> 00:58:31.534
First tool -- first tool we're going to use,
first of several -- is called divestment.

00:58:31.534 --> 00:58:34.501
We're going to ask or we're
going to demand that institutions

00:58:34.501 --> 00:58:40.501
like colleges and churches sell their stock
in Exxon and Chevron and Peabody Coal.

00:58:40.501 --> 00:58:41.701
(APPLAUSE)

00:58:41.701 --> 00:58:45.100
The logic here is brutally simple.

00:58:45.100 --> 00:58:46.167
It's brutally simple.

00:58:46.167 --> 00:58:49.167
We can't avoid using a certain
amount of fossil fuel in our lives.

00:58:49.167 --> 00:58:52.000
That's just how the world
is set up right now.

00:58:52.000 --> 00:58:54.033
But we can avoid profiting from it.

00:58:54.033 --> 00:58:59.501
It's wrong to wreck the climate, and hence,
it's wrong to profit from that wreckage.

00:58:59.501 --> 00:59:03.067
Now that argument worked in a
big way about a generation ago,

00:59:03.067 --> 00:59:06.667
when the apartheid regime was
still ruling in South Africa.

00:59:06.667 --> 00:59:12.667
- In 1988, the nation of South Africa was
still legally divided based on skin color.

00:59:12.667 --> 00:59:14.567
Black people couldn't move freely.

00:59:14.567 --> 00:59:16.334
They had to carry passes.

00:59:16.334 --> 00:59:19.534
They were herded into desolate
Bantunstan reservations.

00:59:19.534 --> 00:59:22.734
Their leaders were murdered by
the police, like Steve Biko,

00:59:22.734 --> 00:59:26.000
or stuck away in prison,
like Nelson Mandela.

00:59:26.000 --> 00:59:29.267
And neither the US government
nor US businesses responded.

00:59:29.267 --> 00:59:33.234
In fact the US considered the
racist government to be an ally,

00:59:33.234 --> 00:59:36.133
and American corporations
made lots of money there.

00:59:36.133 --> 00:59:37.234
That changed.

00:59:37.234 --> 00:59:40.367
People in communities,
on campuses, in churches,

00:59:40.367 --> 00:59:44.767
synagogues, mosques around the
country, insisted that it change.

00:59:44.767 --> 00:59:47.767
They launched a massive divestment campaign.

00:59:47.767 --> 00:59:50.033
It took amazingly hard work.

00:59:50.033 --> 00:59:53.667
People had to persuade their
boards of trustees to sell stock,

00:59:53.667 --> 00:59:57.100
even when those trustees
said it was impossible.

00:59:57.100 --> 01:00:00.634
Lots of people had to occupy
deans' offices, boycott recruiters

01:00:00.634 --> 01:00:05.467
from companies on their campuses,
stage huge rallies, build tent cities.

01:00:05.467 --> 01:00:07.734
They had to go to jail by the thousands.

01:00:07.734 --> 01:00:10.033
But they kept stubbornly at it.

01:00:10.033 --> 01:00:13.100
And quicker than you might
imagine, it started to work.

01:00:13.100 --> 01:00:19.667
By the mid 1980s 155 campuses, including
some of the most famous in the country,

01:00:19.667 --> 01:00:22.033
had divested from South Africa.

01:00:22.033 --> 01:00:28.634
26 state governments, 22 counties, 90 cities
including some of the nation's biggest,

01:00:28.634 --> 01:00:32.367
took their money out of the banks
that did business in that country.

01:00:32.367 --> 01:00:35.601
Pension funds shed their
apartheid-tainted stock.

01:00:35.601 --> 01:00:37.267
And here's the crazy thing.

01:00:37.267 --> 01:00:38.334
It worked.

01:00:38.334 --> 01:00:43.234
The combination of uprisings from within
South Africa and the economic pressure

01:00:43.234 --> 01:00:47.234
coming from outside the country forced
the apartheid government to the table,

01:00:47.234 --> 01:00:52.067
eventually leading to free and open
elections that included every citizen.

01:00:52.067 --> 01:00:54.200
When Nelson Mandela was
released from prison,

01:00:54.200 --> 01:00:57.000
he took one of his first
foreign trips to California.

01:00:57.000 --> 01:01:00.033
And there he spoke to students
who had forced the university

01:01:00.033 --> 01:01:03.767
system there to divest $3 billion in stock.

01:01:03.767 --> 01:01:05.767
And he told them, "Thank you.

01:01:05.767 --> 01:01:08.000
This made a difference."

01:01:08.000 --> 01:01:16.400
- It is you, the people of the Bay Area,
who have given me and my delegation strength

01:01:16.400 --> 01:01:21.133
and hope to go back and
continue the struggle.

01:01:21.133 --> 01:01:25.767
- This story means a lot to us at 350
because one of our very first colleagues

01:01:25.767 --> 01:01:29.767
was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won
the Nobel Peace Prize for his role

01:01:29.767 --> 01:01:31.267
in the fight against apartheid.

01:01:31.267 --> 01:01:32.534
A remarkable man.

01:01:32.534 --> 01:01:33.334
(APPLAUSE)

01:01:33.334 --> 01:01:36.267
And we asked him to
think back on those days.

01:01:36.267 --> 01:01:37.300
And this is what he said.

01:01:39.334 --> 01:01:45.267
- The divestment movement played a key
role in helping liberate South Africa.

01:01:45.267 --> 01:01:49.234
The corporations understood the
logic of money, even when they

01:01:49.234 --> 01:01:54.334
weren't swayed by the dictates of morality.

01:01:54.334 --> 01:02:00.167
Climate change is a deeply
moral issue too, of course.

01:02:00.167 --> 01:02:05.267
Here in Africa, we see the dreadful
suffering of people from worsening drought,

01:02:05.267 --> 01:02:12.400
from rising food prices, from floods --
even though they've done nothing to cause

01:02:12.400 --> 01:02:14.200
the situation.

01:02:14.200 --> 01:02:23.100
Once again, we can join together as a
world and put pressure where it counts.

01:02:23.100 --> 01:02:24.334
(APPLAUSE)

01:02:24.334 --> 01:02:27.133
- There's one sense in which this
fight should be easier for us

01:02:27.133 --> 01:02:32.334
than the apartheid battle, because we have
a very practical stake in all of this.

01:02:32.334 --> 01:02:36.133
We need to say to the people running our
pension funds, like the New York State

01:02:36.133 --> 01:02:41.501
pension fund, it's not OK, not smart
to invest our retirement savings

01:02:41.501 --> 01:02:46.234
in companies whose business plan guarantees
there won't be a planet on which to retire.

01:02:46.234 --> 01:02:50.267
We gotta to say to churches, it's
not OK to pay the minister's salary

01:02:50.267 --> 01:02:55.100
by investing in companies that
are running Genesis in reverse.

01:02:55.100 --> 01:02:58.601
If you're a college, you've got to be
able to say to your board of trustees,

01:02:58.601 --> 01:03:02.734
it looks to us like you're paying for
our education, for which we thank you,

01:03:02.734 --> 01:03:06.601
by investing in companies
whose business plan guarantees

01:03:06.601 --> 01:03:12.133
that there will not be a planet on which
to kind of carry out that education.

01:03:12.133 --> 01:03:15.234
So it's very hard-nosed, practical.

01:03:15.234 --> 01:03:20.567
But the key thing -- the key thing
-- that Archbishop Tutu said,

01:03:20.567 --> 01:03:22.501
the key word was "moral."

01:03:22.501 --> 01:03:26.300
Ultimately, if we're going to make
change on this scale, in this time,

01:03:26.300 --> 01:03:29.701
it's going to have to be because
our hearts are involved, too.

01:03:29.701 --> 01:03:32.467
These are moral battles above all.

01:03:35.400 --> 01:03:40.400
Here's what we're asking: one, no new
investments in fossil fuel companies,

01:03:40.400 --> 01:03:43.634
and two, a firm pledge that
over the next five years

01:03:43.634 --> 01:03:46.467
they'll wind down their current positions.

01:03:46.467 --> 01:03:47.133
OK?

01:03:47.133 --> 01:03:48.501
That's not unreasonable.

01:03:48.501 --> 01:03:51.100
It's hard, but it's not unreasonable.

01:03:51.100 --> 01:03:53.133
And one of the reasons
we know it's possible,

01:03:53.133 --> 01:03:58.367
say on college campuses to make this demand,
is because every last one of them now --

01:03:58.367 --> 01:04:03.367
if you go look at their web pages --
explains in great detail what green

01:04:03.367 --> 01:04:06.200
and sustainable campuses they have become.

01:04:06.200 --> 01:04:14.200
I bet that every college, NYU, Pace,
Columbia, CCNY, Fordham, Long Island

01:04:14.200 --> 01:04:19.033
University, every college up and down
this part of the world, makes that claim.

01:04:19.033 --> 01:04:19.534
And it's good.

01:04:19.534 --> 01:04:21.734
It's good they're building
energy-efficient buildings.

01:04:21.734 --> 01:04:24.200
It's good they're building bike paths.

01:04:24.200 --> 01:04:27.634
If you're going to green the
campus, you've got no reason

01:04:27.634 --> 01:04:31.434
not to green the portfolio
at the same time, OK?

01:04:31.434 --> 01:04:35.334
(APPLAUSE)

01:04:35.334 --> 01:04:39.667
All I want to do as we
finish is basically just

01:04:39.667 --> 01:04:45.100
say thanks, and talk a little bit
about how we'll fight this more.

01:04:45.100 --> 01:04:49.667
When I started working on climate
change, I was back in my '20s.

01:04:49.667 --> 01:04:51.501
That's when I wrote "The End of Nature."

01:04:51.501 --> 01:04:56.567
And my theory of change
back then was simple.

01:04:56.567 --> 01:04:59.334
People would read my book,
and then they would change.

01:04:59.334 --> 01:05:01.000
(LAUGHTER)

01:05:01.000 --> 01:05:04.534
And it turns out, that's
not exactly how it works.

01:05:04.534 --> 01:05:10.133
Change only comes when we stand up for it.

01:05:10.133 --> 01:05:16.234
We're not going to outspend
ExxonMobil in this fight.

01:05:16.234 --> 01:05:21.200
We're going to have to find other currencies
to work in -- the currencies of movement,

01:05:21.200 --> 01:05:25.267
passion, spirit, and creativity.

01:05:25.267 --> 01:05:28.100
And sometimes we're going to
have to spend our bodies, too.

01:05:28.100 --> 01:05:31.434
I want to finish just with
a couple of reflections

01:05:31.434 --> 01:05:36.367
about those arrests, that civil
disobedience that we did a year ago.

01:05:36.367 --> 01:05:39.634
Because it's still very fresh in my mind.

01:05:39.634 --> 01:05:42.300
And there are two things about
it that were really important.

01:05:42.300 --> 01:05:46.234
One was, when we sent out the letter --
when I wrote this letter and got Naomi

01:05:46.234 --> 01:05:50.367
and Wendell Berry and some others
to sign on to send it out --

01:05:50.367 --> 01:05:55.467
one of the things I wanted to make sure of
was that college kids wouldn't have to be

01:05:55.467 --> 01:05:58.434
the only cannon fodder in this fight.

01:05:58.434 --> 01:06:03.501
Right now, if you're 22, having a sort of
an arrest record from the federal government

01:06:03.501 --> 01:06:07.767
may not be the absolute best
thing for your resume, all right?

01:06:07.767 --> 01:06:14.300
One of the few unmixed blessings of
growing older is, past a certain point,

01:06:14.300 --> 01:06:16.100
what the hell are they going to do to you?

01:06:16.100 --> 01:06:17.701
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)

01:06:17.701 --> 01:06:22.667
And so it was great to
go to Washington and see

01:06:22.667 --> 01:06:27.701
that there were a lot of people with a
sort of hairline like mine showing up.

01:06:27.701 --> 01:06:30.100
We did not ask people, how old are you?

01:06:30.100 --> 01:06:31.200
Because that would be rude.

01:06:31.200 --> 01:06:31.601
(LAUGHTER)

01:06:31.601 --> 01:06:37.000
But cleverly, we said, who was
president when you were born?

01:06:37.000 --> 01:06:43.634
The two biggest cohorts came from the
FDR and the Truman administrations, OK?

01:06:43.634 --> 01:06:47.033
(CHEERING)

01:06:47.033 --> 01:06:50.467
On the last day, there was a guy
arrested with a sign around his neck

01:06:50.467 --> 01:06:54.634
that said, "World War II
Vet, Handle with Care."

01:06:54.634 --> 01:06:58.767
He had been born in the Warren
Harding administration, which

01:06:58.767 --> 01:07:04.200
is so long ago I frankly had forgotten that
there was a Warren Harding administration

01:07:04.200 --> 01:07:06.467
to be born in.

01:07:06.467 --> 01:07:10.000
The point I'm trying to make for young
people is just that your elders are

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:15.234
starting to act like elders -- that they're
starting to stand up and do the right

01:07:15.234 --> 01:07:21.267
thing, and that I think they will be with
you as this fight goes forward as alumni,

01:07:21.267 --> 01:07:23.734
as whatever else they are.

01:07:23.734 --> 01:07:28.267
And by the way, if there's anybody in
this room tonight on a college campus

01:07:28.267 --> 01:07:32.534
who happens to have tenure,
this goes triple for you.

01:07:32.534 --> 01:07:33.467
(LAUGHTER)

01:07:33.467 --> 01:07:36.701
This is what tenure was made for, OK?

01:07:36.701 --> 01:07:42.100
(APPLAUSE)

01:07:45.734 --> 01:07:52.367
Second thing, we asked
people to come wearing...

01:07:52.367 --> 01:07:58.534
if they're going to get arrested,
to wear a neck tie or a dress.

01:07:58.534 --> 01:07:59.667
Not because...

01:07:59.667 --> 01:08:01.734
I mean, I live in Vermont.

01:08:01.734 --> 01:08:04.367
We're sort of clothing impaired.

01:08:04.367 --> 01:08:07.334
I mean, necktie is not my thing.

01:08:07.334 --> 01:08:10.667
We did it because we wanted to
make an important visual point --

01:08:10.667 --> 01:08:15.367
the point that underscores the point we've
been trying to make all night here --

01:08:15.367 --> 01:08:19.734
which is that there is
absolutely nothing, nothing,

01:08:19.734 --> 01:08:25.200
nothing radical about what
we're talking about tonight.

01:08:25.200 --> 01:08:31.767
All we are asking for is a world that works
the way the world we were born onto works,

01:08:31.767 --> 01:08:35.567
the way that the world worked for
the 10,000 years of the Holocene

01:08:35.567 --> 01:08:39.701
that all of human history that
we know about took place in.

01:08:39.701 --> 01:08:42.167
That's all we're asking for.

01:08:42.167 --> 01:08:47.534
It's not only not radical, it's at some
level a deeply conservative request.

01:08:47.534 --> 01:08:51.467
Radicals work at oil companies.

01:08:51.467 --> 01:08:54.267
If you get up in the
morning and say to yourself,

01:08:54.267 --> 01:08:58.000
"I'm going to make my
$100,000 today by altering

01:08:58.000 --> 01:09:04.367
the chemical composition of the atmosphere",
then you are engaged in an act more radical

01:09:04.367 --> 01:09:08.000
than any human being
before you has engaged in.

01:09:08.000 --> 01:09:12.300
And it is our job to
figure out how we're going

01:09:12.300 --> 01:09:16.567
to check that radicalism
before it overwhelms

01:09:16.567 --> 01:09:19.701
everything that's good on this planet.

01:09:19.701 --> 01:09:22.367
That's our job.

01:09:22.367 --> 01:09:24.634
Look, as we close, I'll
just tell you the truth,

01:09:24.634 --> 01:09:28.400
which is that we're not
certain that we can do this.

01:09:28.400 --> 01:09:33.300
The science is dark, and the power
on the other side is immense.

01:09:33.300 --> 01:09:33.701
Immense.

01:09:35.367 --> 01:09:39.400
We're not certain that we're going to win.

01:09:39.400 --> 01:09:41.300
But we're certain we're going to fight.

01:09:41.300 --> 01:09:45.767
And I gotta say, just looking
around this crowded room tonight --

01:09:45.767 --> 01:09:50.133
I don't know about you, but
I kind of like our odds.

01:09:50.133 --> 01:09:51.334
Thank you all so much.

01:09:51.334 --> 01:09:56.667
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

01:10:14.434 --> 01:10:18.767
(MUSIC PLAYING)

01:10:56.334 --> 01:11:00.567
There's a pipeline right here, and
it's being inflated as we speak.

01:11:00.567 --> 01:11:03.100
The pipeline will lead us out.

01:11:03.100 --> 01:11:06.767
(MUSIC PLAYING)

01:11:06.767 --> 01:11:11.200
(CHANTING) Hey, Obama, we
don't want no climate drama!

01:11:11.200 --> 01:11:12.567
Hey, Obama!

01:11:12.567 --> 01:11:18.467
(DRAMATIC ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

01:11:21.200 --> 01:11:22.167
- The bill is passed.

01:11:22.167 --> 01:11:25.033
Without objection, the motion to
reconsider is laid on the table.

01:11:25.033 --> 01:11:27.334
(GAVEL POUNDS)

01:11:27.334 --> 01:11:31.100
- The net effects of the
pipeline's impact on our climate

01:11:31.100 --> 01:11:34.300
will be absolutely critical to
determining whether this project is

01:11:34.300 --> 01:11:35.300
allowed to go forward.

01:11:35.300 --> 01:11:40.701
(DRAMATIC ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

01:11:43.701 --> 01:11:49.667
- I'm here because I have an obligation
to my children, my ancestors,

01:11:49.667 --> 01:11:54.267
our future generations,
and our one true mother.

01:11:54.267 --> 01:11:59.267
(DRAMATIC ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

01:12:18.601 --> 01:12:23.200
(DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING)

01:13:28.434 --> 01:13:37.033
- (SINGING) I'm gonna let it shine, let
it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

01:13:37.033 --> 01:13:39.000
- Everywhere I go...

01:13:39.000 --> 01:13:41.000
- Everywhere I go...

01:13:41.000 --> 01:13:42.400
- I'm gonna let it shine.

01:13:42.400 --> 01:13:44.400
- I'm gonna let it shine.

01:13:44.400 --> 01:13:46.000
- Everywhere I go...

01:13:46.000 --> 01:13:47.167
- Everywhere...

01:13:47.167 --> 01:13:49.100
- We're gonna win this fight.

01:13:49.100 --> 01:13:52.067
The question is -- and it's
a really deep question --

01:13:52.067 --> 01:13:54.467
are we going to win it in time to matter?

01:13:54.467 --> 01:14:01.167
(MUSIC - NAHKO AND MEDICINE
FOR THE PEOPLE, "MANIFESTO")