Bill McKibben Speaks on Keystone, Vermont Winters at Green Mountain College Talk
POULTNEY, Vt., Feb. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Vermont author and activist Bill McKibben spoke last night in Green Mountain College's Ackley Auditorium, touching on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project and the cold temperatures and snow plaguing New England this winter.
His talk "Imagining World Communities" addressed ways in which humans are reassessing traditional approaches to providing food, energy, transportation and governance in response to rapid environmental and economic changes.
McKibben said warmer air around the globe causes more moisture to be held in the atmosphere. When storms occur, this added moisture can fuel heavier precipitation in the form of rain or snow. "What we're seeing this winter is entirely consistent with what climate scientists expect to see," McKibben said.
McKibben noted that global temperatures in 2014 were the highest for any year since reliable records have been kept. "In fact the ten warmest years on record have all happened since 1998," he said. "Globally this was the second warmest January ever recorded. So don't take this winter weather for granted–go out and enjoy every single, cold minute."
McKibben has long been a detractor of the Keystone XL pipeline proposed by TransCanada. The pipeline would pump oil extracted from the Alberta tar sands through Montana and South Dakota to Steele City, Neb.
McKibben sees the postponement of a vote on Keystone as a victory for advocates of clean energy over big oil. Citing the rapid growth of renewable energy like wind and solar, he noted that economics may already be working against the fossil fuel industry.
"In the past six years the price of solar panels on this planet has dropped 75%. We are reaching the point where the sheer logic and beauty of the (solar) engineering will wreck the business model of the fossil fuel industry."
McKibben, the author of The End of Nature and founder of 350.org, gave the talk as the first scholar in residence of the Green Mountain College's new Master of Science in Resilient and Sustainable Communities (MRSC) program.
Students learn about land-use planning, economic development, energy production, food systems and resource management. Each residency offers an annual opportunity for students to interact with each another, faculty members, and the visiting scholar.
McKibben congratulated GMC for being among the first colleges to divest from publicly-traded companies which hold most of the world's known coal, oil and gas reserves.
SOURCE Green Mountain College
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