But both are aimed at wrecking America.
Bloomberg interview McKibben:
Bill McKibben published The End of Nature in 1989, one of the first popular books to explain global warming. In recent years, he has turned to climate change activism, founding 350.org in 2008 with seven undergraduate students to build “a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis,” according to its website. The group now has about 50 employees and works with voluntary organizers in approximately 190 countries. McKibben is one of the most visible activists fighting the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would deliver Canadian oil sands crude into the U.S., if approved by the Obama administration.
McKibben answered writers and editors’ smart questions at a Bloomberg Government breakfast this morning. And this dumb one.
Dumb Question: A recent book about environmental economics lists your activist work next to the successes of Mahatma Gandhi and Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai. Is the Bill-McKibben-endgame a Nobel Prize?
Bill McKibben: The interesting thing about this movement is it really has no leader at all. I, as you can tell, am the furthest thing from an activist leader. I’m a writer. My career is as a journalist. That’s what I like to do, know how to do. I can’t make a speech to save my life. I don’t understand Washington or any of that stuff. I do my small part in all of this but it’s a leaderless movement. And that’s an interesting thing.
The fossil fuel industry, when Al Gore emerged as the leader of this, destroyed him. They and their friends in the GOP completely unfairly destroyed his reputation here — happily, not abroad. And he’s doing a lot of work and a lot of good around the world, where people, for some reason, admire Nobel Prize winners who got it right about the biggest question in our world, 20 years ago. For some reason, that’s held in high esteem in the rest of the world.
If I were the fossil fuel industry, I’d be worried about this movement precisely because it has no leaders.
DQ: Al-Qaeda is set up this way, too.
BM: The difference is, the commitment to nonviolent action is a really powerful thing, far more powerful in the end. When we look back on the 20th century, I’m convinced that, far more than nuclear power and things, the interesting invention of the 20th century may have been nonviolent civil disobedience. And as you look at what’s happened in the last 10 years around this world, far more than al-Qaeda, it’s things like the Arab Spring that have begun to reshape the world in which we live.
I’m confident this movement will continue to grow and reshape things. I’m not completely confident it will happen in the time frame that physics allows us. That’s why it’s a really interesting contest, and a contest with by far the highest stakes that human beings have ever played for. Ever.
If you haven’t read “State of Fear” by the late Michael Chrichton, please do so now.
If you have read it, read it again.
He was way ahead of his time in exposing the evil of the environmental crowd.
Ahhhh–The science of insults. Sounds like Mr. Bell’s IQ may be approaching ambient temperature.
Robert, these are terrorists. When they want to push the prices of basics like electricity and gas through the roof which will raise the price of everything then yeah, they are economic terrorists. If I had my way Greenpeace, WWF et al would be labelled as terrorist organizations and it would be illegal to belong to them. Their leaders and top funders would be jailed and they would be disbanded.
Anyone who stands in the way of prosperity is an economic terrorist and a traitor. This includes Obama, with his failure to green-light Keystone XL, demonizing coal and drilling on federal lands.
The enemy is truly within the gates.
This is just a non sequitur put forth to provide cover when these wackos are called out. No they can claim that they are being compared to terrorists, etc. Then the lemmings fall directly into line and start singing the part line.
These people are merciless, with the environmentalists being the worst. They play for all the marbles:
“‘Put a stake through the heart of this monster,’ Victor Maene of the environmental group 350.org told the commission’s policy and implementation committee . . . The new (gas-fired) plant would replace BLE’s 49-year-old, 450 megawatt coal-fired plant, which for decades has been cited by state and federal agencies for air pollution violations.”
~David O’Reilly, “Plan to put gas pipeline in Pinelands spurs ire.”
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20130727_Plan_to_put_gas_pipeline_in_Pinelands_spurs_ire.html
The visible threat is usually never the greatest one.
Well, as long as it’s only religiose world dominance through subjugation that they share.
He has textbook Grandiose Delusion Disorder. His work is “a contest with by far the highest stakes that human beings have ever played for. Ever. “
Some non-violence. He is more than willing to use the heavy handed gun of government to inflict his fraud on the rest of us. That makes him a thug by proxy. At least the al-Qaeda membership puts their lives on the line and don’t hide behind nameless and faceless enforcers.
One religion is populated by a lot of intolerant, ignorant crazies, the other worships Allah.
McKibben may be non-violent. Some of his allies are happy to destory property at least.
Perhaps worse: McKibben’s devotion to ending cheap energy condemns many to a reduced standard of living and some of those die due to hardships related to a poor standard of living. He should look up deaths related to energy poverty — and I mean in the US and UK, not Mozambique. It’s a lot worse in Mozambique.