Bill McKibben on climate change

Bill is the founder of the worldwide 350 degrees movement, and he recently gave a presentation at the Embassy theatre in Wellington, which I attended. If you would like to know more google 350.org or google Bill McKibben.

Basically, Bill contends that scientists have calculated that no more than 565gigatonnes (billion tonnes) of fossil fuels can be burned before 2050, if the world wants to limit global temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees as agreed in the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference. However, according to the British Carbon Tracker initiative, present known reserves of oil, gas and coal already on company books total 2795 tonnes.

Bill is promoting divestment in fossil fuel companies. Apparently this is a growing movement in the USA, with many churches, universities, local government bodies and some private foundations going down this path.

My issues with this approach is that it ignores the current realities of people’s lives. If we want less reliance on fossil fuels and I think we do, even if it is just to make sure that future generations have access to some of this resource, then we urgently need to come up with workable everyday solutions! For this reason, I am interested in rooftop photovoltaics, electric transport, including electric bicycles, and well insulated housing…

I will continue to post on all of these topics , and welcome contributions from others.