Oh, I wasn't just watching a film on soil to celebrate Earth Day this year, I was also digging up my front lawn, harvesting rhubarb, planting kale, and watching a 42-minute film about climate change. A very important film with a powerful, simple message: Do the Math...and then Do Something.
The film features Bill McKibben and the work of his powerhouse climate-change action group, 350.org. Only they don't call it "climate change" or "global warming" (which sounds innocuous, even cozy) but "climate crisis." Which is what we are facing, which is what we can longer pretend is too complex and big and out of our control to do anything about.
According to McKibben, a warming of the Earth by just 2°C, will put an end to Nature and life on Earth as we know it. Scientists have already documented half this rise. We can burn less than 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide and stay below 2°C of warming.
No matter how many Priuses or bus tickets we buy, how many incandescent light bulbs we change out for LEDs, or how many times we lobby our elected officials to create Green jobs, our efforts will amount to little if we do not take on the fossil fuel industry.
Little old me? Take on the Big Oil Giants? Yup.Based on current reserves of gas, coal, and oil--reserved the fossil-fuel corporations are planning to burn--we will pump 2,795 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is five times the safe amount. Why don't they stop? Money. The profits are too great and greed to entrenched. Unless....
Unless every "little old me" joins the movement to end this madness, this crisis in the making. The most effective action to take right now, according to McKibben, is for everyone one of us to encourage corporations, universities, colleges, pension funds, churches, state treasuries to divest--to get rid of stock, bonds, and investments in fossil-fuel corporations.
Click here to make a big difference. They've made it easy. Trust me. The very least thing you could do for Mother Earth is to click your mouse.
If you're not sure you buy the climate crisis "argument," or need to have The Math explained, Click here to read Bill McKibben's article in Rolling Stone magazine where it's all spelled out. (If you're over 30, think how "cool" you'll feel quoting the Rolling Stone !)