Getting Past Fire: Moving Fast to a Post-Combustion Planet

On Tuesday, 11 July 2023, in the second installment of this year’s REthink Energy lecture series, which is co-organised by ESB and the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), we heard from Bill McKibben, renowned environmentalist, prolific author, and founder of the climate campaign organisations 350.org and Third Act. McKibben’s keynote address, titled Getting Past Fire: Moving Fast to a Post-Combustion Planet, focused on how to overcome the challenges posed by anthropocentric climate change.

Fires and Floods

McKibben opened by noting that, in the 10 days prior to the event, the world had experienced the hottest days ever recorded by scientists. While the scientific dataset only dates back to 1979, proxy records suggest that these are the hottest temperatures on planet Earth for at least 125,000 years and have resulted in heat waves in China and the American South-West, as well as vast forest fires across Canada. McKibben noted that, with heat comes flooding, because warm air holds more water vapour than cold air, meaning that while arid areas are experiencing drought and fire, wet areas are faced with downpour and deluge. Japan, he observed, is recovering from the largest rainfalls in its history, with huge flooding also taking place in other parts of Asia and Europe. McKibben, who joined the webinar from Vermont in the Northeast of the United States, noted that his home state was not immune to this diluvial destruction, with state’s capital city of Montpellier being partially evacuated due to flooding.

We Know the Science – It’s Time to Heed It

McKibben, who authored The End of Nature in 1989, which is regarded as one of the very first books to deal with climate change, has said that the climate science was clear 30 years ago. Despite the understanding that burning fossil fuels emits carbon, which traps heat in the atmosphere, and the entirely accurate predictions about the problems this could cause, humans have pumped out more CO2 over the past thirty-four years than in all human history up to that point. According to McKibben, this is due in large part to what he sees as the “irresponsible campaign of deception” led by the fossil fuel industry.

McKibben warned that the next 18 months will be chaotic, as the ocean’s surface warms during El Niño and as temperatures soar to record highs. If we are to avoid the catastrophic rise above 2°C of warming, he noted, we must cut emissions by 50% by 2030, which is a mere six years and five months away. This, he said, is the hardest deadline humans have ever faced, and will require fast and decisive action. The good news, he argued, is that the price of wind and solar energy has dropped by “about 90%” over the course of the last decade. The fact that the cheapest method to produce power is to point a sheet of glass at the sun, and that the second cheapest method is to spin a windmill in the breeze, is “Hogwarts-scale magic,” he said.

Getting Past Fire

Drawing on anthropological research, McKibben observed that humans have been controlling fire for about 700,000 years. This allowed early humans to cook food, which led to the development of the human brain; it facilitated a move away from the equator to distant regions of the Earth; it even helped create the social bonds that mark our species, who passed on knowledge and wisdom by ‘telling stories by the light of campfires’, he said. Modernity, McKibben noted, was produced through the burning of coal, oil, and gas, but he argued that we are now at the point where the cost of large-scale combustion outweighs its benefits. Climate change, he said, is the biggest challenge humans have ever faced, and if it is not sufficiently addressed, we will severely circumscribe the future of our species and of many others. He referenced recent meta studies which indicate that about 9 million (or “one in five”) human deaths per year are associated with inhaling the particulate matter produced by the burning of fossil fuels. With the advent of solar and wind energy, air source heat pumps, and electric vehicles, McKibben argued, we now have the power to overcome this problem by rapidly ending large-scale combustion on our planet.

Money and Power

McKibben then shifted his focus to the fight that he and others are waging against the consolidated political power of the fossil fuel industry. As long as society is dependent on fuels like coal, oil, and gas – which are scarce and highly concentrated – those who control these resources end up with a disproportionate preponderance of power, he said, offering Vladimir Putin’s command of the gas pipeline to Europe as an example of this. Solar and wind resources, on the other hand, are available everywhere, and should therefore be adopted at scale, as quickly as possible. The fact that the fossil fuel industry is preventing this from happening in pursuit of profit, he said, shows that the real fight is not about data and reason, but money and power.

McKibben detailed his efforts to break the political power of the fossil fuel industry through organised campaigning. As founder of 350.org, which became the first global, grassroots climate movement in 2008, and of Third Act, which unites people over the age of 60 to campaign for climate justice, McKibben has dedicated much of his life to this cause. The goal of Third Act, he said, is to provide young people – who possess an abundance of intelligence, idealism and ingenuity – with the structural power of their elders, which is needed to bring about effective political change. McKibben referenced several mass protests in which his organisations have been involved, saying these demonstrations encourage swift political action.

Choose Heaven, Not Hell

Casting the human struggle against climate change in religious terms, McKibben noted that we now have the ability to harness the power of a God-given gift that hangs in the sky 93 million miles away: the sun. He noted that we can catch the sun’s rays on photovoltaic panels, and harness the wind created by its differential heating of the earth with turbines, rendering the use of fossil fuels redundant. We are capable of powering our world with energy from ‘Heaven,’ and no longer need to rely on energy from ‘Hell,’ he argued. Continuing, he stressed that if we fail to abandon the terrestrial power of fossil fuels in favour of the celestial power of wind and solar, we will be condemned to suffer the consequences of our inaction. McKibben argued that the last time we faced a comparable challenge as a species was in the 20^th Century fight against fascism. He concluded his address by stating that if we are to succeed in the monumental task that lies before us, then we must bring the same focus and intensity to the fight against fossil fuels that our forebearers brought to the fight against fascism.

Key Takeaways

1. It's Bad

Despite decades of warnings from the scientific community, humans have neglected our duty as custodians of the planet and have continued to burn fossil fuels at an alarming rate. With soaring temperatures, biblical flooding, and extreme weather events becoming increasingly common, the situation facing our species is dire. We must act now to curb large-scale combustion on our planet or suffer the consequences.

2. There’s Hope

Modern technology means we can power our planet with renewable energy from the sun and wind, and replace fossil fuels for good. To use McKibben’s analogy, we must choose ‘Heaven over Hell,’ replacing the earthly power of fossil fuels with the celestial power of solar and wind.

3. The Fight is Against Political Power

According to McKibben, the fight against global warming is not about data and reason, but money and power. The global fossil fuel industry is extremely profitable and has amassed huge political power, holding sway over numerous governments across the world. The focus of climate activists must be on removing political influence from the hands of the fossil fuel industry and transferring it to the consumer.

4. We Need to Mobilise. Now.

For McKibben, the best way to address the challenges posed by anthropocentric climate change is the immediate and widespread uptake of renewable energy and the cessation of large-scale combustion. Achieving this will require mobilisation on a scale that has not been seen since the 20^th Century fight against fascism. This is the largest test ever facing humanity, and the consequences of inaction will be severe, he concluded.