Climate One Radio
Blessed 350

Guests:
Paul Hawken, Author, Blessed Unrest
Bill McKibben, Founder, 350.org; Author, Eaarth

Description:
Bill McKibben and Paul Hawken, two of the most influential environmentalists of the past 30 years, share the same stage for just the second time in their long careers in public life. They discuss the ailing economy, the economy we must build in order to stave off the threat of climate change and the forces that stand in the way.

“We got into this predicament by artificially stimulating consumption for the past 40 years,” notes Hawken. McKibben agrees. Since the end of World War II he says, “the basic animating force of that economy was the task of building bigger houses farther apart from each other. It’s a project that ended up being environmentally ruinous and socially ruinous too.”

The way forward is studded with challenges. “What we need to change,” Hawken says, “is the system.” “Most people understand that climate change is an incredibly serious problem about which we need to do something,” McKibben adds. “Our problem is far and away caused by the fact that the fossil fuel industry, which is the most profitable industry on Earth, has all of the financial means at their disposal to keep us from taking action.”

Yet, adapting to a clean, sustainable economy is possible. “My only real worry,” says McKibben, “is that climate change is happening so fast that it may knock the props out from under the whole thing before we can get to where we need to go.”

This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on September 8, 2011.

Climate One Radio
Blessed 350

Guests:
Paul Hawken, Author, Blessed Unrest
Bill McKibben, Founder, 350.org; Author, Eaarth

Description:
Bill McKibben and Paul Hawken, two of the most influential environmentalists of the past 30 years, share the same stage for just the second time in their long careers in public life. They discuss the ailing economy, the economy we must build in order to stave off the threat of climate change and the forces that stand in the way.

“We got into this predicament by artificially stimulating consumption for the past 40 years,” notes Hawken. McKibben agrees. Since the end of World War II he says, “the basic animating force of that economy was the task of building bigger houses farther apart from each other. It’s a project that ended up being environmentally ruinous and socially ruinous too.”

The way forward is studded with challenges. “What we need to change,” Hawken says, “is the system.” “Most people understand that climate change is an incredibly serious problem about which we need to do something,” McKibben adds. “Our problem is far and away caused by the fact that the fossil fuel industry, which is the most profitable industry on Earth, has all of the financial means at their disposal to keep us from taking action.”

Yet, adapting to a clean, sustainable economy is possible. “My only real worry,” says McKibben, “is that climate change is happening so fast that it may knock the props out from under the whole thing before we can get to where we need to go.”

This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on September 8, 2011.