2014 was the warmest year on record. Globally, of course. You may be seeing single digits in the Midwest and thinking, “Warmest what? That’s crazy talk!” Well, despite how it may seem sometimes, the Midwest is not the world. The world is hot.
And in Stockholm, Sweden, near the end of the warmest year on record, as he received the Right Livelihood Award (known as the Alternative Nobel Prize), Bill McKibben spoke of what’s already being done — and what still needs to be done — in the fight against climate change. Somewhere in the middle of his acceptance speech (excerpted above), he said:
“If you invest in fossil-fuel companies, you profit from the destruction of the Earth. That’s the definition of dirty money. Those who invest in fossil-fuel companies are making a wager that the world will do nothing to combat climate change. That’s an immoral wager.”
The wager he spoke of won’t change because of politicians. It will change because of us.