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Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben Quotes

Environmentalist

Bill McKibben, born on December 8, 1960, is an American environmentalist renowned for his deep research and advocacy on climate change issues. His work highlights the impact of human activities on the Earth, particularly the destruction caused by industrialization and consumerism.

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Famous Bill McKibben Quotes

“Because the financial power of the fossil-fuel industry is so great it can, and has, delayed any real action of the climate issues almost everywhere.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“There is an urgent need to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, dramatically reduce wasted energy, and significantly shift our power supplies from oil, coal, and natural gas to wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy sources.”

“With each month that passes, a solar panel gets 2 or 3 percent cheaper. So while we're holding the fossil fuel industry in check, the engineers in the renewable energy world are undercutting them from the other side.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“I think that so far the political and economic power of the fossil fuel industry has trumped all else.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“I think we need to go straight at the fossil fuel industry.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“I don't think the fossil fuel industry will listen, not until we build up a lot of pressure. I do think we can persuade some shareholders that they don't want to be involved in this enterprise.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“Other thing we need to understand is that the financial power of the fossil fuel industry has so far prevented even any minor progress. They have a sweetheart deal unlike any other business on Earth: they're allowed to dispose of their waste for free, to use the atmosphere as an open sewer. And they will do all they can to defend that special privilege.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“It's off the charts - and if you don't believe the scientists, ask the insurance industry, the people we pay to analyze risk in our society.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“We couldn't outspend the fossil fuel industry - they have more money than God.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“We'd like to get the fossil fuel industry on the back foot for a while, having to deal with us.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“Speaking for me, I think the odds of bankrupting Exxon are pretty small, but I think the odds of politically bankrupting them are higher. I think if we can use this as a vehicle to get out the analysis that these guys have 3-5 times as much carbon in the ground as the most conservative government thinks would be safe to burn, then that politically stigmatises them, makes them into the rogue industry that they are.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“We're going to need that kind of movement, because the fossil fuel industry is a sprawling adversary - at work everywhere, its tentacles in everybody's politics, invulnerable, I think, to direct frontal assault, but probably more brittle than it guesses if we come at it from all sides.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“My guess is that liberating the fossil fuel industry to frack anywhere they want will drive down the rate at which we're converting to sun and wind. And it's entirely a rate problem at this point.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“We have to figure out ways to scare and entice our leaders more effectively than the fossil fuel industry has managed to scare and entice them. They've got the big checkbooks. We've got to have the big crowd.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“I try not to be either optimistic or pessimistic. I try not to think about outcomes on that scale. My job, it seems to me, is to wake up every morning and figure out how to cause as much trouble for the fossil fuel industry as I can.”

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Author:Bill McKibben

“Alone among businesses, the fossil-fuel industry is allowed to dump its main waste, carbon dioxide, for free.”

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Author:Bill McKibben