This is our fourth Q&A with our esteemed advisor, Bill McKibben. He spoke near my childhood home a few nights ago, and has been almost continuously on the road raising awareness about the importance of the number 350 and building a movement to fight climate change.

If you have a question for Bill, please do send it along to askbill [AT] brighterplanet [DOT] com.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed that the financial crisis should not “weaken our resolve on climate change.” As organizations, companies, and individuals face a blue economy, does “going green” still make sense?

I fear it makes more sense than ever. It’s true it’s going to be harder to raise the money for it. On the other hand, it’s the only plausible big new source of jobs for a depressed economy–you can’t send your house to China to get the solar panel stuck on top–and it’s ultimately the best way to really save some money. i.e., once you’ve got the solar panel, the sun is free.

What is the most urgent environmental message to send to Congress under a new Obama Administration this winter?

Cut our emissions fast–but then also concentrate on building the kind of international program that offers real hope of reaching a global bargain when the world comes together to set a new treaty in December of 2009.
(This is the work Bill and his team are engaged in at 350.org)!

Does carbon pricing affect the price of gasoline?

Yes–it will go up, so people will use less. But we can rebate the money back to people so the price signal remains intact without bankrupting anyone. Here’s a good link that explains the basic idea: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/18/AR2008101801537.html

If you want to read the other Q&As with Bill, click here.

–Carolyn

Dear Friends,

Something really beautiful is happening tomorrow. Tens of thousands of people are organizing events in all 50 states to tell our leaders that we’re ready to tackle the climate crisis by building a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. “Green Jobs Now: A Day to Build the New Economy” has been put together by Green for All, 1Sky, the We Campaign, Energy Action Coalition and over 100 other amazing and diverse partners.

If you’re not already involved, please go to www.greenjobsnow.com — find an event, plan your own, sign the petition or help us spread the word.

Across the country, people recognize that the economic, energy and climate crises are connected, and have developed real solutions that I believe represent our best path forward. In New York, where I’m from, the Green Jobs NY campaign is pushing for a program to retrofit a million homes in 5 years - to fight global warming, create quality jobs with pathways out of poverty, and put energy bill savings back in consumers’ pockets. In the Southwest, where I live, the Navajo Green Economy Coalition has partnered with the Navajo Speaker’s Office to propose a Green Economy Fund to finance green job training programs and sustainable economic development initiatives to transition the tribal economy.

Green Jobs Now aims to raise these local efforts up as a model, and to come together to call on our national leaders to bring these solutions to scale. We can put America back to work rebuilding and repowering America with millions of green-collar jobs. Please join us: www.greenjobsnow.com.

All my best,
Billy

Billy Parish is the Co-Founder and Coordinator of the Energy Action Coalition, dedicating his life’s work to strengthening the climate movement. Billy has been instrumental in bringing the “Green Jobs Now!” message to Washington, and we are delighted to have him on our Advisory Board.

This month, I have been revisiting the declaration that Sissel Waage and I made in our book: “Yes, we can” (and no, we don’t mind that a certain presidential candidate has also adopted the phrase!) Last year, this was our confident answer to the question: “Can we really win this fight against global warming?,” and our certainty was based on our faith in the power of individuals to bear witness to injustice, build coalitions, take their elected officials to task, and transform societies — the very power that shattered Jim Crow, ended apartheid, and ushered in women’s rights.

I admit, though, that I have recently had my doubts. Earlier this year, James Hansen and colleagues wrote that the world must reduce atmospheric concentrations of CO2 from about 390 parts per million to below 350 as soon as possible. If Hansen is right (and no climate scientist has had a better track record in the last 30 years), this is humanity’s most daunting task, ever.

So, can we really do this? The truth is that no one knows, but we must try. This, it seems to me, is the essence of Al Gore’s magnificent challenge last month to eliminate all carbon-based sources of electricity in ten years. We must try, as impossible as this goal may seem.

There is good news: Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to attend a gathering of like-minded folks in Salzburg, Austria for a four-day session titled “Combating Climate Change at Local and Regional Levels: Sustainable Strategies, Renewable Energy.” The array of locally-based solutions was breathtaking: the rapid growth of biomass in Northern Austria (see Dave Robert’s account in The Grist), the transformation of Freiburg, Germany into a sustainable city, and the building of a clean-energy coalition in the Midwest.

These and other recent examples (see this stunning compendium of Global Warming Solutions that Work from Rob Sargent and his colleagues) illustrate some simple truths about building local and regional solutions: you need strong leadership, a diverse enough coalition, and a emphasis on economic development alongside the call for sustainability and climate justice. Throw in a dash of luck, and determined coalitions really can make a rapid transformation to clean-energy.

And yet … it’s simply not enough. Add up all of the locally and regionally based solutions of the last decade, and we still are only making a modest dent on our collective greenhouse gas impact. Ultimately, we need the strongest possible national and global policies. In the words of Thomas Friedman, we need to change the rules and scale up.

In fact, I believe that this is the true value of all of the extraordinary local and regional initiatives that I learned about in Salzburg: as learning laboratories for global scaling up. By pursuing locally-based solutions to this global challenge, leaders are learning what technologies are most cost-effective, how to finance these technologies with private and public support, and how to build new coalitions. We will need these and other lessons, big time, as we build global institutions for scaling up. (On this essential topic, read the compelling “Climate Choreography” from Lew Milford and his colleagues.)

How to accelerate this process of changing the rules, scaling up, and building new institutions? That’s where the global climate movement comes in. With the strongest possible national legislation from the next American president and a renewed commitment to collaboration from the world’s leaders, we can begin to move towards a carbon-free future. So make a video, join 1Sky, We Can Solve It or other groups and become active in your community. And don’t forget to begin at home: assess your own impact and take steps to conserve what you can, and offset the rest. May the drive to 350 begin. The world can’t wait.

-Jon Isham, co-founder of Brighter Planet

In addition to founding Brighter Planet, Jon is the Luce Professor of Environmental Economics at Middlebury College and co-editor of the book “Ignition: What You Can Do to Fight Global Warming and Spark a Movement“.

This is our third Q&A with our advisor, Bill McKibben. Last time I spoke with Bill, he was in China participating in a teleconference for the G8 meetings in Japan. Now he and a teammate from 350.org are meeting with groups from all parts of China that are doing their own organizing to raise awareness and build a movement to fight climate change. The hope is that 350.org can unify all of these actions into one large global movement!

If you have a question for Bill, send it along to askbill AT brighterplanet DOT com. We’re eager to hear from you!

I read “The End of Nature” to prepare for an Environmental Ethics class I was helping teach at San Francisco State. One major concept I drew upon from the book is the idea that there is a 50-year lag from the “global warming” effects we are feeling from excess carbon, so that even if we stopped dead in our tracks (as if that were possible) we can expect dire consequences from what we have already done. Is that assessment still true today or has it accelerated or changed in some other way?

Russel Kilday-Hicks

Thank you, Russell. Your understanding is, sadly, correct. We’re not going to “stop global warming”. We’ve already warmed the planet a degree, and there’s another degree and a half in the pipeline from carbon we’ve already emitted. What we’re talking about now is just trying to prevent absolute catastrophe from crossing the real tipping points–check out 350.org for the latest science.

I am very concerned about what’s happening to bee colonies with colony collapse disorder (CCD). I’m sure you’ve heard the quote that was attributed to Einstein: “No more bees, no more pollination…no more men!” Do you think this CCD phenomenon - which could threaten our agricultural base (and is now also affecting bats, our beloved mosquito-eaters) is related to climate change?

Emily Fano, Holistic Moms Network

Climate seems to be one part of the equation here, but there are also pesticides implicated, and the general folly of treating bees as industrialized workers, shipping them across the continent every month. The answer here is clear, I think, we need a sustained, steady move in the direction of low-input local agriculture. Which means, among other things, that we need more farmers!

Thank you for all your efforts on behalf of climate change. I am trying to make a difference in my own community and hope to be as bold as you have been. Like many people, I feel great despair over the impending future of our planet and what it will mean to the natural world, including the human race. I fear for my children and their children. What is the thought that you keep in your mind, to give you hope?

Julie Buck, Castle Rock, CO

Julie, thanks for that question. I find that action is the best antidote to despair, for young people as well as old. The inspiring pleasure of organizing a couple of thousand demonstrations across the country at StepItUp, and now of trying to do the same thing globally at 350.org, keeps me from fixating on the darker possibilities. I’m not convinced we’ll win in the end (I did, after all, write a book with the cheery title “The End of Nature”), but I am convinced that we can put up a fight, and that that’s important, and that if we do there’s a chance we’ll have some real effect.

Bill McKibben, Brighter Planet friend and advisor extraordinaire, is back to answer your questions. Remember, if you’d like to ask Bill a question of your own, send it to askbill AT brighterplanet DOT com. We look forward to featuring your questions in upcoming editions!

And if you missed the first edition, check it out.

I think many people would like to have an auto that emits minimal pollutants and I see that Tesla Motors has come out with an auto like this…but it’s $60,000. Way out of the range of the average consumer. This is such a frustrating situation. It’s the same with adding solar to one’s home. The price is such that many people will not even consider it or actually afford it. What can we do to bring about a situation where your average person can afford these devices that will make the world better for all of us?

Rita Childers, Kenab, Utah

Happily, there’s nothing most of us need that costs $60 grand. If you can financially buy a new car, then buy a small hybrid; if you can’t, then work to limit trips and take advantage of public transit. But here’s the really good news: getting politically involved doesn’t cost anything. And if we can win the battles at the highest levels that we’re righting at 350.org, then all of a sudden you’ll find many more choices for each of us in our daily lives.

In your view, what would you say the role of spirituality, especially that of organized Christianity, if any, us in curbing climate change & enhancing sustainability?

Matt Young, St. Lawrence ‘09

I’d say it’s one of the most important developments in the last few years that organized religion seems finally to have joined in this fight. I’m particularly glad that evangelical Christians have broken sharply with the Bush administration orthodoxy and begun putting real political pressure on Washington for a solution. Look — religious institutions are among the last forces in our society that can still posit some reason other than material accumulation for human existence. They are therefore potentially highly subversive. Let’s hope they live up to that Gospel imperative.

Most recommendations to reduce global warming ignore a vital component: meat. The bloody business of meat is greatly implicated in the production of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, the three leading greenhouse gases.

How can we get to 350, or lower, without sharply reducing meat production and consumption, given that the livestock industry produces more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation industry?

Dan Brook, Sociology Dept San Jose State University

I don’t think we can get to 350 with the whole world eating an American diet, heavy in grain-fed beef. We need real changes in diet in the rich world (because we also can’t afford the heath consequences of eating like we do). But replacing factory beef with factory soybeans isn’t the answer, and actually does less for greenhouse emissions than you’d think. We need to head in the direction of local agriculture, and of treating meat, if we eat it at all, the way most of the world’s cuisines do — as a flavor, not a big honking slab.