Bill McKibben
Writer and climate campaigner; wrote The End of Nature in 1989, founded 350.org and Third Act, and writes The Crucial Years.
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What they believe
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The Trump presidency is characterized by idiocy, perfidy, and graft.
You could pick any week in the last two years and come up with roughly the same kind of idiocy and perfidy and graft; the Trump presidency is an ongoing evil MadLibs.
billmckibben.substack.comSaid 29 Oct 2026This on korrents
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Changed their mind Burning biomass is a good alternative to fossil fuels
Now I previously personally supported burning bio-mass as an alternative to fossil fuels—in my case, when the rural college where I teach replaced its oil furnaces with a wood-chip burner more than a decade ago, I saluted it.
Said 22 Apr 2020This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These one: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
3 November
29 October
From one piece The President is Equal Parts Moron and Monster 2 beliefs · billmckibben.substack.com
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Their words
So the key thing, of course, far beyond debate on this bill, is to try and defang that monster, and the chief method for that is simple: win the elections Tuesday in as sweeping a fashion as possible.
The President is Equal Parts Moron and Monsterbillmckibben.substack.com
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Their words
You could pick any week in the last two years and come up with roughly the same kind of idiocy and perfidy and graft; the Trump presidency is an ongoing evil MadLibs.
The President is Equal Parts Moron and Monsterbillmckibben.substack.com
22 October
18 October
From one piece Are the peace movement and the climate movement the same thing? 2 beliefs · billmckibben.substack.com
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Their words
If we lived on a planet that ran mostly on wind and solar power, war would be less likely.
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Their words
it is very simple to see the degree to which oil plays a crucial part in so many of these conflicts, as cause, as weapon, and increasingly as vulnerability.
13 October
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korrents.com
Building only clean energy without reducing fossil energy will not effectively combat climate change.Their words
If what we’re worried about is reining in climate change, then we have to build huge amounts of clean energy and that has to quickly drive fossil energy down to zero. If we just build lots of both, or even just a little more of clean energy than dirty, than we haven’t gotten anywhere.
Making the Decent the Enemy of the Desperatebillmckibben.substack.com
9 October
From one piece From Bad to Better 3 beliefs · billmckibben.substack.com
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korrents.com
The United States is currently engaged in a battle against the transition to clean electricity.Their words
Unlike the 25 Asian countries that have outlined a strategy for transition to clean electricity, we’re currently engaged in a battle against that transition.
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Their words
As it happens, when you accurately inform people about the crisis we face, their desire to act goes up dramatically.
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korrents.com
El Niño, likely exacerbated by climate change, will raise temperatures to levels no human has yet experienced.Their words
El Niño, likely exacerbated by climate change and definitely riding in on top of already overheated seas, will raise temperatures to places that no member of our species has yet experienced.
6 October
From one piece A human environmentalism 2 beliefs · billmckibben.substack.com
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Their words
AI represents a remarkable threat to the jobs on which many of us depend
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Their words
There are a series of profound pragmatic reasons to worry about the rapid growth of AI, some of which I’ve described before.
1 October
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korrents.com
If new transmission corridors are matched by new gas pipelines, not much climate progress has been made.Their words
If transmission corridors are matched by new gas pipelines, we haven’t made much progress.
29 September
25 September
22 September
15 September
From one piece The Two Horsemen, Riding in Formation 3 beliefs · billmckibben.substack.com
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Their words
it was a chance to stand up to the oligarchs and this technology they've staked their future on.
The Two Horsemen, Riding in Formationbillmckibben.substack.com
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korrents.com
Politicians routinely underestimate how much the public cares about climate and environmental issues.Their words
politicians routinely underestimate the potency of this whole complex of issues.
The Two Horsemen, Riding in Formationbillmckibben.substack.com
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Their words
one way to understand a data center is that it's a device for burning natural gas, the latest excuse (after Ukraine and Iran) for the fuel that Big Oil is counting on to keep its business model afloat even as the world turns away from internal combustion cars and crude demand begins to drop.
The Two Horsemen, Riding in Formationbillmckibben.substack.com
7 September
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korrents.com
Carbon capture technology is worth continuing to research, even though it is not yet a solution to climate change.Their words
It is entirely prudent to keep researching and testing carbon capture technology-someday it may be part of the solution to the greatest problem humanity has ever faced.
1 September
31 August
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 44 beliefs, 1 changed mind — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
The Trump presidency is characterized by idiocy, perfidy, and graft.
You could pick any week in the last two years and come up with roughly the same kind of idiocy and perfidy and graft; the Trump presidency is an ongoing evil MadLibs.
The President is Equal Parts Moron and Monster Said 29 Oct 2026
Winning elections in a sweeping fashion is the chief method to defang Donald Trump.
So the key thing, of course, far beyond debate on this bill, is to try and defang that monster, and the chief method for that is simple: win the elections Tuesday in as sweeping a fashion as possible.
The President is Equal Parts Moron and Monster Said 29 Oct 2026
Oil is a central cause and weapon in many modern conflicts.
it is very simple to see the degree to which oil plays a crucial part in so many of these conflicts, as cause, as weapon, and increasingly as vulnerability.
Are the peace movement and the climate movement the same thing? Said 18 Oct 2026
Show 41 more
A transition to wind and solar power could reduce the likelihood of war.
If we lived on a planet that ran mostly on wind and solar power, war would be less likely.
Are the peace movement and the climate movement the same thing? Said 18 Oct 2026
Building only clean energy without reducing fossil energy will not effectively combat climate change.
If what we’re worried about is reining in climate change, then we have to build huge amounts of clean energy and that has to quickly drive fossil energy down to zero. If we just build lots of both, or even just a little more of clean energy than dirty, than we haven’t gotten anywhere.
Making the Decent the Enemy of the Desperate Said 13 Oct 2026
El Niño, likely exacerbated by climate change, will raise temperatures to levels no human has yet experienced.
El Niño, likely exacerbated by climate change and definitely riding in on top of already overheated seas, will raise temperatures to places that no member of our species has yet experienced.
From Bad to Better Said 9 Oct 2026
Accurately informing people about the climate crisis increases their desire to act.
As it happens, when you accurately inform people about the crisis we face, their desire to act goes up dramatically.
From Bad to Better Said 9 Oct 2026
The United States is currently engaged in a battle against the transition to clean electricity.
Unlike the 25 Asian countries that have outlined a strategy for transition to clean electricity, we’re currently engaged in a battle against that transition.
From Bad to Better Said 9 Oct 2026
The rapid growth of AI poses several profound pragmatic reasons for concern.
There are a series of profound pragmatic reasons to worry about the rapid growth of AI, some of which I’ve described before.
A human environmentalism Said 6 Oct 2026
AI represents a significant threat to many people's jobs.
AI represents a remarkable threat to the jobs on which many of us depend
A human environmentalism Said 6 Oct 2026
If new transmission corridors are matched by new gas pipelines, not much climate progress has been made.
If transmission corridors are matched by new gas pipelines, we haven’t made much progress.
Reform or Regression? Said 1 Oct 2026
AI data centers function mainly as a new way to sustain natural gas demand for an oil-and-gas industry facing declining gasoline demand.
one way to understand a data center is that it's a device for burning natural gas, the latest excuse (after Ukraine and Iran) for the fuel that Big Oil is counting on to keep its business model afloat even as the world turns away from internal combustion cars and crude demand begins to drop.
The Two Horsemen, Riding in Formation Said 15 Sept 2026
Politicians routinely underestimate how much the public cares about climate and environmental issues.
politicians routinely underestimate the potency of this whole complex of issues.
The Two Horsemen, Riding in Formation Said 15 Sept 2026
Opposition to AI data centers is driven partly by resistance to concentrated corporate power, not only by local environmental concerns.
it was a chance to stand up to the oligarchs and this technology they've staked their future on.
The Two Horsemen, Riding in Formation Said 15 Sept 2026
Carbon capture technology is worth continuing to research, even though it is not yet a solution to climate change.
It is entirely prudent to keep researching and testing carbon capture technology-someday it may be part of the solution to the greatest problem humanity has ever faced.
Facts on the ground Said 7 Sept 2026
Rapidly building out cheap solar, wind and battery capacity is currently the one climate action the world knows how to execute at scale.
there is actually one thing we do know how to do, and that is build out lots of cheap solar, wind, and batteries.
Facts on the ground Said 7 Sept 2026
Scaling up clean energy is more effective when it is paired with retiring fossil fuel infrastructure.
Building clean energy is much more likely, and much more effective, if we're also shutting down dirty energy.
Facts on the ground Said 7 Sept 2026
Elon Musk's political backing of anti-EV, anti-clean-energy politics has undone far more good than his earlier advocacy for electric vehicles did.
Whatever good he did with his early advocacy for electric vehicles has now been undone a hundred times over with his advocacy for the people who hate EVs and all the other things we need.
Two Men Said 1 Sept 2026
Switching to sustainable energy is the one effective, scalable tool available to prevent catastrophic climate change.
"Just switching to sustainable energy" is in fact the one good, scalable weapon we have to fight that
Two Men Said 1 Sept 2026
Elon Musk's dismantling of US humanitarian aid will cause millions of indirect deaths, making him one of the deadliest people in history.
Musk's victims already number in the millions-a Lancet study predicts 14 million by 2030 as the indirect results of shutting down America's humanitarian work, which puts him up there in the Stalin/Mao category, and almost certainly the most deadly human of this millennium.
Two Men Said 1 Sept 2026
The United States has become the world's biggest force pushing to keep burning fossil fuels even as the world shifts away from oil.
in a world beginning to turn away from oil, the United States has become the biggest force trying to insure we keep pouring carbon into the atmosphere.
The growing rumble Said 30 Aug 2026
The upcoming U.S. elections are the last real chance to shift fast enough from oil and gas to solar and wind to limit global warming.
But physics is giving us very little time now, and so the next set of elections in this country will be, I think, our last real chance to make the sea change-replacing oil and gas with sun and wind-that is our best hope for limiting warming.
The growing rumble Said 30 Aug 2026
Expanding North Sea oil drilling would not reduce UK energy prices, because oil prices are set on a global market.
This would accomplish nothing to reduce energy prices, since oil prices are set on a global market and there's not enough crude left off UK shores to influence that number.
The growing rumble Said 30 Aug 2026
Physical systems change abruptly past a threshold rather than declining gradually
But that's not how physical systems work. You push them and then past a certain point things change.
Reality intrudes Said 25 Aug 2026
Global warming has already reached a level at which serious harm is occurring
We have made it hot enough on this planet that things are going very wrong.
Reality intrudes Said 25 Aug 2026
Rapidly deploying renewable energy now would slow further warming rather than reverse it
At this point it won't lower the temperature rapidly, but it could keep it from climbing rapidly.
Reality intrudes Said 25 Aug 2026
The buildout of AI data centers is part of a broader extension of oligarchic control over people's lives.
It's clear by now that this is all part of the extension of oligarchic control over our lives.
A year in, the data center/AI battle starts to clarify Said 21 Aug 2026
AI and the data-center buildout underlying it pose real and significant dangers to society.
Its's clear by now that AI, and the data center development underlying it, pose real and significant dangers.
A year in, the data center/AI battle starts to clarify Said 21 Aug 2026
The limitations of being human are what make being human worth experiencing.
But it seems increasingly clear to me that those limitations are precisely what makes being a human so interesting.
A year in, the data center/AI battle starts to clarify Said 21 Aug 2026
Battery storage is becoming the defining transformative energy technology of the second half of the 2020s, as solar and wind were of the first half.
Batteries are the transformative technology for the second half of this decade, as sun and wind were for the first half
Fun with numbers Said 13 Aug 2026
The 'intermittent power' criticism long aimed at solar and wind now applies more truly to other energy sources, including nuclear and natural gas.
that charge long leveled at sun and wind-that they provide "intermittent power"-is probably truer now of other energy sources
Fun with numbers Said 13 Aug 2026
Windfall profits oil companies earn from wartime price spikes should be taxed.
It would of course make great sense to tax these windfall profits, earned entirely on the back of dead Iranians and Americans, and everyone who's paying $4.50 a gallon at the pump.
Fun with numbers Said 13 Aug 2026
The world as we know it has ended, even if we don't know it yet
The world hasn't ended, but the world as we know it has—even if we don't quite know it yet.
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (St. Martin's Griffin, 2011; first published 2010) Said c. 2010–2011
We imagine we still live on the old planet
We imagine we still live back on that old planet
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (St. Martin's Griffin, 2011; first published 2010) Said c. 2010–2011
Global warming is no longer a future threat; it is our reality
global warming is no longer a philosophical threat, no longer a future threat, no longer a threat at all. It’s our reality.
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (St. Martin's Griffin, 2011; first published 2010) Said c. 2010–2011
Carbon dioxide has carried us to a new planet
We have traveled to a new planet, propelled on a burst of carbon dioxide.
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (St. Martin's Griffin, 2011; first published 2010) Said c. 2010–2011
We are running Genesis backward, de-creating
We're running Genesis backward, de-creating.
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (St. Martin's Griffin, 2011; first published 2010) Said c. 2010–2011
We have already crossed into the end of nature
we have already stepped over the threshold of such a change: that we are at the end of nature.
The End of Nature (Random House, 1989) Said c. 1989
The end of nature is not the end of the world
By the end of nature I do not mean the end of the world.
The End of Nature (Random House, 1989) Said c. 1989
Changing the atmosphere will change the weather
We have changed the atmosphere, and that will change the weather.
The End of Nature (Random House, 1989) Said c. 1989
By changing the weather we make every spot on earth man-made
By changing the weather, we make every spot on earth man-made and artificial.
The End of Nature (Random House, 1989) Said c. 1989
Taking away nature's independence is fatal to its meaning
We have deprived nature of its independence, and that is fatal to its meaning.
The End of Nature (Random House, 1989) Said c. 1989
The idea of nature will not survive global pollution
The idea of nature will not survive the new global pollution
The End of Nature (Random House, 1989) Said c. 1989
Human politics and ways of life now reach every inch of the globe
Politics — our particular way of life, our ideas about how we should live — now blows its smoke over every inch of the globe.
The End of Nature (Random House, 1989) Said c. 1989
What is a korrent?
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Recent
Loved Patterns
Recommends Climate-Colored Goggles
Sammy Roth has been an invaluable source of climate analysis at the LATimes, and I'm glad he's bringing his work to Substack!
Where they publish
Newsletter The Crucial Years His newsletter on the climate fight. Has a feed.
Open billmckibben.substack.com
Recent
- Election eve 3 Nov 2026 I had my Vote! shirt on today because Third Act is running through the tape. Our Party Line senior-to-senior outreach moves into final get-out-the-vote mode today; we’ve already passed half a million phone and text cont…
- The President is Equal Parts Moron and Monster 29 Oct 2026 Which makes it hard to cut a deal with him
- Elections should not be this important 22 Oct 2026 But they are
Show 17 more
- Are the peace movement and the climate movement the same thing? 18 Oct 2026 The solar panel is the new peace symbol
- Making the Decent the Enemy of the Desperate 13 Oct 2026 Or perhaps vice-versa--some notes on permitting reform
- From Bad to Better 9 Oct 2026 The arc of the physical universe bends towards heat, but maybe we can bend it back
- A human environmentalism 6 Oct 2026 Slightly weird edition with some thoughts on the AI moment
- Reform or Regression? 1 Oct 2026 A hard calculation at a hard moment
- Amazon Crime 29 Sept 2026 And Other Tales of Billionaire Lying from the Data Center Wars
- A Sunny Week in New York 25 Sept 2026 At least in certain ways
- Hold my (warm) beer 22 Sept 2026 It’s Existential Crises Week!
- The Two Horsemen, Riding in Formation 15 Sept 2026 Is There Suddenly an Opening for AI and Climate Sense?
- Facts on the ground 7 Sept 2026 Two things matter now: votes, and solar panels. (And wind turbines. And batteries)
- Two Men 1 Sept 2026 One as great as America ever produced, and the other Elon Musk
- So, Naomi Klein live today 31 Aug 2026 And with Ayana Johnson!
- The growing rumble 30 Aug 2026 Politics--alas--is what we need
- Reality intrudes 25 Aug 2026 We can’t actually keep on like this
- A year in, the data center/AI battle starts to clarify 21 Aug 2026 And the anger is profound
- Fun with numbers 13 Aug 2026 A datacenter is an oil well, and other insights
- Take Five 7 Aug 2026 The Crucial Years at the halfway point
Link verified 20 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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