Bill McKibben
Everything, newest first — across every channel. Their profile → · Subscribe
Hiding
3 November
29 October
From one piece The President is Equal Parts Moron and Monster 2 beliefs · billmckibben.substack.com
-
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
-
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
-
Their words
If we lived on a planet that ran mostly on wind and solar power, war would be less likely.
-
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
-
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
-
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.
-
Their words
As it happens, when you accurately inform people about the crisis we face, their desire to act goes up dramatically.
-
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
-
Their words
AI represents a remarkable threat to the jobs on which many of us depend
-
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
-
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, in the piece's order there
-
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
-
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
-
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
From one piece Facts on the ground 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there
-
korrents.com
Scaling up clean energy is more effective when it is paired with retiring fossil fuel infrastructure.Their words
Building clean energy is much more likely, and much more effective, if we're also shutting down dirty energy.
-
Their words
there is actually one thing we do know how to do, and that is build out lots of cheap solar, wind, and batteries.
-
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
From one piece Two Men 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there
-
Their words
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.
-
korrents.com
Switching to sustainable energy is the one effective, scalable tool available to prevent catastrophic climate change.Their words
"Just switching to sustainable energy" is in fact the one good, scalable weapon we have to fight that
-
energypoliticselectric vehicles
Their words
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.
31 August
30 August
From one piece The growing rumble 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there
-
korrents.com
Expanding North Sea oil drilling would not reduce UK energy prices, because oil prices are set on a global market.Their words
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.
-
Their words
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.
-
Their words
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.
25 August
From one piece Reality intrudes 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there
-
korrents.com
Rapidly deploying renewable energy now would slow further warming rather than reverse itTheir words
At this point it won't lower the temperature rapidly, but it could keep it from climbing rapidly.
-
Their words
We have made it hot enough on this planet that things are going very wrong.
-
Their words
But that's not how physical systems work. You push them and then past a certain point things change.
21 August
From one piece A year in, the data center/AI battle starts to clarify 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there
-
Their words
But it seems increasingly clear to me that those limitations are precisely what makes being a human so interesting.
-
korrents.com
AI and the data-center buildout underlying it pose real and significant dangers to society.Their words
Its's clear by now that AI, and the data center development underlying it, pose real and significant dangers.
-
korrents.com
The buildout of AI data centers is part of a broader extension of oligarchic control over people's lives.Their words
It's clear by now that this is all part of the extension of oligarchic control over our lives.
13 August
From one piece Fun with numbers 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there
-
Their words
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.
-
Their words
that charge long leveled at sun and wind-that they provide "intermittent power"-is probably truer now of other energy sources
-
Their words
Batteries are the transformative technology for the second half of this decade, as sun and wind were for the first half
7 August
Nothing matches.
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
About the English under a post
Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.
The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.
Only the post's own words are translated. A quoted post, a linked article and a belief on korrents.com are left in their original language.