You think OWS is radical? You think 350.org was radical for helping organize mass civil disobedience in D.C. in August against the Keystone Pipeline? We're not radical. Radicals work for oil companies. The CEO of Exxon gets up every morning and goes to work changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere. No one has ever done anything as radical as that, not in all of human history.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the concept of radicalism by highlighting the true radical actions of corporations harming the environment.
Bill McKibben's quote challenges the perception of activism as radical by contrasting it with the destructive practices of large oil companies. He asserts that the real radicals are those who prioritize profit over the health of the planet, specifically pointing to executives who knowingly alter the atmosphere for their gain, which is far more radical than any form of civil disobedience or environmental activism.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech at an environmental rally to emphasize the importance of activism.
The religious environmental movement is potentially key to dealing with the greatest problem humans have ever faced, and it has never been captured with more breadth and force than in RENEWAL. I hope this movie is screened in church basements and synagogue social halls across the country, and that it moves many more people of faith off the fence and into action.
Remember...this year has already seen more billion-dollar weather-related disasters than any year in US history. Last year was the warmest ever recorded on planet Earth. Arctic sea ice is near all-time record lows. Record floods from Pakistan to Queensland to the Mississippi basin; record drought from the steppes of Russia to the plains of Texas...This is what climate change looks like in its early stages.
Alone among businesses, the fossil-fuel industry is allowed to dump its main waste, carbon dioxide, for free.
The laws of Congress and the laws of physics have grown increasingly divergent, and the laws of physics are not likely to yield.
We've built a new Earth. It's not as nice as the old one; it's the greatest mistake humans have ever made, one that we will pay for literally forever.
Climate change is the single biggest thing that humans have ever done on this planet. The one thing that needs to be bigger is our movement to stop it.
I do think that you're starting to see young people pay attention to some longterm issues that they feel Washington has neglected.
The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.
Self-deception ultimately explains Japan's plight. The Japanese have never accepted that change is in their interest - and not merely a response to U.S. criticism.
He did not know that the child who had asked for yesterday was now seeking to own tomorrow.
We must develop huge demonstrations, because the world is used to big dramatic affairs. They think in terms of hundreds of thousands and millions and billions... Billions of dollars are appropriated at the twinkling of an eye. Nothing little counts.
Free public transportation is the single biggest step we could take toward economic mobility, racial equity, and climate justice.
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