Noted environmentalist, author, and journalist Bill McKibben spoke to a full Chapel on Monday, February 19 about global warming and preservation of the environment. "Global warming is a moral challenge," he said, "because it is a direct strike at the poorest, most marginalized people in the world." With the melting of polar ice and glaciers, entire island nations are projected to be covered by the rising sea level. He continued by explaining that the United States contains 7% of the world population, while it produces 25% of the world's carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has been shown to be one of the major contributors to global warming. McKibben argued that global warming deserves the same attention that the civil rights movement of the 1960's had.
He used the Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) as a symbol of excessive consumption, and something that individuals could change fairly easily. He urged current and potential SUV owners to make their next cars smaller and more fuel-efficient. A closing statistic placed SUVs in a frightening light. "Driving an SUV, rather than a smaller car, for one year uses as much energy and puts as much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as leaving your refrigerator door open for six years."
