Bill McKibben Quotes

I believe climate change is real - and I believe we have to act to protect the climate as fast as we possibly can.

ISIS is not an existential threat to the United States. Climate change is a potential existential threat to the entire world if we don't do something about it.

To resolve the climate crisis, good will, statements of intent are not enough. We are at breaking point.

I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change. No longer than a decade at most.

If enough of us stop looking away and decide that climate change is a crisis worthy of Marshall Plan levels of response, then it will become one.

Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it may be - given the devastation it is wreaking - should be enough to compel all elected leaders to take immediate action.

Now comes the threat of climate crisis - a threat that is real, rising, imminent, and universal. Once again, it is the 11th hour. The penalties for ignoring this challenge are immense and growing, and at some near point would be unsustainable and unrecoverable. For now we still have the power to choose our fate, and the remaining question is only this: Have we the will to act vigorously and in time, or will we remain imprisoned by a dangerous illusion?

Will we confront climate change in time or will we let fossil fuel companies determine our fate? This is a fight we can't afford to lose, and that's what keeps me moving forward.

Our house is burning down and we are blind to it. The earth and humankind are in danger and we are all responsible. It is time to open our eyes. Alarms are sounding across all continents. We cannot say we did not know! Climate warming is still reversible. Heavy would be the responsibility of those who refuse to fight it.

The science [of global warming] is beyond dispute... Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response

The world was warned of extremely severe dangers unless urgent steps are taken to deal with global warming.

If you think about the impact of climate change, [it should be how] a doctor would deal with the problem. A scientific hypothesis is tested to absolute destruction, but medicine can't wait. If a doctor sees a child with a fever, he can't wait for [endless] tests. He has to act on what is there. The risk of delay is so enormous that we can't wait until we are absolutely sure the patient is dying.

I happen to believe that one of the great crises facing the planet is climate change. Donald Trump happens not to think that climate change is real. Hillary Clinton takes it seriously.

I'm willing to engage or indulge real ideas, but if we don't do something [about global warming], we're all going to die! What's it going to take, a big f--ing disaster with all kinds of people dying? We need to change our priorities fast.

Is it 10 years, 20, 50 before we reach that tipping point where climate change becomes irreversible? Nobody can know. There's clearly a probability distribution. We need to ensure this planet, and we need to do it quickly.

My interest is that there is a disconnect between the science and the size of the threat that people mention about nature, the planet and the climate, and the emotion that this triggers. So we are supposed to be extremely frightened people, but despite that we appear to sleep pretty well.

The best way to deal with climate change has been obvious for years: cut greenhouse-gas emissions severely. We haven't done that. In 2010, for example, carbon emissions rose by six per cent - the largest such increase on record.

As signs of climate instability increase, radical and rapid action is becoming ever more urgent.

Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority.

The effects of climate change are real and must be acted on.

We must start to treat climate change as what it is - a threat to United States security. And we must not delay.

What's happening to our world? Imagine the year 2000 and our ozone layer has vanished... Our planet has a fever and she is burning up - what will you do?

I've been producing documentaries on global warming for 20 years and have seen the early warnings of extreme weather events come true.

For reasons we don't have to get into, climate change has become an incredibly polarized issue in the United States. I think that is sad. My own personal view is that we're in a planetary emergency such has not been seen in 600,000 years.

Global warming is a crisis greater than WWI and WWII put together. Government leadership is lacking, so companies must play their part.