lightblueline

Last night we heard writer/activist (the slash is rather new, he would admit) Bill McKibben offer a vision of what a civilization-wide response to the challenge of global heating might look like. This is the fourth, and last, talk in the series organized by liner (and UCSB professor) David Lea. Much of what McKibben offered could be described as an antidote to the economics of growth. We need an economics based on an understanding of what makes humans happy. He noted that a survey of happiness in the US had this commodity peaking in 1956.

Our new local internet news source, the Santa Barbara Newsroom (April 30, 2007) reported on McKibben's talk:

"Writer and activist Bill McKibben put out a call for action on climate change at UCSB Sunday night, and it went beyond plugs for energy-efficient light bulbs and gas-sipping cars. To start with, he said, America needs a powerful political effort — something as big as the Civil Rights movement.

'Nothing short of that will do,' he told the audience of several hundred people.

Then it's time to rethink the country's goals, he said. Economic growth, in the traditional sense, isn't good for the environment, he argued — or for Americans."
...
"It's time, he said, to build stronger local communities — to 'Think Globally, Act Neighborly,' he said, quoting a friend's bumper sticker. McKibben pointed to the growing popularity of farmers' markets as a step in the right direction. The food on offer hasn't been lugged across the country, and shopping at a farmers' market has been shown - scientifically — to be much more social than a trip to the supermarket. McKibben also envisages an energy system that's akin to a farmers' market: the power generated by his solar panel might run his neighbor's fridge.

We should, he said, 'try to reel in some of the supply lines that we spent the last century flinging out.'

McKibben also wants Americans 'to feel good about the things we should feel good about.' For Santa Barbarans, that could mean celebrating the popularity of cycling.

All in all, he thinks the United States could learn a lot from European societies that consume less and have stronger communities."

You can read the entire Newsroom article by Anna Davison here:
Think Globally, Act Neighborly