Let Us Praise American Activists

++"The arc of the physical universe is short and bends toward heat." Bill McKibben

++Bill McKibben finished his stint as guest editor at Andrew Sullivan's The Dish by leaving his family recipe for granola for the readers. He had extravagant praise for the staff and left an appreciation of the work he takes to generate copy at time limits spaced throughout the day.

++One of the things I didn't know or have long forgotten was that McKibben wrote for the New Yorkers' Talk of the Town section. He also helped create the homeless shelter at the Riverside Church in Manhattan.

++Do yourself a favor and watch McKibben's sermon at Riverside Church entitled "God's Taunt"at the church's website or the Daily Kos, where he urges the congregation to continue to mobilize for climate change awareness.

++McKibben points out the difference between this movement and the civil rights movement. Bayard Rustin made the remarkable claim that the thing he remembered about Freedom Summer was that it was fun. Police dogs and fire hoses and beatings? Fun? Yes,Bayard said,"The cause was just and we knew we were going to win." The difference McKibben says about the climate change movement that there is no guarantee it will win but at least people are called to "witness."

++In his sermon, McKibben starts with Job as the first serious writing on nature and points to a cranky Old Testament God asserting his mastery over the earth and dictating when the waves should stop. McKibben says we have gotten to the point where humanity's actions are challenging that position because we have caused the seas to rise and the polar caps to melt and drought to plague the land.

++McKibben makes the case that climate change is the justice issue of our time and not the province of white rich liberals. He points to his five-year old 350.org, which has organized thousands of demonstrations around the world and that it is predominantly poor,black, brown, and young like today's global demographic. We can absorb the slight increase in Cornflakes caused by drought but the peasant who depends on cornmeal and tacos in the developing world can not.

++After writing on climate change for 25 years and being jailed countless times for his activism,McKibben has helped organized the People's Climate March in New York City on September 21. 

++In his piece at The Daily Dish,McKibben answers the questions readers had about such an endeavor. Yes, they will be using fossil fuels to get there. Yes,it would be better if there was a carbon tax. Yes, it would be better still to move to alternative fuels. He points to the uphill struggle against companies who have made more money than any companies in the history of the world.

++Against all odds,McKibben has been the mover on the divestment movement by colleges,universities and cities to dump fossil fuel stocks. Encouraged by Desmond Tutu, one of his advisers,this movement will not dent the profit margins of the oil and coal industry but is aimed to make a statement that it is not moral to turn the sky into a sewer.

++Bill McKibben is an exemplar of those who create activist organizations and carry on a grand American tradition. Long may he carry on.