McKibben to Speak on Climate Change and 2020 Election in Columbus

Event: Climate Change Talk

Location: 103 Kottman Hall, School of Environment and Natural Resources, 2021 Coffey Road

Date: Thursday, October 10, at 7 p.m.

Type of event: Campus

 

I wanted to go to this event because my geography professor mentioned it in class, so I dragged my friend Sarah along to accompany me because I didn’t want to go. I’m interested in climate change and wanted to hear about how it will come into play in the upcoming presidential election candidates’ platforms. It was on a Thursday during fall break, so I was lucky I wasn’t going home until the weekend so that I had the opportunity to attend the talk. It was at Knottman Hall, so Sarah and I had a lengthy bike ride across the bridge. The event was in a fairly small lecture hall (not like a huge auditorium) and Bill McKibben was on the screen because he talked to us over video call! The event allowed audience members to ask him questions and he answered them. However, unlike the title projected, the talk hardly revolved around the 2020 election. 

Hearing Bill McKibben, environmentalist and founder of 350.org (a climate change movement), talk about climate change and the future for our planet is an extremely important topic for the entire planet. This connects to IA because McKibben talked about how every country needs to put in effort toward this cause. Encouraging other countries is important, but we need to also focus on our own. We need to elect a leader with a progressive platform. We need to take charge and make changes to our governing body to have a leader that doesn’t ignore climate change nor put it on the back-burner. Essentially, we all need to start doing things now to combat climate change if we want something to happen by 2030. McKibben said that if we wanted to make real change we could.

My favorite part was when an audience member got up to the camera and asked McKibben- how do we pay for it (the green new deal)? And McKibben basically said- cost compared to what? That was so profound to me as he explained that the costs in the future from the effects of climate change are far greater than any preventative methods we would take now. One example is that as the temperature increases and the sea levels increase, land that people live goes under water, so they would have to be relocated (which costs a lot of MONEY). I thought that him acknowledging that the cost now is less than it will be in the future was important because it was an argument I hadn’t heard before. I think it should be publicized more. 

While I don’t plan on pursuing any career like my geography professor, Dr. Mark, or Bill McKibben, climate change is a matter that I take very seriously. I personally encourage others to look at it the same way that McKibben, Dr. Mark, and I look at it.