Eugene Public Library
Feb. 17, 2008
Eugene, Oregon

I. INTRODUCTION

I feel very privileged to address all of you today. Though we are a room full of strangers to one other, I can think of two things we all share in common: First, we like the planet we live on, and second, not one of us is very well prepared to live on a different planet. Yet that is how scientists describe Earth -- a “different planet” -- if we don’t begin slashing carbon very soon. Mark Lynas put it bluntly in an article he wrote a few years ago:

If we go on emitting greenhouse gases at anything like the current rate, most of the surface of the globe will be rendered uninhabitable within the lifetimes of most readers of this article.

Six days ago the Mayor of New York City addressed a UN climate conference and said that curbing global warming is just as important as stopping nuclear proliferation and terrorism. As Mayor Bloomberg put it: "Terrorists kill people, weapons of mass destruction have the potential to kill enormous numbers of people. Global warming long-term has the potential to kill everybody."

The fact we must face is that no one on this planet is going to be unaffected by climate change as time goes on. Our collective future hinges on our response today. As individuals, we can choose one of two paths. We can either put our heads in the sand and pretend nothing is happening, or we can find our role in this crisis. Unfortunately, the sheer scope and horror of global warming makes the problem so daunting that many simply choose the former path, living life day to day as if nothing is looming in their future. The purpose of this talk is to bring climate crisis to a conceptual level that ordinary citizens can act on. It is often said that throughout history “ordinary people have considered it their responsibility to do something extraordinary.” At the end of this talk, I’m going to ask you to do something extraordinary – to serve your country in the biggest defense effort Humanity has ever undertaken.