Danger and hope both drive Bill McKibben, a world-famous environmentalist. Concentrations of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere are past the point of safety and rising, while people worldwide are embracing our biological need for community and its power.

“The task for civilization in the 21st century is to scramble back out of the danger zone to something that resembles safety. The best science tells us we may still have a window open. But not a really big window, and it’s closing pretty fast. So we darn well better get to work.”

How does a ‘durable future’ look?

“Don’t look at Houston.  Don’t look at Atlanta. Look at Copenhagen and Paris and Frankfurter and say, ‘Here’s how you build a city.’ Because the average Western European uses half as much energy as the average American. Half is a big number.

“The scientists now tell us that the new ‘magic number’ for CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is 350 parts per million (ppm). We’re at 385. Already too far. We've got to cut down a lot on our burning of coal and gas and oil so that the earth can start to process that carbon and reduce the amount in the atmosphere back down to at least 350 parts per million. No more than that.

“We've started this group 350.org and we're getting people all around the world to figure out ways to tell their neighbors about that number. We've got to tattoo that ‘350’ number into everybody's brain, so that they know that that's the number on this world that represents safety.”

In 1989, Mr. McKibben helped generate wider public awareness of global climate change with his book, The End of Nature He’s now added to his many books, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future.  What’s changed?

“There's something different in the air. Part of it is the desperation of knowing that we don't have much choice or much longer to make things different.  But partly it’s the deeply human idea that we have the big brain and the big heart for some reason. And if we're wise and if we're kind, it will be enough to overcome the difficulties we find ourselves in, especially the environmental ones. It will be very daunting, very tough. But the movement that is starting to grow is very beautiful.”

The idea that the whole world is going to get just as rich as the United States and consume accordingly -- “Plan A” -- is not physically possible, he documents.

“Let’s turn to ‘Plan B’ and figure out something more interesting, especially since’ Plan A’ isn’t even working very well for us in terms of happiness. Humans are built for connection. That's what we like. The trouble is we've been hyper-individual.

“The economists have been consistent in looking around the world and saying that once people get past about $10,000 per capita income per year -- for an American family 40 grand a year -- there's no longer any correlation between more money and more satisfaction. One of the great shames of our society is we have way more than enough money for every family in America at that level. Instead, we have people with way too much and we have people with way too little. I once wrote a book called Enough. It’s the most un-American of words, but I think that's starting to change.”

Where does he find his hope?

“All sorts of things. Moves back towards some kind of community. The fastest growing part of the music industry is live performance -- music festivals, travelling jam bands. We're used to the idea that food should come from a big distance and a central source. Eat locally and you use less energy, get better food, but you also have a different experience and that's the real kicker.  

“Think about energy itself. Our idea is it comes from a long ways away and we consume it. But it doesn't need to be that way. We have new technologies. My house’s roof (in Vermont) is all covered with solar panels tied into the electric grid. It’s great fun to watch my electric meter turn the wrong way, to realize that I'm a utility on a sunny day, to realize that my neighbor is cooling his beer with the sunlight that's falling on my shingles.

“That sense of connectedness and network is a good metaphor for what we need to do. It’s environmentally benign, it’s much more on a human scale, and that scale is what we’ve got to get back to.”

[This Program was recorded March 11, 2008, in Atlanta, Georgia, US.]