Eaarth may be one of the most sobering books you will read this year (and make no mistake, you should read it), but it’s not all bad news. McKibben sees hope in lots of areas, from China (where solar panels are becoming popular) to the 300,000 new, small, mixed-use farms that have sprung up in the US. Most of all, though, he sees hope in people’s ability to come together in the face of a common threat. If we can “dampen our intuitive sense that the future will resemble the past”, he says — and organize sufficiently to put political pressure on our leaders — there’s every chance we’ll find solutions to keep the planet viable for many generations to come.
     Recently, Planet asked McKibben about how to make sense of this “new normal”, and what each of us can do to make a difference.

As we speak, oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico in what’s becoming America’s worst environmental disaster. What lessons can we draw from this, and do you think there might be any silver lining to this tragedy?

The lesson we need to draw is: all fossil fuel is dirty stuff. We can see the ugliness easily in the Gulf. But imagine that the same oil had reached the refinery, and then the gas tank of your car. An invisible slick of CO2 would then spread out into the atmosphere, raising temperatures, acidifying every ocean, melting every frozen thing on earth. This is the ultimate in teachable moments. Let’s hope Obama, above all, seizes the chance.