Bill McKibben Speaks At Occupy Wall Street, Addresses Keystone XL Pipeline (VIDEO)

Author and environmentalist Bill McKibben spoke this past weekend in New York City's Washington Square Park amid the burgeoning Occupy Wall Street protests.

Linking environmental issues with the political and fiscal motivations behind Occupy Wall Street, McKibben said, "The reason that it’s so great that we’re occupying Wall Street is because Wall Street has been occupying the atmosphere." He added, the fossil fuel industry "cannot keep using [the sky] as a sewer into which to dump their carbon."

McKibben also criticized President Obama for failing to act on environmental promises he made in 2008. McKibben said, "We have to free Obama, because there is some sort of stunt double there now."

Bill McKibben is co-founder of the 350.org, and also organized the Tar Sands Action movement which protested in Washington, D.C. against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. He was one of over 1,200 arrested in August for the sit-in in front of the White House.

McKibben told the crowd at Occupy Wall Street that Tar Sands Action will be protesting in D.C. again on November 6.

He told HuffPost's Lucia Graves at the last Tar Sands Action protest that stopping the Keystone pipeline is "not just a national issue, it's a global issue of the first order."

Click here for live updates from the nationwide Occupy Wall Street protests.

For a full transcript of McKibben's Occupy Wall Street speech, see the post on It’s Getting Hot In Here.

WATCH the video, courtesy of TreeHugger:

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Comments

[RONALD MCKENZIE]

10:28 AM on 10/12/2011

Go Bill go, Say it like it is. March folks march, write folks write.

[eaarth2]

06:07 PM on 10/11/2011

Bill

Wall Street can continue to go on its BAU path just so long. Sea Rise predictions of 1 foot by 2040 will cause huge problems- Jim Hansen sees a 5 meter rise by 2090

and its all over for the Wall Street Gilded Age II money and their descendents.

[lambdin1]

05:42 PM on 10/11/2011

Today I was waiting for a bus in front of our capitol. Occupy Denver was there. It made me proud to hear the horns of cars as they passed by in support of Occupy! Someone has to listen! People are sick and tired of corporations bullying everyone else. We've been bullied by Big Oil and the corporations far to long!

[jptech]

10:33 AM on 10/11/2011

rallies are a problem. general consensus now!

[wetbonder]

10:12 AM on 10/11/2011

McKibben jumps the shark.

[kostya]

09:42 AM on 10/11/2011

Fun comments, Bill, but the reality seems darker. Earlier the US faced a choice between strong institutions and fairness or weak institutions and good crowd control. It appears we've opted for Door #2 already.

[greenlord]

09:35 AM on 10/11/2011

I agree with bill McKibben. It's one thing to try to change our energy from the Extremely Polluting one to something cleaner in a free market...except it's not a free market. With their EXTREME Wealth, the Oil Cartel has Purchased Competition Killing legislation, Govt Handouts, Tax Exemption and almost Supreme Power over the energy Sector. Making us their Slaves....and forcing any competing energy sources out of the US market. It's as if with their Gazillions they have Purchased Complete Anti-Monopoly Exemption and the rules of the Free Market no longer apply to them. I Wish I Owned my own League of Senators, Congressemen and Cronies. They can Spill Oil with Impunity and Charge Whatever they want for a gallon of Gas, and we have to pay it or stay home!...They've Purchased a MONOPOLY! from our Govt.

[FrogLight316]

09:32 AM on 10/11/2011

Glad to see the eco nuts are joining the Wall St. protests along with the socialist, communist, and unionist. Please let their message be heard loud and clear throughout the country. Now we need more top level Democratic leaders to join the protestors to seal the deal.

[nellre]

09:48 AM on 10/11/2011

So you have a planet B to live on when this one can't support 7 billion soon to be 9 billion people anymore?
Or an interstellar space ship with warp drive?
You think the Koch brothers will save you?
Earth is our life support system... and we're gumming up the works... get it?

[FrogLight316]

09:45 PM on 10/11/2011

Dare you to check on Soros's role in this well organized protest. You are being used.

[Krizzol]

10:19 AM on 10/11/2011

These "socialists, communists, and unionists" make up the 99 percent of our country... Alongside you and myself. So I guess you fit into that category as well. But tell me first, how are they in those ways? They're peacefully protesting, just like MLK did for equality back in his day. That must make him a socialist, communist, and unionist as well. You're sick/don't know anything about anything.

[FrogLight316]

09:43 PM on 10/11/2011

I just read where they arrested hundreds yesterday. They ambushed a museum and they marched on rich republican homes to intimidate them. And in NYC they are destroying the local businesses through theft and lack of proper sanitation. But I could be wrong. Keep it going!

[judycross4]

03:03 AM on 10/11/2011

This is why it is now called "climate change".
http://www.c3headlines.com/2011/10/us-scientists-confirm-trend-america-cooling-for-last-15-years-warming-non-existent.html
Since McKibbon is financed by the Arch Globalist Rockefeller Bros Fund, one would think someone would get how we are being manipulated.

[ILoveFiction]

03:39 AM on 10/11/2011

Oh dear.

Climate change or global warming?

Broecker, W.S. "Climatic change; are we on the brink of a pronounced global warming?" Science, v 189, n 4201, p 460-3, 8 Aug. 1975

If he only would have picked one!

[Aladdin Sane1]

09:50 AM on 10/11/2011

The evidence linked from the article called:

"U.S. Scientists Confirm Trend: America Cooling For Last 15 Years, Warming Non-Existent"

Wow, an article with "Scientists" in the headline that quotes not even one scientist. Impressive argument.

Nor does the article go in to the "why's" of CC versus GW. Nor does it mention McKibben or the "Arch Globalist Rockefelle­r Bros Fund" (whatever that is).

By my count, you're three-for-three on the off-topic propaganda scoreboard. Again, impressive argument there.

[judycross4]

12:52 PM on 10/11/2011

Nice try at erecting a strawman argument. Here is more:
The Climate Cartel: 1Sky, 350.org And Rockefeller Brothers | Stronger As One "The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun." - David Rockefeller , the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family and only surviving grandchild of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller , founder of Standard Oil .
http://www.countercurrents.org/morningstar110711.htm

Reconciling anthropogenic climate change with
observed temperature 1998–2008
Robert K. Kaufmanna,1, Heikki Kauppib, Michael L. Manna, and James H. Stockc
aDepartment of Geography and Environment, Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Avenue (Room 457),
Boston, MA 02215; bDepartment of Economics, University of Turku, FI-20014, Turku, Finland; and cDepartment of Economics,
Harvard University, 1805 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Edited by Robert E. Dickinson, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, and approved June 2, 2011 (received for review February 16, 2011)

"Given the widely noted increase in the warming effects of rising
greenhouse gas concentrations, it has been unclear why global
surface temperatures did not rise between 1998 and 2008."

http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/pnas-201102467.pdf

[knott wrench]

11:41 PM on 10/10/2011

"The Beast 'He Out there, He Hungry'"....The Movie "Platoon"

In this case its the "Kochtopus" with its tentacles in everything, willing to Impose its John Birch Society values on Everyone.

They're the supports of the "TP Movement".

[greenlord]

09:21 AM on 10/11/2011

OH Dear not "Till and Take Care of" Values Heaven Forbid!!! We'll all have Clean Air to breathe, Clean Water to drink! And nobody would get Cancer!!! OH NO! Not Planet Friendly Values! anything but that!!!......I think you're missing the point. What Bill McKibben is saying is that Wall Street Corruption has lead to a complete Monopoly/Cartel by the Oil industry for Transportation etc. They get Tax Exemptions, Handouts, Legislative Competition Killers etc.etc.etc. because they Can throw the Biggest Bribes at Washington and With this Corporate Bribery they have Secured a Completely unfair Competition Killing Cartel in the Energy Sector and their Squashing of all Competing forms of energy is Killing our environment By turning our little Planets Atmosphere into a Cesspool. EX: You can only pee in your cheerios for so long before they no longer taste right.

[Paul Karaffa]

10:52 PM on 10/10/2011

Got to love this! Doesn't anyone remember what Ronald Reagan had to say about the Occupy Wall Street protests? http://www.washingtonpastime.com/drupal/occupywallstreet

hahahaha

[Kitten Kramer]

04:42 AM on 10/11/2011

F*F Big time Paul, that was funny, I saved it in my favorites so that I can print it and send to some friends. How about sending it to the republican party?

[Paul Karaffa]

09:35 AM on 10/11/2011

hahaha i know right! I guess I could send it to them.... Just need their direct email address

[AJA2012]

10:51 PM on 10/10/2011

Exclusive photos of pepper sprayed activists at the National Air and Space Museum (Oct 10, 2011), see:

James L'Angelle's "AJA-2012"

http://americanjobsact2012.com/casualties.html