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:

--