Bill McKibben, one of the first people to bring global climate change to the attention of the general public, is one of the most articulate and well-respected voices in the modern environmental movement. His books on localism, environmentalism, and sustainability have sold millions and he presently directs the Middlebury Fellowships in Environmental Journalism at Middlebury College in Vermont.

McKibben’s Step It Up Campaign, which took him across the state of Vermont by foot, made his demand for Congress to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 was one of the largest global climate change awareness campaigns to date. In 2006, I had the pleasure of seeing McKibben arrive to the fanfare of thousands of Vermonters in Burlington, Vermont at the end of his statewide walk with Sen. Bernie Sanders—then in the middle of his Congressional campaign—by his side. A follow-up campaign in 2007 stepped up expectations, demanding that the Senate reduce emissions by 10% over the next three years.

Now with the creation of 350.org, McKibben has taken his awareness campaign online. The number makes reference to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (350 per million) that would conceivably cause irreversible damage to the earth (read McKibben’s oped in the Washington Post about the number here). With the help of Internet communication, he plans on using their website to help to spread this message throughout the world. McKibben took some time to answer the following questions about bringing off-line activism online, online activism off-line, how living in Vermont influences his engagement as an activist, and more.

Make Something Happen: What led you to make the transition from informant to organizer?

Bill McKibben: The sense that writing about global warming alone was not getting the job done.

MSH: So why are you bringing your activism to the Internet?

McKibben: [Doing so] allows us to organize cheaply and quickly, which is good since I don’t have much money and we don’t have much time.

MSH: What is 350.org’s game plan for bringing other activists and potentially concerned people on-board? How will you help transition “traditional” activists to participating in netroots activism?

McKibben: We are literally open to anyone—and we want them to be traditional activists. We just use the net to bring actions together; we want those actions taking place in the real world.

If [this campaign remained strictly online] it wouldn’t work. The net is just a tool to organize geographically dispersed real-world action—Step It Up, last year, was 2,000 demonstrations in all 50 states.

MSH: You are an active member of the Methodist Church. How has your involvement there affected your tendencies towards feeling compelled to do this sort of organizing? How has it influenced your community awareness?

McKibben: In the strong sense that the Gospels demand that, above all, we try to show some concern for our neighbors. And at the moment we’re showing none—not for the people around the world who are already drowning, dying of malaria, facing famine because of our unwillingness to moderate our use of fossil fuels. And we’re not showing much concern for all the people that will come after us either.

MSH: Does living in Vermont influence your feelings toward political/community/environmental awareness? Are you influenced to communicate differently with people from an organizational perspective?

McKibben: Vermont is on a scale that makes sense—there’s real possibility of knowing a great many of the people who live near you. That makes politics of all kinds easier. And it’s also easier for us to see our impact on the place we love—both negative and positive.

MSH: Next week marks the 26 year anniversary of the passing of legendary organizer Saul Alinsky, who we will celebrate on Make Something Happen. Were you at all influenced by him?

McKibben: We wrote a little organizing handbook last year, Fight Global Warming Now, that was a kind of take on Alinsky for the internet age. So many great lessons, many of which still apply

-Filed in People