The Nasty Social Implications of the Climate Crisis

The less you did to cause it, the sooner and harder you are to get hit

Photo: Storyworkz

“The last time we saw changes on this scale was 70 million years or so ago, when a large asteroid slammed into the planet. But this time the asteroid is us. And the thing that makes it so frustrating is that we do not have to be doing it. We know how to prevent it. We have incredible technology — the cheapest way to generate power on Earth now is to point a sheet of glass at the sun. That's Hogwarts scale magic."

I promised you someone awesome this week, and I’m delivering: Bill McKibben is our guest on Food with Mark Bittman this week. Bill is among the most fiercely intelligent people I know, and also among the most literate and articulate, as you’ll hear. When I asked him to come on our podcast, the plan was to talk about agriculture’s impact on climate, and climate change’s impact on agriculture. But that was before I read his new book, The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon. It’s part memoir and part “what’s gone wrong here” — the “here” being the United States. And it’s incisive, depressing, and at least slightly hopeful. That, and Bill’s previous book, Falter, are central to the conversation that we had. Needless to say, we talked about climate change as well, a subject about which Bill is preeminently an authority as exists — and even a bit about food. You will not want to miss this one.

If you’re wondering what you personally can do to join Bill’s climate movement — please check out his newest venture, Third Act. There are many and varied things you can do to help.

Please listen, subscribe, and review. And we’d love to hear your food-related questions, as we’d like to start doing live Q&A: Email us: food@markbittman.com.

Thank you, as always. — Mark

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