--- title: "9 Degrees Quotes By Bill McKibben" description: "9 Degrees quotes by Bill McKibben. Plus more from Bill McKibben and more Degrees sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/395/bill-mckibben-1057_degrees_one-degree-turns-out-to-be-enough-to-rea_1857905.jpg" --- > [One degree turns out to be enough to really unhinge all sorts of earth's ecosystems.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/one-degree-turns-out-to-be-enough-to-really-unhinge-all-sorts-of/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/395/bill-mckibben-1057_degrees_one-degree-turns-out-to-be-enough-to-rea_1857905.jpg) > ["Science," of course, replaced "God" as a guiding concept for many people after Darwin. Or, really, the two were rolled up into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/science-of-course-replaced-god-as-a-guiding-concept-for-many-people/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/308/bill-mckibben-1057_balls_science-of-course-replaced-god-as-a-guid_1107119.jpg) > [We're clearly not going to stop global warming at this point. We've already raised the temperature of the planet one degree. We've…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/we-re-clearly-not-going-to-stop-global-warming-at-this-point-we-ve/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c3f/bill-mckibben-1057_carbon_we-re-clearly-not-going-to-stop-global-w_1938697.jpg) > [ If \[a student's\] college’s endowment portfolio has fossil-fuel stock, then their educations are being subsidized by investments that guarantee they won’t have… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/if-a-student-s-college-s-endowment-portfolio-has-fossil-fuel-stock/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cc6/bill-mckibben-1057_college_if-a-student-s-college-s-endowment-portf_392609.jpg) > [So far the earth has warmed about a degree Fahrenheit globally averaged. That doesn't seem like an enormous amount but it's unlike…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/so-far-the-earth-has-warmed-about-a-degree-fahrenheit-globally/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2d3/bill-mckibben-1057_amount_so-far-the-earth-has-warmed-about-a-degr_269768.jpg) > [The models that have been constructed agree that when, as has been predicted, the level of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/the-models-that-have-been-constructed-agree-that-when-as-has-been/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8d1/bill-mckibben-1057_agree_the-models-that-have-been-constructed-ag_793518.jpg) > [We've lost half the summer sea ice in the Arctic. We've wiped out an enormous percentage of the world's coral reefs. We…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/we-ve-lost-half-the-summer-sea-ice-in-the-arctic-we-ve-wiped-out-an/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/867/bill-mckibben-1057_air_we-ve-lost-half-the-summer-sea-ice-in-th_1997097.jpg) > [All the things that we've done as a species have had a limited scope. We're talking about melting the ice caps, raising…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/all-the-things-that-we-ve-done-as-a-species-have-had-a-limited-scope/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/88e/bill-mckibben-1057_caps_all-the-things-that-we-ve-done-as-a-spec_1768475.jpg) > [We'd already lost the possibility of stopping global warming entirely. That hasn't been in the cards for a long time. The triumph…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/we-d-already-lost-the-possibility-of-stopping-global-warming-entirely/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1af/bill-mckibben-1057_able_we-d-already-lost-the-possibility-of-sto_2159447.jpg) ## Other authors on Degrees ## More by Bill McKibben > [I try not to be either optimistic or pessimistic. I try not to think about outcomes on that scale. My job, it seems to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/i-try-not-to-be-either-optimistic-or-pessimistic-i-try-not-to-think/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [Oil companies are radical because they're willing to alter the chemical composition of the atmosphere.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/oil-companies-are-radical-because-they-re-willing-to-alter-the/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [Whenever anyone challenges anything, the powers that be try to paint them as extremists or radicals or whatever. And I think that's actually nonsense.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/whenever-anyone-challenges-anything-the-powers-that-be-try-to-paint/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [My guess is that liberating the fossil fuel industry to frack anywhere they want will drive down the rate at which we're converting to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/my-guess-is-that-liberating-the-fossil-fuel-industry-to-frack/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [What makes us different? We're the creature that can decide not to do something that we are capable of doing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/what-makes-us-different-we-re-the-creature-that-can-decide-not-to-do/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [“The snow was coming down so hard. It looked like the flakes were hurrying to get out of the sky so the next ones…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/the-snow-was-coming-down-so-hard-it-looked-like-the-flakes-were/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [Most of the men and women who vote in Congress each year to continue subsidies have taken campaign donations from big energy companies.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/most-of-the-men-and-women-who-vote-in-congress-each-year-to-continue/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [“I’ve sat behind a microphone and listened for decades as Americans learned to stop talking with each other and start shouting instead. No discussions,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/i-ve-sat-behind-a-microphone-and-listened-for-decades-as-americans/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [People in low-lying countries like Bangladesh with almost 140 million people who are managing to feed themselves, whose carbon emissions can't really be calculated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/people-in-low-lying-countries-like-bangladesh-with-almost-140-million/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [We're putting more carbon into the atmosphere than the atmosphere can absorb. And everybody told us when we started, coz we knew nothing when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/we-re-putting-more-carbon-into-the-atmosphere-than-the-atmosphere-can/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [Everything that the administration has done has been counterproductive.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/everything-that-the-administration-has-done-has-been-counterproductive/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [We use the web to help people organize in the flesh, and then we take the images of those events and put them back…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/we-use-the-web-to-help-people-organize-in-the-flesh-and-then-we-take/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [everyone knows, at some level, that the sharp line between "good weather" and "bad weather" is a fiction, that we need rain as surely…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/everyone-knows-at-some-level-that-the-sharp-line-between-good-weather/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [The thing about global warming is that you can address it on a great number of levels - in fact you have to.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/the-thing-about-global-warming-is-that-you-can-address-it-on-a-great/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [Where people aren't as deeply reliant on fossil fuel as in the United States, it's far easier for them to imagine change on this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/where-people-aren-t-as-deeply-reliant-on-fossil-fuel-as-in-the-united/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/degrees/bill-mckibben/#itemlist", "name": "9 Degrees Quotes By Bill McKibben", "numberOfItems": 9, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "One degree turns out to be enough to really unhinge all sorts of earth's ecosystems.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Bill McKibben" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/one-degree-turns-out-to-be-enough-to-really-unhinge-all-sorts-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/395/bill-mckibben-1057_degrees_one-degree-turns-out-to-be-enough-to-rea_1857905.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/395/bill-mckibben-1057_degrees_one-degree-turns-out-to-be-enough-to-rea_1857905.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/395/bill-mckibben-1057_degrees_one-degree-turns-out-to-be-enough-to-rea_1857905.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“One degree turns out to be enough to really unhinge all sorts of earth's ecosystems.” — Bill McKibben", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "\"Science,\" of course, replaced \"God\" as a guiding concept for many people after Darwin. 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What we're talking about now is whether we're going to have a difficult, difficult century, or an impossible one.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Bill McKibben" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/we-re-clearly-not-going-to-stop-global-warming-at-this-point-we-ve/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c3f/bill-mckibben-1057_carbon_we-re-clearly-not-going-to-stop-global-w_1938697.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c3f/bill-mckibben-1057_carbon_we-re-clearly-not-going-to-stop-global-w_1938697.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c3f/bill-mckibben-1057_carbon_we-re-clearly-not-going-to-stop-global-w_1938697.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“We're clearly not going to stop global warming at this point. 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That doesn't seem like an enormous amount but it's unlike what we would have expected twenty years ago.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Bill McKibben" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/so-far-the-earth-has-warmed-about-a-degree-fahrenheit-globally/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2d3/bill-mckibben-1057_amount_so-far-the-earth-has-warmed-about-a-degr_269768.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2d3/bill-mckibben-1057_amount_so-far-the-earth-has-warmed-about-a-degr_269768.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2d3/bill-mckibben-1057_amount_so-far-the-earth-has-warmed-about-a-degr_269768.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“So far the earth has warmed about a degree Fahrenheit globally averaged. 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In Dallas, for instance, a doubled level of carbon dioxide and other gases like methane, would increase the number of days a year with temperatures above 100 degrees from 19 to 78 each year.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Bill McKibben" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/the-models-that-have-been-constructed-agree-that-when-as-has-been/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8d1/bill-mckibben-1057_agree_the-models-that-have-been-constructed-ag_793518.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8d1/bill-mckibben-1057_agree_the-models-that-have-been-constructed-ag_793518.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8d1/bill-mckibben-1057_agree_the-models-that-have-been-constructed-ag_793518.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The models that have been constructed agree that when, as has been predicted, the level of carbon dioxide or…” — Bill McKibben", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "We've lost half the summer sea ice in the Arctic. We've wiped out an enormous percentage of the world's coral reefs. We see huge changes in the planet's hydrology already, the cycles of drought and flood both amped up because warm air holds more water vapor than cold. These things are happening with a one-degree increase and going to two degrees won't be twice as bad, the increase in damage won't be linear, it most certainly will be exponential. So it was precisely the wrong moment to elect Trump.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Bill McKibben" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/we-ve-lost-half-the-summer-sea-ice-in-the-arctic-we-ve-wiped-out-an/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/867/bill-mckibben-1057_air_we-ve-lost-half-the-summer-sea-ice-in-th_1997097.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/867/bill-mckibben-1057_air_we-ve-lost-half-the-summer-sea-ice-in-th_1997097.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/867/bill-mckibben-1057_air_we-ve-lost-half-the-summer-sea-ice-in-th_1997097.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“We've lost half the summer sea ice in the Arctic. We've wiped out an enormous percentage of the world's…” — Bill McKibben", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "All the things that we've done as a species have had a limited scope. We're talking about melting the ice caps, raising the level of the seas dramatically, changing the distribution of every other species on Earth, perhaps wiping out one-third or half of them. The changes at work are geologic in scale. The level of change required to deal with it is enormous, too. It will require change in every country. It will require a degree of global cooperation that we haven't seen before.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Bill McKibben" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/all-the-things-that-we-ve-done-as-a-species-have-had-a-limited-scope/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/88e/bill-mckibben-1057_caps_all-the-things-that-we-ve-done-as-a-spec_1768475.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/88e/bill-mckibben-1057_caps_all-the-things-that-we-ve-done-as-a-spec_1768475.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/88e/bill-mckibben-1057_caps_all-the-things-that-we-ve-done-as-a-spec_1768475.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“All the things that we've done as a species have had a limited scope. 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That's very bad news, mostly because the planet seems to be more sensitive than we thought to even small increases in temperature.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Bill McKibben" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/we-d-already-lost-the-possibility-of-stopping-global-warming-entirely/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1af/bill-mckibben-1057_able_we-d-already-lost-the-possibility-of-sto_2159447.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1af/bill-mckibben-1057_able_we-d-already-lost-the-possibility-of-sto_2159447.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1af/bill-mckibben-1057_able_we-d-already-lost-the-possibility-of-sto_2159447.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“We'd already lost the possibility of stopping global warming entirely. 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