Environmentalist Author Bill McKibben to Speak at Shale Gas Protest

• Susan Phillips
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  Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

For the second year in a row, the Marcellus Shale gas drilling industry will gather in Philadelphia this month at the Pennsylvania Convention Center under the banner of Shale Gas Insight 2012. And the fractivists plan to be right outside, stirring things up with Shale Gas Outrage in Center City Philadelphia. As a testament to how things have changed over the past year, it won’t just be the industry folks who have high profile speakers. This year, author Bill McKibben, who is best known for writing the first popularly accessible book on climate change, will speak to the outraged unconventioneers.  McKibben’s 1989 book, “The End of Nature,” was first serialized in the New Yorker, and his subsequent articles and books have won him high praise. Recently, he became a vocal critic against the Keystone XL pipeline proposal. And Rolling Stone just published his piece “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math,” which will make you think twice about purchasing shore front property.

“Meteorologists reported that this spring was the warmest ever recorded for our nation – in fact, it crushed the old record by so much that it represented the “largest temperature departure from average of any season on record.” The same week, Saudi authorities reported that it had rained in Mecca despite a temperature of 109 degrees, the hottest downpour in the planet’s history.”

Iris Bloom, an organizer of Shale Gas Outrage and founder of Protecting Our Waters, says she’s excited to have McKibben on board, especially given what she read about the advance of global warming in Rolling Stone.

“There is no ‘meantime,’ says Bloom. “You hear the industry say ‘yeah, global warming is coming, but in the meantime, we’re fracking.’ What we’re saying is it’s time to cut emissions now.”
Of course, industry representatives, and some scientists would disagree, saying that natural gas burns cleaner than coal, and therefore is helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But on the other side of that argument are another group of scientists and environmentalists who say that the entire gas drilling process creates harmful emissions that may be worse, if not the same, as coal.
On the Insight side, speakers include Gov. Tom Corbett, and former Nightline anchorman, Ted Koppel will be moderating a panel. Koppel now works as a news analyst for several networks, including NPR.
 

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