Bill McKibben Talks Climate Action as Heat Wave Arrives in Portland

McKibben spoke to a crowd of 300, in a church without air conditioning.

Portlanders take to the Dock during the 2021 heat dome. (Wesley Lapointe)
By Jacob Moore

Bill McKibben sure has a sense of timing.

As Portland entered a five-day heat wave, McKibben, the celebrated climate activist and author, arrived Friday evening at the First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland—a building, like many in this city, that lacks air conditioning.

“It’s not our job to stop global warming. It’s too late for that,” McKibben said to the sweating crowd. “It’s our job to stop it getting to the point where it cuts civilization off at the knees.”

Before getting started, McKibben asked attendees to let someone know if they were feeling unwell or faint because of the heat.

First Unitarian Church, Portland. (Jacob Moore)

McKibben spoke to a crowd of 300, reciting a list of recent climate disasters before getting to his main talking point: the ways that older Americans can take political action on climate change. (The event was organized by Third Act Oregon, a group he founded to organize Americans over 60.)

The event seemed to double as a mobilization of voters against former President Donald Trump, whose indifference to climate issues McKibben painted as a threat to the planet. “I want to energize a lot of people to join in,” he said.

McKibben, one of the nation’s principal figures in climate action, teaches classes on environmental journalism and climate change at Middlebury College in Vermont. After his presentation, three young activists from around Oregon joined McKibben onstage for a public conversation about tactics.

The temperature in Portland topped out at 99 degrees Friday, in the first of what’s expected to be five days of temperatures near or over 100 degrees, with little relief in the evenings.

Multnomah County is operating cooling shelters in three locations today:

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