Environmentalist and journalist Bill McKibben spoke with Boston Public Radio on Monday about the state of climate change in 2021 and the incoming Biden administration's approach to address the crisis.
"The problem with climate damage is nothing is reversible. The damage is very real, and it was obviously made worse by Trump," McKibben said. "[Trump] broke the momentum that the world had coming out of the Paris Climate Accords, and those are four years that we'll never get back."
But Biden has a chance to restore at least some of the momentum when he takes office later this month, McKibben said.
"The most important thing I think that Biden has done is put in this team of saavy people who are going to be looking in all the places that don't require Congress' approval to make rapid change," he said. McKibben is referring to the Biden administration's climate team, announced last month, which will be headed by Gina McCarthy, who was Environmental Protection Agency administrator during the Obama administration.
"Maybe the most combat will come over the one thing [Biden has] really pledged to do, which is to end new mining and drilling on federal land," McKibben added. "The person who's going to be charged with carrying that out, more than anyone else, will be the new secratary of the interior, Deb Haaland, who I just think is one of the most remarkable public servants in the country."
McKibben's latest book is "Falter: Has the Human Game Begun To Play Itself Out?"
