Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist Paperback – July 29, 2014

"Oil and Honey" describes how a stalwart of the climate change movement, Bill McKibben, became the unlikely activist and voice of change for climate change. The details about how 350.org came to be as well as the things McKibben and others took to derail the Key Stone pipeline are interesting but I found his discussion about three key numbers -- 2, 565, 2,795 -- more interesting (and relevant to humanity's long-term prospects for survival). The first number, 2 (degrees Celsius), is the bottom limit for global temperature increase. If we surpass this limit -- we are already at a 0.8 degree Celsius increase -- then long-term disaster is almost a certainty. The next number, 565 (gigatons), is how much more carbon dioxide we can dump into the atmosphere by the middle of the century yet still have some shot at remaining below a 2 degree Celsius temperature increase. The last number, 2,795 (gigatons), is the amount of carbon waiting to be burned if we exhaust the fossil fuel supply already in the ground. The oil-rich countries and oil & gas companies would love nothing more than to drill, exploit, and profit from the oil & gas waiting to be extracted but if we do, well, life as we know it may become a distant memory.This book isn't quite a call to action but it will certainly impress upon you the need to pay attention, be engaged, and do something, anything, to slow climate change.

Disclaimer: I was already positively biased towards this book before I started it given my interests and opinions on the issues that Bill McKibben discusses in this book. I have also read other works by the author so I did not come to this book objectively.IMO, we are in a protracted war to battle climate change and the work that Bill describes is about a major effort in that war written while the war is still being fought. As my review's title relates, it is as if one read a book by a major player in the civil rights movement before the major federal civil rights legislation passed in the 60's.Bill is one of the true heroes of the the war on climate change and his book is a riveting account of the last few years in this war and the important part that he has played. It is well written and inspiring and I highly recommend it.

Wherever you think you stand on the Climate Catastrophe issue - you want to read this book!Not only is it worth your time - which is precious - it doesn't insult your intelligence.This author begins:"Chapter One: Two LivesHere's a story of two lives lived in response to a crazy time--a time when the Arctic melted and the temperature soared, a time when the planet began to come apart, a time when bee populations suddenly dropped in half. Each story is extreme. They're not intended as suggestions for how others should live, and I hope the reader won't feel the need to choose, or reject, either one. Each story is mine, at least in part, for sometimes I think I've learned more in the past two years than in all the decades that came before. Some of that education came in the tumult and conflict of my own life, as I helped to build an active resistance to the fossil fuel industry. And some came in the beeyards of my home state, while I carefully watched a very different, very beautiful way of dealing with a malfunctioning modernity. These stories mesh together, I hope: awkwardly right now, but perhaps, with luck, more easily in the time to come."

I chose to rate this book 4 stars because it is a very readable volume regarding the climate change crisis. It is both a personal memoir and a call to action to slow/eradicate global warming. McKibben, professor at Middlebury College in Vermont and co-founder of 350.org, is professor/writer turned activist who later became a leader in the environmental battle. The primary target highlighted in the book is the Keystone Pipeline proposed to cross Canada and the United States and reach the Gulf of Mexico. President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress come in for some harsh criticism for failing to oppose the pipeline and for caving in to the pressure of Big Oil. The "honey" in the book comes from the author's account of his friend, Kirk Webster, who raises bees in Vermont. That is Webster's way of fighting climate change. Accounts of McKibben demonstrating in Washington, D.C. and him and Webster working with the bee hives alternate throughout the book. Reading "Oil and Honey" sometimes gives one the feeling that the global warming battle is too big for conservationists to win. Yet there is also the feeling that the battle must be fought. For his part, Bill McKibben is devoting himself fully to the cause. The book is well worth reading.

I connected with this book on multiple levels. I've been following the beehive die-offs and also studying more about climate change, our aquifers and rivers, and hydraulic fracking. The health of the Gulf of Mexico is very important to me, and the BP oil spill there was devastating. I certainly do not want a pipeline running over an aquifer as important as the Ogallala, which is already endangered by withdrawing far more water than can be naturally replenished. How do you clean up an oil spill in an aquifer, especially one that so many farmers, cities and states depend on for water?I've never actually protested anything, even though I have strong beliefs. Learning how someone else moved from writing and solitude to activism opened thoughts about what I haven't done.The storyline switches from bee-keeping to activism and back let me pause to absorb what I had just read before moving on to the next part. I learned a great deal from both parts of the book, and the bee-keeping sections left me feeling both peaceful and hopeful.

A good book explaining the play between activism of the environment/climate change and the forces that are most likely creating the rise in co2 and create the roadblocks to remediate and solve the problem. He discusses the politics involved at all levels and the realities that play out in our government. Eye opening! Reality is a BITCH!!

The journey of a man who become a environmentalist by mistake, and how his journey as a campaigner is punctuated with his learning about the natural world through the view of bees, with the narrative of climate coming through both natural and political worlds.Great read.

This is a brilliant book written by one of our foremost activists who uses the habits of successful bee communities to encourage in our struggle to save our blessed environment.

Really interesting book. If you want to learn a little bit about the environment and local initiaves, you will love it!

Made me see just how powerful fossil fuel companies are. Read Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible again and loved it all the more.

Good book. Thought provoking. A bit long drawnout