Of all the video footage of Tropical Storm Irene's rampage through Vermont last August, there was nothing as striking as the video of the Lower Bartonsville Covered Bridge being swept away by record-setting flooding on the Williams River.
Middlebury College professor and climate change activist Bill McKibben said that the video, which has been viewed more than 500,000 times on YouTube and made the national network newscasts, “made this the perfect place to kick-off climate impact events connecting the dots that will take place around the world” on May 5.
McKibben was in Lower Bartonsville on April 28 in the first stop on his tour of sites around Vermont that illustrate the effects of climate change. It will culminate on Saturday, May 5, in Waitsfield, with an afternoon of forums and events sponsored by 350.org, the group he helped found to call attention to the issue.
On April 28, about 30 people from throughout Vermont stood talking in groups before McKibben spoke, recalling where they were and the impact of the video when it was first posted on YouTube. At least half of those gathered were students, and some parents were accompanied by their elementary-school-age children.
“I was out of the country when I saw the video of [the Lower Bartonsville covered] bridge that withstood everything nature could throw at it since 1870...until Irene,” McKibben told the crowd. “That was when it really hit me. We needed to start connecting the dots.”
“Back in the 19th century, when the bridge was built, it was a different planet,” McKibben told those standing on the banks where a new temporary metal bridge spanned the river. “The temperatures have risen one degree around the globe,” McKibben said.
And Vermont is not the only place experiencing record-breaking floods.
“Tragedies are occurring around the globe,” he said. “We hear from Pakistan that the floods last year meant 20 million people had to leave their homes. Thailand lost 18 percent of its gross national product to flooding last September. It's the poor people of the world who are paying the price. At least [in Vermont], we have the Agency of Transportation, which has been able to get funding to fix the bridge and get things up and running again. Most places around the globe still aren't fixed and aren't going to be. People just have to live with it.”
“It started to make sense to connect the dots, that this is climate change and it's only going to stop when we stop pumping carbon emissions into our atmosphere,” McKibben continued. “Every corner of the planet is going to have a connect-the-dots event, except North Korea, on May 5. We're going to see how climate change is affecting people around the world.”
Pioneers of a movement
McKibben said change happens with education.
“We have to be very determined. We have to try as hard as we can,” he said, to let people know extreme weather events that led to losing the Bartonsville covered bridge “are happening all over the world,” and that stopping carbon emissions is the only way it will stop.
The current reading of parts per million [ppm] of CO2 in the atmosphere is at 391.57 and rising. The safe level for humanity, McKibben said, is below 350 ppm, and is where 350.org derives its name.
“Vermonters are doing a terrific job at looking forward to alternatives to living post-fossil fuel. One of the ways is the local agriculture movement,” he said. “But there are limits to what one state can do. I'm optimistic that people all around the world are working to develop solutions. Everyone is coming together. The time to act is now.”
“You're the pioneers of this event,” McKibben continued. “We're kicking it off here. Tonight, people from all over the world will see you here on this iron bridge where Irene impacted the covered bridge and wiped it out.”
Derek Larsen spoke after McKibben, telling the crowd that he grew up in Lower Bartonsville and “played on and around the covered bridge and river” as a child with his brothers and friends.
“My father's ashes are in the pines over there, and my mother's are in the water. I'm here to memorialize and honor the bridge today,” he said.
David Stember and Joe Solomon, organizers and volunteers for 350.org, were both present as well. Participants posed on the girders for a “connect the dots” photo alongside a banner with McKibben.
“The story of the Bartonsville bridge, I think, has a silver lining,” Solomon said, “because no one ever thought anything could take this bridge down. Its existence had been that ingrained into the status quo.”
“Yet enough rain and wind united to make it topple,” he added. “Maybe, if we united enough people, we could create the kinds of changes that are considered impossible or crazy too.”
Stember said afterwards on his way back north, “This event perfectly exemplifies the spirit of organizing in Vermont.”
“People are willing to show up in the middle of nowhere to stand strong for something that's so important everywhere. If so many people can show up in a tiny hamlet on such short notice, then I'm betting we'll have a huge group from all over Vermont converging in Waitsfield on May 5. It's going to be an exciting week.”