Oil and Honey - a memoir of an accidental activist, Bill McKibben

Oil and Honey by Bill McKibben A treatise on living in a global warming world and the rallying cry against fossil fuel. This is a surprisingly human account of the campaign to put climate change squarely on the agenda. Bill McKibben is a journalist and writer and he writes in a flowing conversational style. So you feel like you are with him on that campaign trail. You are on the bus that crosses the country, attending rallies, going to give talks and speeches with the media and all manner of people. You feel Bill’s pain when he receives ugly threats. You can feel the calm as he finds home base. This account of an accidental activist as he calls himself is mixed with his self-guided retreats to a beekeeper named Kirk. The story of how bees exist is a mirror of the modern world breaking open the natural world with horrible consequences. Chemical overkill and the wipe out of half the bee population. But still there is hope. Hope is a word never written here, but is exposed on every page. We are fighting against the odds, but there is hope. A message that is often submerged in the gloom of the facts on global warming. Yet this story tells of a seemingly motley bunch of people, melded into action by the very real threat to their livelihood, their land, and their home. Our home, our planet. The sense is that the movement does not have all the answers. They make mistakes, but they fight on. The pollination is the thing. Sowing seeds in many hearts and minds. The personal reflections of Bill show a man guided by a love for this creation and the creator. As he reflects that global warming is like Genesis in reverse. There are so many more stories that could be written here. But that is the mark of a good writer, leaving you wanting more. On a broader level I was made to question our way of being. As Bill gently probed his bee keeping neighbour, Kirk, on how he survived day after day, year after year with such a basic existence, devoid of all the usual amenities. He reported he never got bored; there was so much depth in each moment. He followed the seasons. Not the conventional wisdom of days. Thanks for the education Bill, I want to hear more.