Bill Mckibben , a Methodist minister from Vermont and leading American environmentalist stopped off in the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh last week on his ’fossil free tour’ of Europe.

Bill is a veteran campaigner and told entertaining stories about being arrested outside the White House in Washington DC but his message on climate change was clear and unambiguous: ‘do the math’.

There is more oil, coal and gas in the ground than we can ever burn if we are to contain global warming. If we continue to burn fossil fuels at the present rate we will create unacceptable global warming of more than two degrees Celsius. The only safe option is to leave fossil fuels in the ground.

You can read his article on this theme published in 2012 in Rolling Stone magazine:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719

Bill argues that the way to bring this about is to divest from fossil fuel companies and has been campaigning in the USA for some time. Now the campaign has come to Scotland and speaking alongside Bill was Ben Kurzman of Dalgety Bay eco-congregation in Fife.

Ben is working with other young people to persuade the Church of Scotland to divest from fossil fuel companies. You can find the petition here:

http://campaigns.gofossilfree.org/petitions/divest-the-church-of-scotland-from-fossil-fuels

It was a tremendous achievement for Ben to speak alongside Bill McKibben and marks a new milestone in action for an eco-congregation member. Our congratulations to Ben!