For Bill McKibben, the only way to fight climate change is to dismantle the fossil fuel industry’s grip on society.

The prominent environmental activist spoke to a crowd that packed Graham Chapel on Nov. 1. The diverse audience included students, faculty and local community members. Seating was so limited that some students had to be moved to a remote site to watch a live stream of the event.

McKibben began by expressing his distress over the devastation of New York City by Hurricane Sandy. He acknowledged that climate change has been affecting many countries around the world but noted that the impact has not been felt in this country until last week.

“What happens when climate change happens not on some distant place or poor person, but on the financial and media capital of the world? New York’s tragedy may be the planet’s watershed moment,” he said.

In addition to the hurricane, McKibben cited the moisturization of the atmosphere, the unprecedented heat wave in July and various studies as signs indicating that the planet temperature is indeed rising at an unprecedented rate. He said that climate change pushes the planet into a new era environmentally.

“We are in a desperate adventure into something new. We do not know what it would be, but every sign of it tells us it is bad,” he said. “Global warming is the biggest thing human beings have ever done. By far, by far, by far, by far. We can’t let it go on any longer.”

McKibben said the U.S. government has a poor track record for environmental efforts.

“Every year for 20 years scientists have gone on into Capitol Hill to explain what is going on…and got ignored,” he said. “The most powerful and wealthy industry the world has ever seen has been able to block any real progress on climate change.”

McKibben urged students to participate in divestment from what he deemed a “rogue industry,” that is, energy companies relying on fossil fuel, coal and other non-renewable energy sources.

“The fossil fuel industry is, beyond any other industry, the richest enterprise human beings have ever conducted. Exxon Mobil made more money last year than the entire history of making money,” he said. “They are outlaws not against the laws of the state…they are outlaws against the laws of physics.”

He cited the influx of political contributions from these companies as the main reason for the lack of climate change dialogue in this year’s election.

“Five days ago, Chevron made the single biggest political contribution ever made since [Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission] to a conservative Super PAC to make sure that Congress would give them all the support [it needs],” he said.

After many years of writing about climate issues, McKibben has come to a conclusion on how to tackle the problem in the United States.

“We are going to figure out how to win this fight when we are outspent…we are going to have to figure out how to make things work. That’s what movements are. We bring other currency—passion, spirit, creativity—to the fore, making them count as much as money,” he said.

McKibben described his movement, which started with the foundation of 350.org and led to the recent Keystone Pipeline protests.

In the second stage of the protest last year, more than 10,000 activists came to Capitol Hill and surrounded the White House. More than 30 Washington University students participated.

“We weren’t going to solve climate change one pipeline at a time or one coal mine at a time…if we’re going to do it, it is going to be systemic structural reform,” McKibben said. “We are going to do it by going after the industry that [is causing it].”

McKibben communicated his plan to get schools and other institutions to divest from fossil fuel and coal.

“One of the things that we are trying to do, as students have already been doing here, is divestment movements,” he said. “We are trying to get school institutions and churches to divest their money in stocks from fossil fuel, like what universities did during the apartheid years.”

During his speech, projections on the screen behind McKibben displayed pictures of 350.org supporters around the globe.

“For all of my life, I have heard that environmentalists were rich white people who have solved all the other problems and wouldn’t be in the movement if [that weren’t so],” McKibben said. “This turned out to be absolute nonsense. There were [participants] from all around the world who were black and brown and Asian because that’s what the world consists of, and they are exactly as interested in our future—if not more so.”

Students responded positively to McKibben’s remarks.

“I think his talk was very passionate and insightful. One of his main points was divestment from fossil fuel. I think that’s a very important goal for Wash. U. and St. Louis as something to set our sights on,” junior Alison Tune said.

Noting that most students at the University live in affluence, sophomore Ericka Robert responded to the images from different countries.

“It is very eye-opening to see how our culture can have an effect on those who don’t get to enjoy the luxuries [we have], yet they are the ones who have to suffer [for our actions],” Robert said.

McKibben was brought to campus by the Sustainability Office in response to a student request.

“[He] is seen by many as the icon of the environmental movement right now,” Sustainability Coordinator Will Fischer said.

McKibben’s visit launched the Sustainable Cities Conference from Nov. 1-3. After the election, McKibben plans to launch a cross-country tour of college campuses.