The world has been watching in horror at the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Author and environmental activist Bill McKibben argues that this is a war fueled by fossil fuels. He writes in The Guardian, “If you want to stand with the brave people of Ukraine, you need to find a way to stand against oil and gas.”

McKibben is the co-founder of the global climate justice group 350.org, and Third Act, a new group focused on activism by older Americans. He says that the way to bring down “petrostate autocrats” like Vladimir Putin is for the U.S. and Europe to quickly slash their dependence on fossil fuels.

“President Biden should immediately invoke the Defense Production Act to get American manufacturers to start producing electric heat pumps in quantity, so we can ship them to Europe where they can be installed in time to dramatically lessen Putin’s power,” urges McKibben. 

In the same week that the Russian invasion has been unfolding, the world’s top scientists released a climate change report that it characterized as “an atlas of human suffering.”

I talked with McKibben about the confluence of war and climate change, and ways to confront both urgent crises.