[Update 19Sep2021]
I happened to notice that the ‘Grist’ YouTube video originally embedded in this post is now ‘unavailable’. I think it may have borne the same title as this post itself, but I’m unable to locate another copy. I’ve dropped a line to Grist asking if they can help.
In the meantime, here’s another video I found that bears a related message. It was uploaded to YouTube on 16Apr2012, which is months after this post’s date, but its words are also by Bill McKibben and narrated by Stephen Thomson of Plomomedia.
It’s a decade later, and it’s getting worse, not better. Our planet is, or, rather, we are, in serious trouble….
[/update]
Courtesy of Grist
footage by Stephen W Thomson
words by Bill McKibben
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhCY-3XnqS0
(‘unavailable’ as at 19Sep2021)
(The quotation below is not from the video above.)
An international conference [about pollution] was held in 1911 and American reformers joined their British counterparts. Information, reports and scientific data were shared and disseminated. Conversations about strategy, tactics and insights stoked the fire of reform and change.
Industry argued for efficiency and technological fixes. Jevons’ paradox was quietly ignored and engineers were put to the task of researching and inventing more efficient installations.
The government faced two choices: ban the use of coal or impose further restrictions.
Polly Higgins (1968–2019), Eradicating Ecocide, page 17
Here we are, exactly 100 years later —
and absolutely nothing has changed.
Get ready for Moving Planet.
When:
September 24, 2011
Where:
All over the world.
Who:
Everyone.
Wibble 
Ha, our paths cross on YouTube! All the way to Tom Lehrer’s song linked down in your comment, I left this which you probably won’t see:
Hi Wibble!! I had forgotten all about Tom Lehrer – of course, I was all of 13 when that song came out. Pollution didn’t seem like a real threat then. I wonder how people who really understood how this will play out years ago have been able to make peace with ecocide…or do they think they can eradicate it?
“Here we are, exactly 100 years later –
and absolutely nothing has changed.”
Nothing has changed…except it’s TOO LATE NOW.
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It’s a small world, Gail… and getting smaller all the time.
As for it being too late: you may be right. Borrowing a .sig from a friend:
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” — Dr. Seuss, from The Lorax
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That YouTube video and the quote from The Lorax are both inspirational – thank you for posting them.
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