--- title: When Should You Freak Out About Climate Change? Right Now description: Author Bill McKibben makes the case against sugarcoating the urgency of climate change, or focusing only on easy solutions canonical: https://time.com/5575658/bill-mckibben-climate-change-falter/ author: Lauren Bogholtz article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-22T20:23:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T23:21:58.779Z article:section: Ideas og:title: At What Point Should You Start Really Freaking Out About Climate Change? Right Now og:description: Author Bill McKibben makes the case against calm og:url: https://time.com/5575658/bill-mckibben-climate-change-falter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a7cd265c4777b90/698948bc16d8843dd2c34f92/gettyimages-129380190.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Weddell Sea, Antarctica, True Color Satellite Image og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: At What Point Should You Start Really Freaking Out About Climate Change? Right Now twitter:description: Author Bill McKibben makes the case against calm twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a7cd265c4777b90/698948bc16d8843dd2c34f92/gettyimages-129380190.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # At What Point Should You Start Really Freaking Out About Climate Change? Right Now  by [Lauren Bogholtz](https://time.com/author/lauren-bogholtz/)  ## Lauren Bogholtz Apr 22, 2019 8:23 PM UTC  Weddel Sea, Antarctica, true colour satellite image. Pack ice melting in spring time in the Weddel Sea, East of the Antarctica peninsula. Image taken on 21 February 2000 using LANDSAT data., Weddell Sea, Antarctica, True Colour Satellite Image (Photo by Planet Observer/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Weddel Sea, Antarctica, true colour satellite image. Pack ice melting in spring time in the Weddel Sea, East of the Antarctica peninsula. Image taken on 21 February 2000 using LANDSAT data., Weddell Sea, Antarctica, True Colour Satellite Image (Photo by Planet Observer/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)UniversalImagesGroup—UIG via Getty Images  by [Lauren Bogholtz](https://time.com/author/lauren-bogholtz/)  ## Lauren Bogholtz Apr 22, 2019 8:23 PM UTC Last week, Andrew Wheeler, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said climate change is [not his top priority](http://time.com/5569214/epa-chief-andrew-wheeler-climate-change/). “Yes, \[the\] climate is an issue and we are working to address it,” he told Reuters, while nonetheless downplaying [recent findings by EPA scientists](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0444-6.epdf?no%5Fpublisher%5Faccess=1&r3%5Freferer=nature) that detailed the size and time-sensitivity of the problem. But [Bill McKibben](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250178266/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=billmckibben-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1250178266&linkId=3f24a5b1f5efaaec73ed68f17ecb781b), author of the new book [_Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250178266/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1250178266&linkId=d23542c91b0395dca8b55be7a00a2dca), wants you to panic about climate change. He compares how people often talk about the health of the planet — as a vague, far-off risk — with what inspires people to actually take action in their own lives. “Imagine going to a doctor who says, ‘If you keep eating like this, some day your cholesterol will be too high.’ If you’re like most people,” he says, “you don’t change a thing. Bring on the cheese. But if the doctor says, ‘Your cholesterol is already in the zone where people have heart attacks — in fact, it looks like you may have had a mild stroke already’ — Well, that’s when you say, ‘What pill do I take?’” McKibben says that the planet is already in that zone today — contending that, because we don’t worry enough about climate change, we don’t move to fix what’s wrong at the speed our planet requires. Watch his full argument in the video above. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5575658/bill-mckibben-climate-change-falter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5575658/bill-mckibben-climate-change-falter/"},"headline":"At What Point Should You Start Really Freaking Out About Climate Change? 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