IRA FLATOW, host:
You're listening to SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR. I'm Ira Flatow. A few weeks ago, Bill McKibben, cofounder of the group 350.org, was on our program, and he was telling us about his plans to bring back to the White House one of Jimmy Carter's solar panels that was installed on the White House roof back in the 1970s.
Ronald Reagan, after he became president, immediately took the panel down, and some of those wound up in storage. And Bill McKibben told us that he was going to drive down from Maine, take one of these panels that had been gathering dust on a college campus and try to have a meeting with the White House representatives and see if President Obama would symbolically put one of the panels back on the White House roof.
Well, it didn't quite go so well as he had expected, and here now to tell us what happened is Bill McKibben. He is co-founder of group 350.org and author of the latest book: "Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet." Hi, Bill, welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY.
Mr. BILL McKIBBEN (350.org): Always good to be with you.
FLATOW: So I was reading that you didn't get very far and got snubbed.
Mr. McKIBBEN: Well, I mean, on the one hand, we got a long ways, all the way from Unity College in Maine down to Washington, and it was, the trip itself was fantastic. It was the closest I'll ever come to traveling with a rock star.
We had rally after rally down the coast, people incredibly excited to see this piece of technology, which, among other things, works just fine. Every day we'd put it out outside, wherever we were holding a rally. We'd pour a gallon of water in the top and point it at the sun, and six or seven minutes later we'd have steam coming out the bottom. So this 31-year-old technology is in good working order.
We got down to the White House, and we had a meeting with the president, the leader of the Council on Environmental Quality and the Greening the Government initiative and things. And you're right. You don't need to go check Google Earth quite yet to see the panel on top of the White House because it's not there, nor is the sort of full, new array that a company called Sungevity had promised to provide free of charge.
They wouldn't really tell us why they couldnt put it on. In fact, they just kept saying there's a deliberative process underway, or something. My suspicion, I've got say, is that they were worried that in the junior high school lunchroom that our political life has become, touching the Carter panel would give them kind of electoral cooties, you know, a few weeks before the midterm elections.
So maybe something will happen afterwards. For the moment, I'm sorry to say we weren't successful except in getting people very excited. And the best result has been around the country and around the world, way, way, hundreds and hundreds of people signing up actions for our big global work party on 10/10/10.
They keep saying if our leaders aren't going to do it, we'll have to do some of the leading ourselves. So that, I guess, is good news, anyway.
FLATOW: I was reading your column in the L.A. Times, and you say that they also refused not only to accept the panel, they wouldn't even pose with a picture with your students.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. McKIBBEN: You know what? These three students who came down from Unity College were so wonderful. I wish you could've met them because they were just you know, it's a pretty intimidating atmosphere, frankly, to walk into the White House and sit down in a fancy room with these top-level people and sort of to be stonewalled a little bit, you know.
And these three young women didn't they were respectful and polite but very firm. And one of the it was interesting. One of the people from the administration said, disingenuously or not, I don't know, said: We'd like your advice on how to communicate about these issues so that people know all the good work we're doing.
And I think, actually, they're doing good work on a lot of federal buildings. And one after another, these young women just said, well, that answer is pretty obvious, you know. Look out a window, you know. I mean, you've got the White House. You've got the most famous piece of real estate on Earth.
FLATOW: Right. You know, take a picture with the panel. What a PR, I would think, what a PR move that could have been, just symbolically. Even if you don't put it on the roof of the White House, just show that there were panels there and acknowledge that this had once been on the White House.
Mr. McKIBBEN: Absolutely right. We were sort of hoping that we were giving them a little chance to, since they haven't gotten climate legislation passed, you know, give them a little chance to at least show a continuing commitment.
FLATOW: Any chance you can get the panel into the Smithsonian? I mean, it was probably the first solar panel.
Mr. McKIBBEN: I think we're going to keep that panel down there in Washington, at least for a little while. Our friends at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network are taking good care of it. And I suspect we may, in the future, need to roll it out again.
You know, a lot of people were telling me, as we had this meeting, if it doesn't go well, you should, you know, chain yourself to the White House fence and get a lot of press and cause a lot of fuss, and part of me just couldn't bring myself to do it.
They're seven or eight weeks away from an election in which I think at this point every single Republican candidate for senator has said they don't believe in climate change. So I couldn't bear to sort of widen that enthusiasm gap any more.
But look, sooner or later these guys are going to have to show some leadership if we're ever going to get anywhere. So I think that panel may not have seen its last action, some time in the future.
FLATOW: All right. Well, we'll keep track of the panel with you, Bill.
Mr. McKIBBEN: Thank you so much, Ira. Have a good day.
FLATOW: Thanks for taking time to be with us. Bill McKibben, co-founder of the group 350.org, latest book, "Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet." Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.