David Merrill

Global warming has been a daily part of my consciousness since 1997 after reading “The Heat is On” by Ross Gelbspan. I currently serve as a senior field organizer for energy and climate for the Sierra Club, based in Missoula, Montana. I direct the Climate North Star project outside of my Sierra Club work. Bill McKibben called Climate North Star “…a fascinating report.”

As climate impacts struck with increasing ferocity and intensity, I became intensely interested in what a maximum speed global carbon transition, which we absolutely need, would entail. In addition, I wanted to know how such a maximum speed transition would impact the scientific metrics of global average temperature, carbon emissions. atmospheric CO2 concentration and sea-level rise.

A constant ethos of my work is ‘how does what we are doing to address the climate emergency meet the imperative of preventing the “World Killer?”, the inundation of coastal cities worldwide which would likely cause the collapse of society.

I have served as field organizer and Montana communications director for Al Gore’s Repower America campaign and I founded and directed a Missoula based global warming nonprofit for 6 years. I have been an organizer for the Sierra Club from 2015 to the present. I live in Missoula with my partner and our two children.

Organization:
Climate North Star
Title:
Project Director