美国国家公共电台 NPR The Gospel Of Climate Change: One Man's Mission To Take The Message To Commuters

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

You got to be in some dire¹ straits to start shouting at the top of your lungs in a New York City subway car. Here's a story of one man who lost his voice hollering at strangers and then taught other people how to do the same thing.

Here's reporter Ben James.

RICHARD MCLACHLAN: Ladies and gentlemen, I do not want any money from you, but I would really appreciate...

BEN JAMES, BYLINE²: Meticulously³ shaven, a clean, collared shirt and fine leather shoes, Richard McLachlan doesn't quite fit the bill for New York desperate.

MCLACHLAN: This is not about me. It's about all of us here in this climate emergency that we are in. I'm an elderly man now, with five grandchildren, and their lives are...

JAMES: Brooklyn to upper Manhattan, above and underground, steeped in the subway din⁴, McLachlan delivers a crushing litany of food shortages, forest fires, more and bigger storms. He wants to scare his listeners, wake them up, connect them to one another.

MCLACHLAN: Talk to your family and friends, your lovers, your workmates. Talk to complete strangers in the subway car.

JAMES: Few riders look at McLachlan directly. They stare at the floor, their phones, waiting for him to be done. Then, at least by New York subway standards, something astonishing occurs.

(APPLAUSE)

MCLACHLAN: Thank you so much. That means a lot to me, just to know you listened.

JAMES: Even while some riders applaud, a man on this Q train heading into Brooklyn raises his voice in response. His name is Kape Deville (ph) and, yeah, he's talking about climate change on the subway to strangers, but this might not be exactly what McLachlan was after.

KAPE DEVILLE: Oh, I was just saying, basically, that it's too late now. The things we were supposed to do to fix it, we were supposed to do in the '80s. God is the only one who's going to save us.

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE: Stand clear of the closing doors.

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JAMES: A Tuesday night in Bushwick, Brooklyn, McLachlan teaches members of Extinction⁵ Rebellion - that's the climate group he belongs to - how to give their own subway talks. His workshop is part writing craft, part encouragement and part reflection from a man who's got a genuine knack⁶ for preaching the apocalypse.

MCLACHLAN: At some point I thought, there's no Richard. There's just an old white guy standing⁷ up in the subway car yelling. And I sort of have this technique. You know, I sit there and I dispense⁸ with Richard. And then I stand up and start talking.

JAMES: Aubrey Reeves Aldritch (ph) is one of nine people in attendance. She says she's aware of the associations people might have about someone who speaks out on the subway.

AUBREY REEVES ALDRITCH: I'm not afraid to be the crazy person because it's not crazy. It's happening.

JAMES: Later that night, Aldritch, Arthur Boyle (ph) John Spies (ph) and others give their subway talks for the first time.

ALDRITCH: The polar ice caps are melting. The oceans are rising and rising and rising. Worldwide crop failure...

ARTHUR BOYLE: We're losing untold⁹ thousands of species to extinction. We have migrants...

JOHN SPIES: It's not our fault we inherited a broken system. But we do have a choice.

JAMES: Sure, it's awkward. These newbies don't yet connect with their audience, at least not the way their mentor¹⁰ does. But McLachlan is all praise. He knows from experience what it takes to stand up and start shouting that first time.

MCLACHLAN: That was great, man.

BOYLE: OK.

MCLACHLAN: You've got a really good voice.

BOYLE: It's loud.

MCLACHLAN: You could have gone up quite a lot more...

BOYLE: OK.

MCLACHLAN: ...And the people way down there would have...

JAMES: McLachlan and at least some of his students plan to speak on the subway throughout October, while their peers in Extinction Rebellion block traffic and risk arrest in cities around the globe.

For NPR News, I'm Ben James.

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