With fresh memories of being arrested in Washington DC for protesting the MacKenzie XL pipeline, Bill McKibben, co-founder of international climate change activist organization 350.org, gave a rousing lecture at the University of British Columbia’s Chan Centre for Performing Arts. Prior to the public lecture, Bill participated in a smaller Q&A with UBC faculty, staff and students. With questions streaming in through Twitter and Facebook, Bill explored the challenges that academics face as they chart a very personal path through ‘untainted’ intellectual pursuits versus public engagement and activism. Scholars often cite the need to maintain credibility, and the perception of objectivity, as the reason for disengagement with political issues and activism. Bill, however, argued compellingly that climate change is such a crisis that is it unclear for what greater moment academics are saving this precious credibility. Prof. George Hoberg, a UBC political scientist who explores the political economy of energy policy and climate change action, responded immediately by created a UBC outcropping of 350.org. The conversation continues however: what, as scholars, do we risk losing, and what can we contribute by engaging directly with complex socio-economic and environmental issues?