We reported earlier this week about ExxonMobil’s uncharacteristically public response to shareholder requests for information about the company’s climate change mitigation efforts. And today climate activist Bill McKibben leveled both barrels at the oil major in a piece that denounces the Exxon reports as arrogant provocations.

“We’ve never thought that there was a small flaw in their business plan that could be altered by negotiation; we’ve always thought their business plan was to keep pouring carbon into the atmosphere. And indeed Exxon’s statements are easy to translate: ‘We plan on overheating the planet, we think we have the political muscle to keep doing it, and we dare you to stop it.’ And they’re right — unless we build a big and powerful movement, they’ll continue to dominate our political life and keep change from ever taking place.” – Bill McKibben

McKibben continues:

“So now, with that information clearly on the table, it’s time for college boards and foundation heads, church denominations and city mayors to act and act firmly. By divesting — by announcing that they are breaking ties with these companies — they will begin the process of politically bankrupting them. Of taking away the social license that allows them to act with such consummate arrogance, on the very day that the planet’s scientists laid bare the impact of climate change on everything from crop yields to civil wars.” – Bill McKibben

And with that call to action the often acrimonious debate over how best to deal with global warming ticks up yet another a notch.