Bill McKibben
About Bill McKibben
Speech topics
Our Changing Climate A Global Movement of Reform
In the summer of 2007, Arctic ice began to melt far more rapidly than scientists had expected. Before the season was out, they'd begun to conclude that the earth was already moving past tipping points—that indicators, from the thawing of glaciers to the spread of droughts, showed global warming was a present crisis, not a future threat. Our leading climatologists even gave us a number for the red line: 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere. That’s a tough number, since we’re already past it. In this talk, Bill McKibben describes not only the science of the situation, but also the inspiring global movement that he's led to help change the world’s understanding of its peril, and spur the reforms necessary to get the planet back to safety. McKibben’s work has crossed the boundaries of language and faith, even the gulf between rich and poor, and it makes for a vibrant, powerful talk that can lead to real change.
Speaking videos
Books by Bill McKibben
“Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?” (2019)
Thirty years ago Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about climate change. Now he broadens the warning: the entire human game, he suggests, has begun to play itself out.Bill McKibben’s groundbreaking book The End of Nature -- issued in dozens of languages and long regarded as a classic -- was the first book to alert us to global warming. But the danger is broader than that: even as climate change shrinks the space where our civilization can exist, new technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics threaten to bleach away the variety of human experience. Falter tells the story of these converging trends and of the ideological fervor that keeps us from bringing them under control. And then, drawing on McKibben’s experience in building 350.org, the first truly global citizens movement to combat climate change, it offers some possible ways out of the trap. We’re at a bleak moment in human history -- and we’ll either confront that bleakness or watch the civilization our forebears built slip away.Falter is a powerful and sobering call to arms, to save not only our planet but also our humanity.
“Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist” (2013)
Bestselling author and environmental activist Bill McKibben recounts the personal and global story of the fight to build and preserve a sustainable planet Bill McKibben is not a person you'd expect to find handcuffed and behind bars, but that's where he found himself in the summer of 2011 after leading the largest civil disobedience in thirty years, protesting the Keystone XL pipeline in front of the White House.
“The Global Warming Reader: A Century of Writing About Climate Change” (2012)
Our most widely respected environmental writer brings together the essential voices on global warming, from its 19th-century discovery to the present. With the rise of extreme weather events worldwide--witness the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Sandy, Irene, and Katrina, and the sustained drought across the American West--global warming has become increasingly difficult to deny.
“Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet” (2011)
Twenty years ago, with The End of Nature, Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about global warming. Those warnings went mostly unheeded; now, he insists, we need to acknowledge that we've waited too long, and that massive change is not only unavoidable but already under way.
“Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously” (2010)
A new edition of a classic book about what it takes to be a world-class athlete and where the true meaning of endurance can be found. At 37, the celebrated writer and environmentalist Bill McKibben took a break from the life of the mind to put himself to the ultimate test: devoting a year to train as a competitive cross-country skier. Consulting with personal trainers, coaches, and doctors at the US Olympic Center, he followed the rigorous training regimen of a world-class athlete.
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