Saturday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m.—GRAFTON—The Nature Museum is thrilled to host author and climate change activist, Bill McKibben, for an evening of education and inspiration. This event has sliding scale tickets and will be held at the Grafton Community Church, with tickets available at The Nature Museum website and at the door.
A former staff writer for the New Yorker, McKibben writes frequently for a wide variety of publications around the world, including the New York Review of Books, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone. The Boston Globe said he was “probably America’s most important environmentalist” and his activism and leadership have remained both focused and influential of over 30 years. He is currently deeply engaged in the national conversation, publishing articles and leading acts of civil disobedience and mass actions targeting financial institutions that invest in fossil fuels.
His 1989 book, “The End of Nature,” is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. Since publishing the now classic, and widely credited with launching the movement against climate change, McKibben has been at the forefront of nearly every fight on behalf of the environment.
He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized twenty thousand rallies around the world in every country, save North Korea, spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement. His efforts to increase awareness of the need to lower carbon emissions are recognized globally.
Vanessa Stern, the Executive Director of The Nature Museum, was inspired to get in touch with Bill after reading his recent book. “I’m not sure if I would have reached out to Bill if I hadn’t read in his newest book, ‘Falter,’ that if he had given up all hope with regard to climate change, he wouldn’t have bothered to write this book. Given our own governor’s reluctance to embrace the proposed Global Warming Solutions Act, I think it’s imperative we get out to hear McKibben’s message and his call to action.”
In his newest book, “Falter,” he continues to address this urgent mission, coupling it with a warning about trends including AI (artificial intelligence) and robotics. McKibben cites these trends, along with the ideologies that fuel them, as some that threaten to substantially alter the nature of human experience and possibly end civilization as we have known it.
“The last time I saw Bill McKibben speak, I was so impressed,” said Will Danforth, a Nature Museum Board member. “Not only by the volume of his facts and stories, but by his professional demeanor – objective, and so articulate and compelling.”
Jay DeGregorio, Senior Environmental Educator, said, “Bill is an important environmental agent of change whose work is more important now more than ever. It’s incredibly exciting that The Nature Museum is able to host an opportunity for the community to engage with Bill and his message. It’s people like Bill who inspire climate change learning and action on an impactful scale. We can all learn to be environmental agents of change from Bill.”
Tickets are sliding scale from $15-$25 and are available at nature-museum.org.
