Environmentalist, author and activist Bill McKibben will speak on “Global Warming as a Moral Issue” Tuesday, Feb. 6, at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial. The talk, free and open to the public, kicks off the three-part seminar series, “Abrupt Climate Change,” sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.
McKibben has written extensively on global warming, genetic engineering, religion, the effects of television on culture and knowledge, and the Eastern United States and Adirondack wilderness. He is the author of The End of Nature (1989), the first general audience book about global warming. Recent books include Enough (2004), which critiques human genetic engineering and other rapidly advancing technologies; Wandering Home (2005), which chronicles his foot travels across Vermont; and Age of Missing Information (a 2006 reissue of the 1992 book), in which he compares his experience watching 1,700 hours of cable TV to that of contemplating nature in the Adirondacks.
He also is the author of the forthcoming book, Deep Economy,in which he urges the reader to “think in new ways about the things we buy, the food we eat, the energy we use and the money that pays for it all.”
He is writer-in-residence at Middlebury College.
Other environmental series seminars this term include: “Global Climate Change: Water Resources And Human Occupation In The Tropical Andes,” Wednesday, Feb. 21, with Bryan G. Mark, Department of Geography, The Ohio State University; and “Abrupt Climate Change: Past, Present and Future,” Wednesday, Feb. 28, with Lonnie G. Thompson, Distinguished University Professor, School of Earth Sciences Senior Research Scientist, Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University.