Bill McKibben - Part 1

“I always say the most important thing an individual can do is be a little less of an individual and come together with others to form the kind of movements big enough to change the basic underlying ground rules here, the economic and political ground rules.” - Bill McKibben

America’s most prominent environmentalist sits down for a deep talk with the Mother Earth Podcast.  Bill McKibben was the first American author to warn the general public of the dangers of climate change in his 1989 book, The End of Nature. With this publication, Bill embarked on a three-decade journey from an introverted author to America’s leading environmental journalist and a trailblazing global climate activist. Bill is the founder of 350.org, the organization that created the first global, grassroots climate movement. In 2009, 350.org organized 5,200 simultaneous climate demonstrations in 181 countries. The organization has staged twenty thousand rallies around the world and continues to be at the cutting edge of the climate crisis today.  

In our two-part conversation with Bill, he recounts the humble beginnings of 350.org, the reasons he felt compelled to launch a climate change protest movement, the formative moment of his youth, the role of non-violent protest and the solar panel as the most important inventions of the Twentieth Century, the key takeaways from his latest book, Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?, and how we can get involved to help solve the climate crisis. This is a rare long-form interview with Bill, and listeners will be rewarded with a deep conversation on both the climate crisis and on Bill’s journey from young New Yorker staff writer to global leader of climate activism.

While working overtime to save humanity and creation from the climate crisis, including by getting himself arrested, Bill has continued his writing career and is America’s foremost writer on the environment. He has written seventeen books including Eaarth, Deep Economy, Enough, Oil and Honey and published a compilation of essays, The Bill McKibben Reader. Bill has contributed to publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Orion Magazine, Mother Jones, The Rolling Stone, and Outside. He seems to be everywhere these days, with an article or op ed on the climate crisis in a prominent publication coming out nearly every week, which makes the Mother Earth Podcast even more grateful for our time with Bill. Welcome to the show.  (Please note that this episode was recorded prior to the pandemic).

Visit motherearthpod.com for show notes with more information about Bill and how you can get involved in helping to solve the climate crisis.