Bill McKibben spoke at Book Passage in Corte Madera today, and I was surprised to hear this perpetual pessimist express some hope.
Photo Credit: us.macmillan.com
McKibben is best known for “The End of Nature”, the first book to sound the alarm about global warming. Today he spoke on his latest, “Deep Economy.” It’s about redesigning our economy to be more local, from the grocer to the butcher to the energy producer. The result, he asserts, would be less waste and stronger community bonds.
However, from the first sentence he was less excited about his journalism than he was about his first foray into activism. McKibben has founded an organization called Step It Up, which is focusing anti-global-warming passion around the country into one event on April 14, 2007. The rally, or, rather, the swarm of rallies, endorse a specific goal: an 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. Step It Up hoped for 100 rallies or so; as of today they’re up to 971.
I have always felt a kinship with McKibben since I first read his work in Outside magazine. Now look, he’s all grown up, writing books and changing the world.
Leave a Reply