Bill McKibben is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with the first book for a general audience on climate change, The End of Nature in 1989. In 2007 he published Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, which critiques the growth economy and envisions a transition to more local-scale enterprise. In 2010 he published the provocative book Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet, which argues we are living on “a new Eaarth,” a dramatically different planet than we have known, now defined by reduced energy resources and increased climate disruption. Time Magazine has called McKibben “the planet’s best green journalist” and the Boston Globe said in 2010 that he was “probably the country’s most important environmentalist.”

McKibben is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009. He also is a leader in the campaign against the destructive extraction and transportation of the tar sands oil.

McKibben, who lives in Vermont and is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College, is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The event is sponsored by the University of Texas School of Journalism and the Third Coast Activist Resource Center.

The event is free and open to the public, and seating is limited on a first-come/first-seated basis.

For more information, contact Robert Jensen, rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.

Location: Belo Center for New Media Auditorium (BMC 2.106), northeast corner of Dean Keeton and Guadalupe, University of Texas, Austin