Lectures - Event View

Bill McKibben
Environmental Activist and Founder 350.org


Warming Planet: The Global Struggle Against Climate Change


February 17, 2021
1:00- 2:00PM

ABOUT THE TOPIC

"January 27th was the most remarkable day in the history of America's official response to the climate crisis," notes Bill McKibben. He was was hailing the detailed climate-change executive order, targeting both home and abroad, that followed one week after President Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement. Meanwhile, the planet continues to warm. Two recent studies measuring global ice melt were in line with scientists’ “worst-case scenarios.” And, with much of the world locked down in 2020, global emissions dropped only about six percent, insufficient to stay on track to meet the Agreement’s goal -- holding global temperature rise to 1.5-degrees Celsius (2.7-degrees F.). What new measures is the administration already undertaking? How will tensions with China limit cooperation on climate? What are the biggest hurdles facing the global community at the next UN Climate Change Conference in November?

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Bill McKibben is founder and senior adviser emeritus of 350.org, whose goal is to raise global awareness of climate change. (350 is named after 350 parts per million - the safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere). His 1989 book, The End of Nature, is regarded as the first look at climate change for a general audience and has appeared in 24 languages. In 2011-12 he led the environmental campaign against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project, including one of the largest civil disobedience actions in recent American history. (President Biden killed the project on January 20th.) A professor of environmental studies at Middlebury College, McKibben also serves as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers. He writes “The Climate Crisis” newsletter for The New Yorker and tweets @billmckibben.

CO-SPONSORS:

Janet Olshansky
Susan Walsh