Environmentalist Bill McKibben to Speak at Northwestern

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Noted environmentalist Bill McKibben, who Time magazine called “the planet’s best green journalist,” will discuss climate change and other related topics in a lecture at Northwestern University at 8 p.m. next Tuesday (March 3) at Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson Street, on the University’s Evanston campus.

The event is sponsored by Students for Ecological and Environmental Development (SEED), Northwestern’s largest environmental student group, and the Northwestern Sustainability Fund. It is free and open to the public.

McKibben’s latest book, “Oil and Honey,” touches on his activism regarding the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which was in the headlines Tuesday when President Obama vetoed legislation authorizing the construction of the pipeline. McKibben’s 1989 book “The End of Nature” is widely regarded as the first book about climate change written for a general audience.

“Northwestern has a history of activism, and climate change and the environment are the critical issues that this generation of students will face,” said Rob Whittier, the University’s director of sustainability. “Bill McKibben is a torchbearer on these global issues and is inspiring millions though his 350.org movement.”

In addition to being the founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, McKibben is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Peace Award.

“Bill is the latest in a string of notable environmental leaders that have spoken at Northwestern,” Whittier said. “These include people like Thomas Friedman, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Paul Krugman, Justin Gillis, Amory Lovins, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and more.”