The Bill McKibben Reader

Recently heard an interview with Bill McKibben on one of my favorite radio programs, Speaking of Faith.

McKibben is an American environmentalist and writer now organizing internationally to help folks locally build community alternatives to the choices that fuel climate change.

Anyone want to join us in using (or getting) a public library card and delving into the works of Bill McKibben? A Bill McKibben reading group - via potluck or skype? A chance to clarify our understanding of climate change and to contemplate our strategies for living a more integrated, neighborly, sustaining and sustainable life?

Here's a wee preview in which McKibben describes his most recent book *eaarth* (so spelled because our planet is now so radically different from the orb captured in those early iconic photographs from space -- the ones we grew up with -- that it needs a new name):

"I make the case that we’re going to have to figure out how to stop focusing our economies on growth, and start thinking about survival. That means embracing local, smaller-scale ways of living, like it or not. Happily, there’s much to like. Think about food: Americans this past year embraced gardening: seed sales more than doubled. Think about energy: Instead of relying on a few centralized power plants, we’re quickly heading for a nation of solar panels and small windmills, of neighbors generating power for their neighbors.

We’ve built a new Eaarth. It’s not as nice as the old one; it’s the greatest mistake humans have ever made, one that we will pay for literally forever. We live on a new planet. But we have to live on it. So we better start understanding what the hell is going on."

X