CCM Launches Spring Semester Lecture Series
Author and environmental activist Bill McKibben. Photo by Nancie Battaglia
Award-winning author, educator and environmentalist Bill McKibben will provide a State of the World address as the Legacy Project at County College of Morris (CCM) launches its series of engaging discussions for the Spring Semester.
The online event, which is free and open to the public, takes place Tuesday, March 1 at 6 p.m. via Zoom.
“We are so excited that Bill McKibben has agreed to lecture about climate change and his career,” said Professor John Soltes, assistant professor of Communication at CCM and co-director of the Legacy Project. “Fittingly, he will speak on the State of the World a couple of hours before U.S. President Joe Biden offers the State of the Union address.”
McKibben’s classic work, “The End of Nature” is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change. Since its first publication in 1989, it has appeared in 24 languages and was reissued on its 10th anniversary. McKibben has authored over a dozen books about climate change. He is the founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change group, having spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline project. The group is named after 350 parts per million — the safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
In 2009, McKibben led 5,200 simultaneous demonstrations in 181 countries. That year Foreign Policy magazine named him to its inaugural list of the World’s 100 Most Important Global Thinkers. MSN named him One of the Dozen Most Influential Men of 2009. In 2010, 350.org conceived the 10/10/10 Global Work Party organizing more than 7,000 events in 188 countries. The Boston Globe called McKibben “probably the nation’s leading environmentalist” and Time magazine described him as “the world’s best green journalist.”
McKibben is the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Peace Award and the Thomas Merton Prize. In 2014, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize. According to Soltes, this recognition is sometimes called the “Alternative Nobel.”
A Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, McKibben is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary degrees from 18 colleges and universities.
For additional information and the Zoom link, email legacy@ccm.edu or call 973-328-5469. The Legacy Project is an interdisciplinary initiative that presents engaging lectures for students, faculty, staff and members of the public. It is guided by a 35-member advisory committee consisting of faculty and staff at CCM.
