--- title: Bill McKibben Copy - test date: 2020-08-26T10:53:32Z modified: 2020-08-26T13:52:20Z permalink: "https://350.org/bill-copy/" type: page status: publish excerpt: "" wpid: 131104 author: The 350.org Team --- ## Summary Bill McKibben is an author, environmentalist, and activist. In 1988 he wrote _The End of Nature_, the first book for a common audience about global warming. He is a co-founder and Senior Advisor at 350.org, an international climate campaign that works in 188 countries around the world. ## Quick Links [Upcoming Appearances and Events](https://billmckibben.com/appearances.html) (on [billmckibben.com](https://www.billmckibben.com)) [Bill McKibben’s Biography](#bio) [Photos](#Photos) [Editorials, Op-Eds, and Interviews](#editorials) --- **Bill McKibben’s Biography** Bill McKibben is founder and senior adviser emeritus of [350.org](https://350.org/). His 1989 book _The End of Nature_ is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He’s gone on to write many more books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the _New Yorker_ to _Rolling Stone._ He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. _Foreign Policy_ named him to its inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers. McKibben helped found [350.org](https://350.org/), the first global grassroots climate campaign, and has organized on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $15 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal. He stepped down as board chair of 350 in 2015, and left the board and stepped down from his volunteer role as senior adviser in 2020, accepting emeritus status. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat— _Megophthalmidia mckibbeni_–in his honor. **Photos of Bill** ![](https://350.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/BillMcKibben-2019-headshotphotocreditNancieBattaglia-HighRes-467x700.jpg) Photo Credit: Nancie Battaglia. [Click here for a high-res version of this image](https://billmckibben.com/Publicity/BillMcKibben(photocreditNancieBattaglia)-HighRes.jpg) ![](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8058/8233822916_e69e13ed70_z.jpg) Photo Credit: Steve Liptay. [Click here for a high-res version of this image](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8058/8233822916_812d42a2c3_o.jpg) [![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.350.org/images/McKibben_Nancy_Battaglia_2009_web.jpg) ](https://www.350.org/sites/all/files/McKibben_Nancy_Battaglia_2009.jpg)Photo Credit: Nancie Battaglia.[ Click here for a high-res version of this image](https://www.middlebury.edu/media/view/450282/original/mckibben_nancy_battaglia_2009.jpg) **Selected Writings** For each installment of Bill’s _The Climate Crisis_ series in _The New Yorker_,[ click here](https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet). - June 3, 2020, _The New Yorker_, “[If Trump Goes Even Lower, We’d Better Be Prepared](https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/if-trump-goes-even-lower-wed-better-be-prepared)” - Apr 22, 2020, _The Guardian_, “[This Earth Day, we must stop the fossil fuel money pipeline](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2020/apr/22/fossil-fuel-industry-stop-the-money-pipeline)” - Sept 17, 2019, _The New Yorker, “_[_Money is the Oxygen on Which The Fire of Global Warming Burns_](https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/money-is-the-oxygen-on-which-the-fire-of-global-warming-burns)_”_ - Sept 12, 2019, TIME Magazine,[ “Hello From the Year 2050. We Avoided the Worst of Climate Change — But Everything Is Different”](https://time.com/5669022/climate-change-2050/#:~:text=Everything%20Is%20Different-,Hello%20From%20the%20Year%202050.,Change%20%E2%80%94%20But%20Everything%20Is%20Different&text=It's%202050%2C%20and%20we%20have,be%20in%20our%20rearview%20mirror.) - August 14, 2018, _The New York Review of Books_, “[Seeing Red? Think Blue](https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/08/14/seeing-red-think-blue/)” - March 5, 2018, _The Nation,_ “[3 Strategies to Get to a Fossil-Free America](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/3-strategies-to-get-to-a-fossil-free-america/)” - June 26, 2017, _The New Yorker_, “[The Race to Solar-Power Africa](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/26/the-race-to-solar-power-africa)” - January 24, 2017, _Rolling Stone, “_[The New Battle Plan for the Planet’s Climate Crisis](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/the-new-battle-plan-for-the-planets-climate-crisis-114410/)” - November 30, 2016, _The Nation_, “[How the Active Many Can Overcome the Ruthless Few](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/how-the-active-many-can-overcome-the-ruthless-few/)” - August 15, 2016, Bill McKibben, _The New Republic,_ “[A World At War](https://newrepublic.com/article/135684/declare-war-climate-change-mobilize-wwii)” - March 23, 2016, Bill McKibben, _The Nation_, “[Global Warming’s Terrifying New Chemistry](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/global-warming-terrifying-new-chemistry/)” - October 20, 2015, Bill McKibben, _The Nation_, “[Exxon Knew Everything There Was to Know About Climate Change by the Mid-1980s – and Denied It](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exxon-knew-everything-there-was-to-know-about-climate-change-by-the-mid-1980s-and-denied-it/)” - June 29, 2015, Bill McKibben, _The New Yorker_, “[Power to the People](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/power-to-the-people)” - May 21, 2014, Bill McKibben, _Rolling Stone,_ “[**A Call to Arms: An Invitation to Demand Action on Climate Change**](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/a-call-to-arms-an-invitation-to-demand-action-on-climate-change-20140521)“ - Aug 18, 2013, Bill McKibben, _TomDispatch_, “[**Movements Without Leaders**](https://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175737/)“ - Mar 1, 2013, Bill McKibben, Orion Magazine, “[A Moral Atmosphere](https://orionmagazine.org/article/a-moral-atmosphere/)” - July 19, 2012, Bill McKibben, _Rolling Stone,_ “[**Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math**](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719)“ - Sept 28, 2011, Bill McKibben, _Rolling Stone_, “[**The Keystone Pipeline Revolt: Why Mass Arrests are Just the Beginning**](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-keystone-pipeline-revolt-why-mass-arrests-are-just-the-beginning-20110928)“ **Selected Interviews and Media** 60 Minutes / CBS:[ What Will Be The New Normal After the Coronavirus Pandemic](https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1262169427585441792)? May 2020. Amanpour & Co / PBS:[ Bill McKibben Discusses Fossil Fuel Divestment](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/bill-mckibben-discusses-fossil-fuel-divestment/). March 2020. Bioneers:[ What We’ve Learned About Climate Change in the Last 30 Years](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfm6mfU5uko). Nov 2019. Democracy Now!:[ Youth Who Led Global Climate Strike Are Bringing a New “Spirit” to Climate Fight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAcKNVB72mg). Sept 2019. NPR.org:[ Climate Change Is ‘Greatest Challenge Humans Have Ever Faced,’](https://www.npr.org/2019/04/16/713829853/climate-change-is-greatest-challenge-humans-have-ever-faced-author-says) Author Says. April 2019. Amanpour & Co / CNN:[ Bill McKibben: We have wasted the last 30 years](https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/04/22/amanpour-bill-mckibben-climate-change-falter.cnn). April 2019. CBS News:[ Bill McKibben on how extreme weather is shrinking the planet](https://www.cbsnews.com/video/bill-mckibben-on-how-extreme-weather-is-shrinking-the-planet/). Nov 2018. 350.org: Climate Teach-ins with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mustafa Ali, James Hansen, Katherine Hayhoe, and Bill McKibben. #1:[ Science](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvHCjsDBwxM&feature=youtu.be). #2:[ Solutions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPV_coPAkCE). April 2017. Plough Publishing:[ Bill McKibben on how to build a strong community](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc8JyU1k4eA&feature=youtu.be&rel=)). March 2015. Feb 7, 2014, [_Bill Moyers: Bill McKibben to Obama: Say No to Big Oil_](https://billmoyers.com/episode/bill-mckibben-to-obama-say-no-to-big-oil/) Feb 13, 2012, [_Colbert Report: The Keystone XL Oil Pipeline_](https://www.cc.com/video-clips/5vb30b/the-colbert-report-keystone-xl-oil-pipeline---bill-mckibben)