Students and Tempe residents will have the opportunity to hear insight from a real-life global-warming awareness advocate Tuesday night at Changing Hands Bookstore.
Bill McKibben, environmentalist and writer, will visit the bookstore located at Guadalupe Road and McClintock Drive at 7 p.m. to discuss his new book, "Fight Global Warming Now," and his national bestseller from last year, "Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future."
Far from obscure, McKibben has occupied the forefront of the fight to correct global warming for almost 20 years. He started writing about climate change in 1989 as a staff writer for The New Yorker. His piece "The End of Nature" was translated into 24 languages and impacted ideas on a global level. In the summer of 2006, McKibben organized one of the largest demonstrations against global warming in American history.
More recently, McKibben's nationally recognized efforts work to promote sustainable local communities and debunk current conceptions of prosperity. "Deep Economy" discusses the inherent problems with an economic model based on perpetual growth. Constraints from natural resources, as well as the damaging effects of pollution, could spell disaster in the-not-so-distant future, McKibben said.
"Over the years, I came to think, more and more, that I needed to do more than write and speak," he said in an e-mail. "This is the biggest problem people have ever faced, so we need to do what we can."
Regional food production, local energy and even native forms of entertainment and culture contradict the current global model, he said. McKibben argues for a humanistic economy.
His newest struggle will be discussed on Tuesday night. "At the moment, we've just launched 350.org. The number refers to the parts-per-million CO2 [carbon dioxide] that scientists have said is the maximum safe level for the atmosphere," he said. "We're determined to take it around the planet, to tattoo that number into every human brain."
Reach the reporter at: channing.turner@asu.edu.
