‘The planet’s greenest journalist’

Bill McKibben, the author of “The End of Nature”, will speak about how climate change is affecting the world in general and specifically the Colorado Plateau at 7 p.m., Thursday, July 18, at the Grand County High School.

He is also the founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009. Time magazine named him the “planet’s greenest journalist”.

“The End of Nature”, published in 1989, was the first book for the common audience to address climate change.

McKibben’s argument in the book is that the survival of the globe is dependent on a fundamental, philosophical shift in how human’s relate to nature. McKibben writes of our earth’s environmental cataclysm, addressing such core issues as the greenhouse effect, acid rain, and the depletion of the ozone layer.

In the re-printing of his book, he includes an introduction that addresses some of the latest environmental issues that have arisen since the 1990s.

Other speakers joining McKibben in Moab include Dave Harper of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, John Weisheit of Living Rivers and Kate Finneran of Before It Starts – Keep the US Tar Sands and Oil Shale Free.

Harper is the co-founder and spokesperson for the Fort Mojave Cultural Preservation Program and a tribal member of the Colorado River Indian Tribes. He was a leader in the successful occupation campaign to save the sacred Ward Valley from a nuclear waste dump.

Weisheit has a long history of advocacy for rivers in the Southwest, both from a natural history perspective and as a leader in the outdoor industry. He serves on the boards of Utah Guides and Outfitters, Colorado Plateau River Guides, Headwaters Institute and the Sierra Club Glen Canyon Group. With two co-authors, Weisheit has written a book called “Cataract Canyon: A Human and Environmental History of the Rivers in Canyonlands”. The Waterkeeper Alliance designated John as your Colorado Riverkeeper in October of 2002.

Finneran has been actively raising awareness about tar sands and oil sand mining.