One of our nation’s leading writers on the environment, whose many books include The End of Nature–the first account of global warming for a general readership–Bill McKibben has been publishing essays for 20 years in leading magazines and journals, including The New Yorker, Nature Conservancy, The New York Times Magazine, Audubon, Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly and The Boston Globe.
Gathered in one volume for the first time, this Reader features some of his most provocative, challenging and powerful essays on our relationship with and obligation toward the larger natural world. (One year ago he organized the Step It Up national day of rallies, regarded as the largest protest of global warming yet.) Grouped under seven large themes, the book’s 44 essays hit on our consuming nature, “Milken, Junk Bonds, and Raping Redwoods” and sustainable farming, for example, getting to the real heart of the problem, dismissing “hype” in favor of hope and urging Christians to take a prophetic lead in raising consciousness on the urgency of our planet’s declining health.
The pieces of this “active life” are anecdotal, humorous, entertaining and incisive. McKibben writes as a wise and caring guide, with clarity, vision and tenacity. Environmental reform, his work makes abundantly clear, is everyone’s business. He readily admits, though, the personal challenges this new mentality brings. On consumerism, for example, he writes: “It’s one small sign for me that the enchantment is wearing off, that the incantation sung over our cradles by the television set may be less permanent than some think.”
Click here to purchase The Bill McKibben Reader on amazon.com.
This article appears in March 24 2008.
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