Solar Power, Climate Anxiety & Collective ActionMaster ClassIn-Person
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m
Location To Be Announced
Solar power has moved from the margins to the mainstream, reshaping economies and offering a rare source of hope in the climate crisis. In this master class, environmental leader Bill McKibben will share insights from his new book Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization. He will explore how the rapid rise of renewable energy is transforming not only how we power society but also how we imagine a fairer future, since the sun shines everywhere—unlike fossil fuels, concentrated in just a few places and controlled by a powerful few. McKibben will also address the challenge of “climate anxiety,” why it is appropriate, and why it need not paralyze us, since there is much to be done. Finally, he will turn to that work itself—how organizing engages the mind, body, and heart, and how it can channel our worry into collective action.
STEM, GLOBAL HISTORY
Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben’s 1989 book The End of Nature—the first book for a general audience on climate change—has been translated into twenty-four languages. He has since written twenty books, published widely from The New Yorker to Rolling Stone, and received the Gandhi Peace Prize, the Right Livelihood Award, and honorary degrees from twenty institutions. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
McKibben co-founded 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which organized actions on every continent, including Antarctica. He helped spearhead resistance to oil pipelines such as Keystone XL and launched the fossil-fuel divestment movement, now involving more than $40 trillion in endowments. He stepped down from 350’s board in 2020 and holds emeritus status. McKibben lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, writer Sue Halpern. In 2014, biologists named a woodland gnat Megophthalmidia mckibbeni in his honor.