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Changhun Kim (Chris)

Michael G. Broschinsky
POLS 1100-001
7Th August 2015
Profile
Bill Mckibben was born on December 8, 1960, in Palo Alto, CA. However, he grew
up in the Boston suburb of Lexington, Massachusetts, where he attended high school. He
recalls A good suburban child with one brother. Judging by his adjectives of choice, it was
a wholesome, blessedly boring childhood. As a high school student, he has attended in debate
competitions throughout nation. When he went to Harvard University in 1978, he became
editor of The Harvard Crimson. After graduating in 1982, he got a job as a staff writer at The
New Yorker, contributing primarily Talk of the Town pieces. On this assignment he met his
wife who was working as a homeless protecter at the time. They have one 17-year-old
daughter, Sophie, who is founder-editor of a children's magazine. (Dubrow par. 11).
In 1980, following the Ronald Regan era, Mckibben was determined to dedicate his
life to the environmental cause. Because of Ronald Regans administrations antienvironment keynote of policy, this caused revitalized environment movements. With the
growth in environmental organizations, their members grew up, and members of Congress
supports increased. Moreover, extensive and serious new environment problems like acid rain
and depletion of the ozone layer as well as existing pollution came. Therefore, social
recognition of unexpected environmental calamity and constant destruction of the
environment contributed to resurge environmental organizations.
Contending that Christian ethical teachings are coextensive with left-wing politics,
McKibben has, in particular, embraced radical Biblical interpretations which construe
environmentalism as a Christian mandate (Klein par. 1).

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He is an international environmentalist, author, and best green journalist who leads

low-carbon green growth and global warming prevention campaigns in the world. He is an
environmentalist who believes the earth is threatened by overpopulation. He thinks the
problem is not lack of space. The problem is consumption; that people are using so much
more of the earth's resources than their ancestors did. He was a journalist at the New Yorker.
His columns are being published serially in Harper's Weekly, National Geography, New York
Review of Books, and so on. His writings, in which he always covers a case, collects
scientific data in person, gives us a deep understanding and sympathy about the relationship
between earth and human beings, and receives the most media attention from major news
media outlets and government. As he wanders throughout the world, he gives lectures, drafts
activities, and voluntarily participates in an ecology campaign. He not only is currently
working as a visiting professor at Middlebury College in Vermont but also researches at Post
Carbon Institute.
In 2009, an environmental organization, 350.org, which he established, started
demonstrations in 181 countries; he is trying to reduce density of carbon dioxide up to
355ppm in the whole world. Cable News Network (CNN) evaluated 350.org as being one of
the most important campaigns in the earths recent history. Bill Mckibben realistically
analyzes global environmental problems with great subtlety and frankly describes pictures of
future earth. Old earth is familiar to us, but Mckibben changes something nobody saw before
as bad into something that needs to change. This name of new plant is Eaarth. It is the
name he has decided to assign both to his new book and to the planet formerly known as
Earth. His point is a fresh one that brings the reader uncomfortably close to climate change
(Greenberg par2). It is inevitable to face circumstances that it is more hot, cold, and humid as
days go by. It remains parts of all, basically earth will change into another plant. His book

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Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet asks what should we do to live on the earth
that already has been destroyed?
His book said our drive to accumulate wealth by advancing the technological sphere
in industry, agriculture, fishing, and air travel has so suffused the atmosphere with carbon
dioxide, particle matter to which moisture clings, and deleterious gases galore that we have
completely altered the biosphere. Beside, according to interview about this book, he said We
need to do two things. One, put a price on carbon so that we really begin to ween ourselves
aggressively from fossil fuel. Even when we do that we'd be very wise to re-examine our
economic life. Stop thinking constantly about expansion, and start thinking more about
security. That implies getting away from too-big-to-fail, not just in banking, but in energy, in
agriculture, and in almost everything we do (Marketplace par. 9). In detail, soil has become
a kind of matrix for holding our corn upright while we apply fossil fuel. We need to get back
to a very different kind of agriculture. First, it is much more diverse and is much more
localized. The fastest growing part of the food economy for the last decade has been local
farmers markets.
McKibben has sustained the urgent situation for twenty years. Like anyone in the
persuasion business, he has had to decide what methods and tones will best serve his
message. His book The End of Nature elicited fear and sorrow. This may have been a
reflection of his own mind-set as much as a strategic decision, but it was appropriate: he
wanted to convey that global warming was real and needed to be taken seriously. Now, the
stated goal of his writing is to prompt action. He calls for a response at many levels, seeking
to enlist government such as international treaties, federal laws, state and city policies,
technology like solar and wind energy but also, he concedes, maybe nuclear power. Most
crucial in his view, imagination to foster new habits, values and economies. Toward that end,
he has sought to balance an emphasis on threats with a focus on the exciting potential to

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creatively address the problem and live richer lives in the process. In recent years, he has
been betting on the galvanizing powers of hopeinvoking an organic, locally grown carrot,
among other prospectswhile always keeping the stick of droughts and underwater
metropolises close at hand (Dubrow par. 21).
His main values, which would be easily changed onto environmentalism, were
forged before he ever contemplated hugging a tree. McKibben's environmentalism is
essentially religious: a guiding set of beliefs about what humans owe to a sacred source of
life. He seems more instinctively drawn to the notion of nature as a sublime and mysterious
force.

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Works Cited
Dubrow, Rebecca T. "Bill McKibben: The Making of an Environmentalist." The Nation.
N.p., 1 July 2008. Web. 6 Aug. 2015. <http://www.thenation.com/article/billmckibben-making-environmentalist/>
Greengerg, Paul. "Book Review - Eaarth - By Bill McKibben - NYTimes.com." The New
York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., 7 May 2010. Web.
6 Aug. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/books/review/Greenberg-t.html>
Klein, Naomi. "Bill McKibben." Discover the Networks. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Aug. 2015.
<http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2500>
Marketplace. "A New Reality for Living on 'eaarth' | Marketplace.org." Marketplace from
American Public Media | Marketplace.org. N.p., 13 Apr. 2010. Web. 6 Aug. 2015.<
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/big-book/new-reality-living-eaarth>