50th Annual Convention
Preconvention workshops: Thursday, May 23–Friday, May 24
Convention: Saturday, May 25–Monday, May 27
Pennsylvania Convention Center and Marriott Philadelphia Downtown
Presidential Scholar Address
Was the Big Brain a Useful Adaptation?
Monday, May 27 6:00 – 6:50 PM
Presenter: Bill McKibben (Third Act)
Abstract: This title is only slightly tongue in cheek--right now our civilizations, though fully warned by scientists of our peril, are in the process of wrecking our climate and with it our prospects as a species. How do we understand this, and how do we turn it around?
Bio: Bill McKibben is a contributing writer to The New Yorker, and a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. He founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel,’ in the Swedish Parliament. He's also won the Gandhi Peace Award, and honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities. He has written over a dozen books about the environment, including his first, The End of Nature, published in 1989, and his latest book is The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.
Learning objectives:
- understand the depth of the crisis surrounding global warming
- understand the comparative role of individual vs group solutions to that crisis
- understand the roles of different demographics in helping with those solutions