2008-2009 Common Reader: “The End of Nature”

It is about the science and politics of global warming and the complex interdependence between human action and all life systems.  While its message about global warming is daunting, McKibben writes, “The only good news is that we are now also beginning to see some political drive for real change.”

A common reader is a book that is assigned to all first-year students to read before they arrive on campus.  The purpose of a common reader is to integrate you into the University learning community as early as possible.  When students, regardless major area of study, read a common text, a shared learning experience is possible.  A common reading allows various experiences, reactions, and perspectives to be exchanged and discussed. 

The End of Nature is considered a ground-breaking effort to educate the general public about the science and politics of global warming.  It was selected because the author presents well-researched facts about green-house effect, acid rain, and climate change as well as critical analysis of the cultural, spiritual, and social frameworks that support careless and exploitive relationships. Originally published in 1989, the book was reissued in 2006 with updated information.  The book fits well with the philosophy of the general education curriculum that comprehensive knowledge is possible only if multiple perspectives and connections are understood. It was also selected because South Florida is a unique environment in which to study the effects of global warming, development policies, and the fragility of eco-systems. 

Barry Bookstore and most retail outlets. 

• On October 28, 2008, Barry University and the Center for Earth Jurisprudence will host a one-day mini-conference on “Global Warming, What can be done?”  (Panel presentations and discussions, guest speakers from local environmental agencies, film screening, service opportunities, and many other interesting sessions.)
• Students may choose also to participate in poetry/writing and photography contests.  Prize-money will be awarded for the best entries.
• Attending the conference sessions and relating the information to the reader may be required or optional assignments for many classes.

• Many first year classes, such as First-Year Composition, Fundaments of Speech, The Meaning of History, Introduction to Sociology and Biological Foundations will use the book as part of one or more assignments. 
• One or more of your instructors may require you to attend the conference as part of a class assignment.

"Bill McKibben's subject is the end of nature itself, which he claims humans have brought about. The subject is important, the notion is arresting, and Mr. McKibben argues convincingly."

—The Wall Street Journal

"By the end of nature Mr. McKibben means the end of nature as a force independent of man . . . for a man preaching apocalypse, he speaks in a measured and civilized voice that deserves hearing."

—New York Times Book Review

"McKibben's eye-opening plea . . . is likely to prove as important as Rachel Carson's classic Silent Spring or Jonathan Schell's The Fate of the Earth. The End of Nature may convert you, or it may infuriate you. But the world will never again look the same to you after you've read it."

—Cleveland Plain Dealer

Bill McKibben is an American environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming, alternative energy, and the risks associated with human genetic engineering. Beginning in the summer of 2006, he led the organization of the largest demonstrations against global warming in American history. McKibben is active in the Methodist Church, and his writing sometimes has a spiritual bent.

Bill grew up in suburban Lexington, Massachusetts. He was president of the Harvard Crimson newspaper in college. Immediately after college he joined the New Yorker magazine as a staff writer, and wrote much of the "Talk of the Town" column from 1982 to early 1987. He quit the magazine when its longtime editor William Shawn was forced out of his job, and soon moved to the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York.

His first book, The End of Nature, was published in 1989 by Random House after being serialized in the New Yorker. It is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has been printed in more than 20 languages. Several editions have come out in the United States, including an updated version published in 2006.

In late summer 2006, Bill helped lead a five-day walk across Vermont to demand action on global warming that some newspaper accounts called the largest demonstration to date in America about climate change. Beginning in January 2007 he founded stepitup07.org to demand that Congress enact curbs on carbon emissions that would cut global warming pollution 80 percent by 2050. Step It Up 2007 has been described as the largest day of protest about climate change in the nation's history.

March 2008 saw the publication of The Bill McKibben Reader, a collection of 44 essays written for various publications over the past 25 years.

Bill is a frequent contributor to various magazines including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Orion Magazine, Mother Jones, The New York Review of Books, Granta, Rolling Stone, and Outside. He is also a board member and contributor to Grist Magazine.

Bill has been awarded Guggenheim and Lyndhurst Fellowships, and won the Lannan Prize for nonfiction writing in 2000. He has honorary degrees from Green Mountain College, Unity College, Lebanon Valley College and Sterling College.

Bill currently resides with his wife, writer Sue Halpern, and his daughter, Sophie, who was born in 1993, in Ripton, Vermont. He is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College.

(Items above are from the official author’s website’s bio and press kit sections  http://www.billmckibben.com/ )