[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiYWXEuktO0[/youtube]
Legendary American environmentalist Bill McKibben is paying the region a visit in early September. On Monday, September 7th McKibben will speak at 9.30 AM in Beer Sheva, in Israel’s Negev. Exact location TBA.
Born in 1960, McKibben founded the 350.org campaign to address the climate crisis. He published his first book as a serial in the New Yorker, later printed as The End of Nature (Random House 1989). It was one of the first climate change books printed for a wide audience.
He also writes about the limits of technology to improve our lives, which he calls the “enough” theory. From his 2003 book Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age:
We’ve been told that it’s impossible – that some force like evolution drives us on to More and Faster and Bigger. ‘You can’t stop progress.’ But that’s not true. We could choose to mature. That could be the new trick we share with each other, a trick as revolutionary as fire. Or even the computer.
McKibben’s words are welcome in Beer Sheva, which has an active environmental community we wrote about here, as well as serious challenges related to sprawl and bad planning.
Beer Sheva is easy to reach by public transportation, and has a fast train link to Tel Aviv, Haifa and most cities along the coast. Mark your calendars! For more information, or to RSVP, contact Gili Baruch at gili [at] shatil [dot] nif [dot] org [dot] il.
The talk is sponsored by the Social-Economic Academy, the Paths to Sustainability Coalition, and the Heinrich-Böll Foundation.
Author: Daniella Cheslow
Daniella Cheslow grew up in a car-dependent suburb in New Jersey, where she noticed strip malls and Wal-Marts slowly replacing farmland. Her introduction to nature came through hiking trips in Israel. As a counselor for a freshman backpacking program at Northwestern University, Daniella noticed that Americans outdoors seemed to need to arm themselves with performance clothing, specialized water bottles and sophisticated camping silverware. This made her think about how to interact with and enjoy nature simply. This year, Daniella is getting a Master’s in Geography from Ben Gurion University of the Negev. She also freelance writes, photographs and podcasts. In her free time, she takes day trips in the desert, drops off compost and cooks local foods like stuffed zucchini, kubbeh and majadara. Daniella gets her peak oil anxiety from James Howard Kunstler and her organic food dreams from Michael Pollan. Read more at her blog, TheTruthHerzl.com. Daniella can be reached at daniella (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
So, how was it?
Just FYI I checked and for anyone interested in coming, the talk will be at Merkaz Hamorim on Reger (across the street from the northern end of the hospital campus).