Environmentalist & Bestselling Author Bill McKibben ~ Tuesday, April 17, 2012 ~ 7:30pm ~ $15.00 in Advance / $20.00 at the Door / $12.00 Students

Time Magazine calls bestselling author Bill McKibben “the planet’s best green journalist,” and The Boston Globe says he is “probably the country’s most important environmentalist.”  On Tuesday, April 17^th at 7:30 p.m., celebrated essayist, journalist and author Bill McKibben will speak at the Miner’s Foundry in Nevada City, CA. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder will be present at the event and will introduce McKibben. Tickets for the event are $20 at the door, $15 in advance, and $12 for students.  Tickets are available at the Miner’s Foundry Box Office in Nevada City, The Bookseller in Grass Valley, and Briar Patch Market in Grass Valley.  The event is being co-sponsored by the Yuba Watershed Institute and Ananda College of Living Wisdom.

Twenty years ago, with The End of Nature, Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about global warming. Those warnings went mostly unheeded; now, he insists, we need to acknowledge that we’ve waited too long, and that massive change is not only unavoidable but already under way. Our old familiar globe is suddenly melting, drying, acidifying, flooding, and burning in ways that no human has ever seen. We’ve created, in very short order, a new planet, still recognizable but fundamentally different. We may as well call it Eaarth.

That new planet is filled with new binds and traps. A changing world costs large sums to defend—think of the money that went to repair New Orleans, or the trillions it will take to transform our energy systems. But the endless economic growth that could underwrite such largesse depends on the stable planet we’ve managed to damage and degrade. We can’t rely on old habits any longer.

Our hope depends, McKibben argues, on scaling back—on building the kind of societies and economies that can hunker down, concentrate on essentials, and create the type of community (in the neighborhood, but also on the Internet) that will allow us to weather trouble on an unprecedented scale. Change—fundamental change—is our best hope on a planet suddenly and violently out of balance.  In March of 2007 McKibben published Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. It addresses what the author sees as shortcomings of growth economy and envisions a transition to more local-scale enterprise.

About his newest book, Eaarth, Allan Weisman, author of The World Without Us, says, “With clarity, eloquence, deep knowledge and even greater compassion for both planet and people, Bill McKibben guides us to the brink of a new unchartered era. This mon-umental book, probably his greatest, may restore your faith in the future, with us in it.”

As well as being author of more than a dozen books about the environment, McKibben is the founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, and holds honorary degrees from a dozen colleges.  In 2011 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

About The Yuba Watershed Institute

The Yuba Watershed Institute is concerned with the sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of long-term biological diversity within the Yuba River watershed.  The study, maintenance, use and preservation of the watershed is undertaken in partnership with public land management agencies, professional associations, other non-profit organizations, and community organizations.  The Institute also serves as an educational resource, providing an ongoing series of talks, seminars, publications and walks on all aspects of the watershed.  The Yuba Watershed’s focus on forest management, biological diversity, and sustainable resource use is based on a perspective which suggests that the health of the watershed – our waters, forests, wildlife, and the economic viability of our rural way of life – are not contained within regional political boundaries.  Activities within the watershed may affect a particular species, habitat or place elsewhere, and forces and activities outside the watershed may cause impacts within it.

For more information about The Yuba Watershed Institute, visit   http://yubawatershedinstitute.org/

About Ananda College of Living Wisdom

Founded in 2003, Ananda College of Living Wisdom, a small state-approved 4-year residential college offering A.A., B.A. degrees and certificates, is the only college in the US offering an off-the-grid year-round campus in wild nature.  Located 40 minutes from Nevada City amidst the Yuba watershed on the North San Juan ridge, the campus offers simple, sustainable living and the opportunity to experience “the small community solution.”   Inspired by the wisdom traditions of the world, the college’s distinctive, student-centered liberal arts curriculum supports universal spirituality and personalized learning with a focus in Cooperative Communities & Sustainability; Sharing Nature; Yoga Philosophy; Directional Psychology; Inspirational Arts; Graphic Design; Writing; Holistic Health & Healing;  World Cultures & Consciousness; Education for Life Teacher Training; Yoga Teacher Training;  and Business & Leadership.  College students in the sustainability and community courses have been reading and studying McKibben’s books in preparation for his visit.

For more information about Ananda College of Living Wisdom, visit  http://www.anandauniversity.org/index.php

For more information about this event, please contact Nischala Cryer, Director, Ananda College of Living Wisdom (530) 292-3024 [email protected]