by Bill McKibben  

The award-winning environmental journalist, author, Co-Founder of 350.org, and leading global climate activist will survey the landscape of climate action, including the remarkable holding action by 350.org and others to suspend approval of the Keystone XL pipeline carrying Canadian “tar sands” oil, the “biggest carbon bomb” on the planet. Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature in 1989, the first book for a general audience on climate change. He’s the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with The End of Nature in 1989. The grassroots group 350.org has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009. Time magazine called him ‘the planet’s best green journalist’ and the Boston Globe said in 2010 that he was “probably the country’s most important environmentalist.” As Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, he holds honorary degrees from a dozen colleges. In 2011 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Restoration Nation Theater | 9:05am, Sat

with Gretchen Daily 

Introduction by Kenny Ausubel 

Leaders around the world are increasingly recognizing ecosystems as natural capital assets that supply life-support services of tremendous value. The challenge is to turn this recognition into incentives and institutions that will guide wise investments in natural capital, on a large scale. Gretchen Daily will illuminate advances being made on three key fronts: the development of new science and technical tools for valuing Nature, such as InVEST, a software system developed by the Natural Capital Project; new policies and finance mechanisms being implemented worldwide, including in China, South America and the U.S.; and the engaging of leaders in forging a deep and lasting transformation. Gretchen Daily is a Professor of Environmental Science and Director of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford. She co-directs The Natural Capital Project, a partnership among Stanford, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund and the University of Minnesota.

Restoration Nation Theater | 11:50am, Sat