AUTHOR BILL MCKIBBEN
IS NAMED 2008 “CONSERVATIONIST OF THE YEAR”
BY THE ADIRONDACK COUNCIL
Award to be Presented
at Silver Bay Association on Saturday
For more information:
John F. Sheehan
518-432-1770 (ofc)
518-441-1340 (cell)
518-456-4512 (home)
Released: Thursday, July 17, 2008
HAGUE, N.Y. – The Adirondack
Council, one of New York’s largest and most influential
environmental organizations, today announced it would name environmental
activist and author Bill McKibben as its 2008 Conservationist
of the Year.
The award will be presented at
the Silver Bay Association, a YMCA facility on the western shore
of Lake George, as part of the Council’s annual Forever
Wild Day on Saturday. McKibben is the 24th annual winner of the
Council’s Conservationist of the Year award.
McKibben will receive a specially
commissioned, museum-quality, hand-carved common loon in recognition
of his achievements. The award will be presented by Adirondack
Council Executive Director Brian L Houseal and Chairman Brian
Ruder. McKibben will be introduced by Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand,
whose district includes Lake George.
Recent winners include The Wildlife
Conservation Society (2007), Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation
(2006), Lake George Waterkeeper Chris Navitsky (2005), and the
Open Space Institute (2004). Past winners include NY Governors
Pataki and Cuomo, and NY Times editor John Oakes.
“Bill McKibben’s work
has been an inspiration to the board and staff of the Adirondack
Council for a long time,” said Adirondack Council Executive
Director Brian L. Houseal. “He has used the notoriety he
achieved through his outstanding book on climate change –
The End of Nature – to gain national attention for the need
to protect wild places, pure water, clean air and local agriculture.
His commentaries on the New York Times op-ed page, and elsewhere,
never fail to challenge the public to live a cleaner, more sustainable
lifestyle.”
McKibben was raised in suburban
Lexington, Massachusetts. After graduating from Harvard in 1982,
Bill began writing for The New Yorker magazine. His first book,
The End of Nature, published in 1989, won critical acclaim as
being the first book on climate change geared towards the general
public. Some of Mr. McKibben’s other works include The Age
of Missing Information; Hope, Human and Wild; Maybe One; The
Comforting Whirlwind; and Long Distance: A Year of Living Strenuously.
More recently, Bill wrote Wandering
Home, which chronicles his hiking from Vermont into the Adirondacks
with his Adirondack home in Johnsburg as his destination. Bill
includes his encounters along the way and his interactions with
some of today’s active participants in the environmental
field, including Adirondack Council Conservation Director John
Davis.
Last year, Bill published Deep
Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. This
book seeks to change the way people view economic prosperity,
so that the focus is not on growth and consumption, but instead
on success for local businesses that produce food, energy and
entertainment in our local areas.
Also in 2007, Bill helped launch
the “Step It Up” campaign to both raise public awareness
about climate change and spur citizens to take action. Local
groups around the country held hundreds of small rallies simultaneously,
on both April 14 and November 3, to show their concern about
the planet and to call for Congressional action on carbon emissions.
This grassroots advocacy effort now goes by the name “1Sky.”
Bill also wrote about this experience in a book entitled, Fight
Global Warming Now.
His latest book, The Bill McKibben
Reader is a collection of 44 essays written over the last quarter
century. Mr. McKibben continues to contribute to several magazines,
such as The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly,
Orion, Rolling Stone and Grist. Bill currently resides in Ripton,
Vt., and Johnsburg, NY, with his wife and daughter and is a scholar
in residence at Middlebury College.
Founded in 1975, the Adirondack
Council is a privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated
to ensuring the ecological integrity and wild character of the
Adirondack Park. With members in all 50 United States, the Council
carries out its mission through research, advocacy, public education
and legal action.
Sponsors of the Council’s
annual awards gathering include: Finch Paper LLC, Lyme Timber
Company, Barbara M. Collum, Dr. Robert H. Poe, Champlain National
Bank, Eastwood Litho, Lake George Mirror, Rayonier, Pearsall
Financial Group at UBS, Access Computer Technologies, Law Office
of Marc Gerstman, Martindale Keysor & Co., CPAs, Adirondack
Creamery, The North Face, Chris Snye-The Placid Baker, Lost Pond
Press, and Loremans’ Engraving.
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