Bill McKibben. Photo: Nate Birnbaum
THE MATTHIESSEN TALKS: BILL MCKIBBEN, A LAST CHANCE FOR THE CLIMATE AND A FRESH CHANCE FOR CIVILIZATION
Presented with The Peter Matthiessen Center
Writer, activist and environmentalist Bill McKibben, among the first to alert the world of the imminent perils of climate change with his book The End of Nature, comes to Guild Hall in East Hampton with a powerful message: In the past two years, with surprisingly little notice, solar energy has suddenly become the obvious, mainstream, cost-efficient energy choice around the world.
Even as the current U.S. government renews its embrace of fossil fuels and turns the nation away from renewables, solar power is taking off around the world. Against all the big, bad things happening on the planet, this is a very big and hopeful thing. McKibben will discuss groundbreaking revelations in his new book, Here Comes the Sun, A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization, followed by a conversation with environmental activist and PMC president, Alex Matthiessen.
The program will be followed by a book signing in the lobby. Copies of Bill McKibben’s book will be available for purchase in person on the day of the program, subject to availability. Advance sales are now closed.
ABOUT THE PETER MATTHIESSEN CENTER
Since 2019, the Peter Matthiessen Center has organized a myriad of popular events on the East End of Long Island–the writer’s home of 55 years from where the great majority of his 33 books was written–in furtherance of the issues he cared and wrote about most: protection of the environment and native peoples and (hu)man’s spiritual search for meaning. In 2025, the Matthiessen Talks was launched, a series of public events, or “dialogues,” designed to amplify the views of writers and activists who are working and organizing on behalf of nature and indigenous peoples. In addition to sponsoring the series, the PMC aims to establish an international literary prize in Peter Matthiessen’s name to support and promote writers producing works of fiction and non-fiction that aim, directly or indirectly, to address the most challenging issues of our time–and, in this way, further empower and mobilize the grassroots movements toiling to save civilization and the planet, as we know them.
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Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben is a contributing writer to The New Yorker, and a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. He founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel,’ in the Swedish Parliament. He's also won the Gandhi Peace Award, and honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities. He has written more than twenty books about the environment, including his first, The End of Nature, published in 1989, The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened, and his latest book is Here Comes The Sun.
Photo: Paul Richardson
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Alex Matthiessen
Alex is a professional environmentalist who has worked or consulted for a variety of not-for-profit organizations, including World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, Rainforest Action Network, and (Hudson) Riverkeeper–which he led for a decade and transformed into New York’s premier clean water advocate. Previously, Alex served as a political appointee (for President Bill Clinton) at the U.S. Department of the Interior, winning White House Presidential Awards for two different initiatives. Since 2010, Alex has headed up his own environmental consulting firm, Blue Marble Project, best known for spearheading the "Move NY" campaign which led to New York City's first-in-the-nation congestion pricing program. Currently, Alex is thinking about what’s next in his lifelong effort to help save the planet.
Sponsors
Performing Arts programs are supported in part by Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, Henry and Peggy Schleiff, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, Monica and Peter Tessler, and Vital Projects Fund. Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: Natascia Ayers and Jim Ciquera, Bonnie and Joel Bergstein, Gene Bernstein and Kathy Walsh, John and Joan D’Addario, Suzanne and John Golden, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Steve Pesner, in memory of his wife, Michèle Pesner, whose entire life was devoted to all aspects of culture, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, and Stacey and Oliver Stanton.