A Conversation with Bill McKibben & Fossil-Free UC on Climate Justice & Divestment
The climate justice movement is changing the conversation with many creative new strategies, including Fridays for the Future, the Green New Deal, and constant pressure for our institutions and municipalities to divest from fossil fuels. In July 2019, faculty across the UC system voted in favor of divesting from 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies. While waiting for the UC Regents’ decision, activists of all ages continue to mobilize for divestment and climate justice. With: Bill McKibben, Right Livelihood Award laureate and co-founder of 350.org; Clair Brown, UC Berkeley Professor of Economics; Laurel Levin, student organizer with #FossilFreeUC; Kristy Drutman, host of Brown Girl Green. Hosted by: Chris Benner, Institute for Social Transformation at UC Santa Cruz; David Shaw, Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz.
World Cafe
October 19th | 2:45 pm to 4:15 pm
Panelists
Bill McKibben
Founder
350.org
Bill McKibben, our nation’s most significant environmental activist, is also a leading journalist, author and academic. A Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, Bill’s The End of Nature (1989) was the first book for a general audience about climate change. A founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, he has won slews of prestigious awards, including the Right Livelihood Award and the Gandhi Prize and Thomas Merton prizes. A former staff writer for the New Yorker, he writes frequently for a wide variety of publications around the world, including the New York Review of Books, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone. His most recent book is Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?Clair Brown
Professor of Economics
UC Berkeley
Clair Brown, an eminent economist, Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley, has published research on many aspects of inequality and sustainability, including the book Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science, which describes an economic framework that integrates global sustainability, shared prosperity, and care for the human spirit.Laurel Levin
Fossil Free UCSC
Laurel Levin, a just graduated, award-winning student activist at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) working at the intersection of the food and climate movements, worked with the Fossil Free UCSC campaign and other initiatives, and still leads backpacking trips with the UCSC Recreation Department and UCSC Wilderness Orientation Program.Kristy Drutman
U.S. Digital Campaigner
350.org
Kristy Drutman, a Filipina American, is a U.S. Digital Campaigner with 350.org and the creator and host of Brown Girl Green, a podcast and media series dedicated to critical conversations around building an environmentally just society in which she discusses diversity and inclusiveness with a wide range of environmental leaders and advocates. While at college, Kristy co-founded the Students of Color Environmental Collective at UC Berkeley.Chris Benner
Chair
Everett Program
Chris Benner, Ph.D., the Dorothy E. Everett Chair in Global Information and Social Entrepreneurship and a Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology at UC Santa Cruz, directs the Everett Program for Technology and Social Change and the Santa Cruz Institute for Social Transformation. He has authored or co-authored six books (most recently Equity, Growth and Community) and more that 70 journal articles, chapters and research reports.David Shaw
Founder
Santa Cruz Permaculture
David Shaw, a permaculture and whole systems designer, facilitator, and educator, founded Santa Cruz Permaculture and the Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz, a partnership with the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” He supports communities locally and globally to transform their shared future through strategic dialogue and collective action.
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