Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 224 pages
- Published by: Holt Paperbacks October 16, 2007
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0805087044
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0805087048
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Book Dimensions:
8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
- Weighs: 6.4 ounces
Product Description
Bestselling author Bill McKibben turns activist in the first hands-on guidebook to stopping climate change, the world’s greatest threat
Hurricane Katrina. A rapidly disappearing Arctic. The warmest winter on the East Coast in recorded history. The leading scientist at NASA warns that we have only ten years to reverse climate change; the British government’s report on global warming estimates that the financial impact will be greater than the Great Depression and both world wars—combined. Bill McKibben, the author of the first major book on global warming, The End of Nature, warns that it’s no longer time to debate global warming, it’s time to fight it.
Drawing on the experience of Step It Up, a national day of rallies held on April 14, McKibben and the Step It Up team of organizers provide the facts of what must change to save the climate and show how to build the fight in your community, church, or college. They describe how to launch online grassroots campaigns, generate persuasive political pressure, plan high-profile events that will draw media attention, and other effective actions. This essential book offers the blueprint for a mighty new movement against the most urgent challenge facing us today.
About The Author
Bill McKibben is the author of ten books, including The End of Nature and Deep Economy. A former staff writer for The New Yorker, he writes regularly for Harper’s and The Atlantic Monthly, among other publications. The Step It Up team are activists Phil Aroneanu, Will Bates, May Boeve, Jamie Henn, Jeremy Osborn, and Jon Warnow. Together, they have organized more than five hundred events to fight global warming.
Reader Reviews
Bill Mckibben and students have written a good handbook for activists and potential activists on how to gain public attention on the issue of global warming. The book describes how the "Step It Up" campaign began, and how they operated on a shoestring budget, with few organizers and little time. (The Step It Up campaign is a public awareness effort at the grass roots level to convince congress to pass laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions eighty percent by the year 2050.) I had not heard of the Step It Up campaign before reading this book, so it's questionable on how effective their efforts were. As a "how-to" type book, I'm guessing it might be useful if you've never participated in an activist group before (as I have not). If you have already participated in the Step It Up campaign, this book is probably not necessary for you to read. The book contains very little climate change science, or even descriptions on what climate change may bring if not controlled. It is definitely a quick read on ideas for community activism.
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