Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow writes: Starting with The End of Nature, which is considered to be the
first book about global warming for a general audience, McKibben, with
the obstinacy of an Old Testament prophet, has been urging our society
to change its ways and foretelling doom if we do not. But he has also
increasingly invoked redemption and moved from Muir’s emphasis on
wilderness to a Berry-esque embrace of community and small-scale
farming, although tensions remain between these two orientations.

McKibben is a journalist by profession, and there is also tension in his
work–both fruitful and limiting–between the proselytizer and the
sober-minded reporter. His commitment has driven his prodigious output,
much of which is first-rate; all of his work is, in turn, in the service
of promoting his values. It has resonated strongly with the growing
number of readers who share those values–who crave community and
simplicity and fear the disruptions of climate change. His writing
offers wisdom, humor and intermittent poetry, but it promises about as
many surprises as Sunday school.

Born in 1960, McKibben grew up, he recalls, “a good suburban child” with
one brother. His parents, churchgoing Methodists, were among the “good
liberal residents” who had moved to Lexington, Massachusetts, for the
schools. Judging by his adjectives of choice, it was a wholesome,
blessedly boring childhood.

This upbringing launched him into exceptional early success. He served
as president of the Harvard Crimson, and after graduating in
1982, he landed a job as a staff writer at The New Yorker,
contributing primarily “Talk of the Town” pieces. At the urging of his
editor, William Shawn, he lived on the streets briefly for a piece about
the homeless. On this assignment he met his wife, the gifted writer Sue
Halpern, who was working as a homeless advocate at the time.

McKibben’s core values, which would be easily transposed onto
environmentalism, were forged before he ever contemplated hugging a
tree. In college and as a young man in New York City, he grappled with
the incident in the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus advises a
supplicant, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess, and
give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow
me.” McKibben was disturbed by this counsel, for like the supplicant he
was drawn to Jesus’ lesson but unable to submit to it. Eventually he
arrived at what he considered a compromise: to lead an extremely frugal
life and save his earnings. “In doing so I preserved both the option to
do something heroic at a later date…and also the right to feel
superior to my yuppie peers.” (07/05/08)
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