During this free, open event Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change organization, and marine biologist, policy expert, and strategist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson discuss the current climate movement. The pair will address changes that have happened since the movement began, what the future might look like, and the most promising solutions for our current climate crisis. The event was organized as part of Cooper Union x Climate Week.

Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist who in 2014 was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel.’ His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages; he’s gone on to write a dozen more books. The Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Prize and the Thomas Merton Prize, and holds honorary degrees from 18 colleges and universities. Foreign Policy named him to their inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers, and the Boston Globe said he was “probably America’s most important environmentalist.” 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.

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, and Brooklyn native. She is founder and CEO of Ocean Collectiv, a strategy consulting firm for conservation solutions, and founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank focused on coastal cities. As executive director of the Waitt Institute, Ayana co-founded the Blue Halo Initiative and led the Caribbean’s first successful island-wide ocean zoning effort. Previously, she worked on ocean policy at the EPA and NOAA, and was a leader of the March for Science. Ayana earned a BA from Harvard University in environmental science and public policy, and a Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in marine biology. She is a passionate advocate for coastal communities, and builds solutions for ocean justice and our climate crisis.