Longtime environmental activist Bill McKibben will join Emmy-winning journalist Frank Sesno at 10:45 a.m. today on the Amphitheater stage for a morning lecture conversation about reaching across generations to find solutions to the climate crisis. Their presentation will be the third for this week’s Chautauqua Lecture Series theme “Our Greatest Challenges (That We Can Actually Do Something About).”
Despite working in two different fields, the pair are united in the central goal of their projects: to galvanize people in different generations to take action against climate change.
McKibben, in addition to being a widely published author, is the founder of Third Act, an environmental advocacy organization that organizes people over the age of 60 to rally for climate and democracy, staging actions such as protests and sit-ins, as well as engaging in lobbying and canvassing operations. Currently, he is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College.
Sesno is currently the executive director of the George Washington University Alliance for a Sustainable Future; he also teaches classes at the university and serves as the founding director of Planet Forward, a solutions-oriented, climate-focused media organization primarily featuring the work of college students. Previously, Sesno served as a correspondent, and eventually as Washington bureau chief, at CNN.
“We come at this (issue) from from different perspectives, and we’re working with different generations,” Sesno said. “Especially in this very fraught political moment, when the focus is so often on division and polarization, this can be an amazing conversation.”
Third Act — comprising folks of older generations — often works with advocacy groups made up mostly of younger people, McKibben said, noting a series of sit-ins staged in protest of multiple large banks. Third Act activists found it a bit more difficult to sit on the floor for long periods of time than their counterparts from the Sunrise Movement, a largely youth-led climate action organization. So, McKibben said, they sat on rocking chairs — The New York Times dubbed the protest the “rocking chair rebellion.”
“Sometimes we call ourselves ‘fossils against fossil fuels,’ ” he said, “and we’re very engaged in direct work with lots and lots of young people.”
Both Sesno and McKibben noted the importance, felt by many in older generations, of leaving a lasting legacy; Americans older than 60 are amongst the most engaged in battling the climate crisis — and they vote more than anyone else, McKibben explained. Younger voters, on the other hand, have become highly motivated to fix the climate crisis because of their hope in the future, Sesno said.
The power of intergenerational efforts to battle climate change can bring those unique experiences together, the pair explained, combining the wisdom and experience of older generations with the energy and hope for the future of younger generations.
In their conversation, Sesno and McKibben will explore the importance of utilizing these different perspectives, and they hope to leave Chautauquans with the motivation to get involved in battling the climate crisis, whether it be through organizing, protesting, storytelling or simply spreading the word.
“We come from very different places and perspectives,” Sesno said. “But I think put together, it demonstrates how journalism and activism complement one another, (and) sometimes push back on one another, because there’s also tension there. But from that tension comes better understanding and more informed action.”
