Bill McKibben reflects on decade since Right Livelihood Award

It’s been a decade since Bill McKibben, renowned environmentalist and co-founder of 350.org, received the Right Livelihood Award. In a recent interview with Right Livelihood, McKibben shared insights into his collaborations with fellow laureates, shifts in activism, and visions for the future.

McKibben vividly recalls the moment he learned about receiving the Right Livelihood Award in 2014. Earlier that day, he had helped organise one of the first climate marches in New York City, with 400,000 people rallying for environmental action.

“I think that really pushed the UN to get the Paris Accords done the next year, so I was in a good mood already,” said McKibben. “And then, the news of the Right Livelihood Award came in, and I was very, very happy.”

Later that year, McKibben came to Stockholm for the Award Ceremony. It was there he connected with fellow Laureate Alan Rusbridger, former editor of The Guardian. For McKibben, his collaboration with Rusbridger was among the most impactful of his career.

“Alan Rusbridger was there, and he said, ‘We need to be doing more about climate change, what should we be doing?’,” McKibben remembered. “I started telling him about the big fossil fuel divestment effort… and over the next year or so, the work they did was amazing, right down to putting out special issues of the paper.”

Looking ahead, McKibben is determined to continue to fight for our planet. While he is inspired by the energy, optimism and intelligence of younger climate activists like Laureate Greta Thunberg, he recognises that older generations have the power and therefore the responsibility to address the climate crisis.

“There’s enormous power in older people: we have an extraordinary amount of structural power,” said McKibben. “I hope to keep expanding that around the world. And I’m sure that the Right Livelihood network will be an important way to do that.”

He jokingly added, “I’m not the only Right Livelihood Laureate with a hairline like mine, you know.”

As the interview draws to a close, McKibben’s dedication to addressing the climate crisis is clear.

“We have to keep on innovating, and connecting and building some kind of human-powered alternative to the oligarchs that threaten to take us, if not to hell, then to a place with a very similar temperature,” he said.