We are pleased to announce the speakers for the Twenty-Ninth Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures: Bill McKibben, Benjamin Barber, and Alisa Gravitz. The lectures are scheduled for October 17th in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Please mark your calendars and plan to join us if you can.
Acclaimed environmentalist, Bill McKibben, is author of The End of Nature (1989) and Deep Economy (2007). In 2007, he led the organization of the largest demonstrations against global warming in American history. McKibben’s newest undertaking is 350.org, an international campaign dedicated to building solutions to the climate crisis and culminating with a global day of action on October 24th.
Benjamin R. Barber is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos. He is author of the classic Strong Democracy (1984), the international best-seller Jihad vs. McWorld (1995) and the recent Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole (2007). Ultimately however, Barber points to possibilities for liberating citizens from the clutches of consumerism, empowering them to take informed responsibility for their role in economic exchange.
For more than twenty-five years, Alisa Gravitz has led Green America (formerly Co-op America), the national organization advocating for a just and sustainable economy. Alisa co-authored Co-op America’s respected guide to social investing, which is used by over half a million people to invest according to their values.
Collected over twenty-eight years, the Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures are widely acclaimed and circulated. Taken together they offer a blueprint for renewing our local economies and regional communities.
As a team we are smart, innovative, capable, and multi-skilled. For a small organization we have a large impact. Hits to our several websites are averaging over 48,000 per day. National and international media are calling weekly for interviews about the BerkShares local currency program developed by Schumacher staff.
At a time when questions about the economy are on the minds of so many, we feel ever more urgent about sharing the Schumacher Society’s strategy for building sustainable regional economies. Please help us meet the current challenge and opportunity with a generous contribution.