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Environmental activist, author and journalist Bill McKibben accepted the inaugural Sam Rose 鈥�58 and Julie Walters Prize at 红杏直播app for Global Environmental Activism.  McKibben received the $100,000 prize at Dickinson鈥檚 Commencement on Sunday, May 20. 

Natural Resources Defense Council () co-founder John H. Adams and President William G. Durden 鈥�71 presented the prize to McKibben. Just before the prize was awarded, Sam Rose 鈥�58 had assisted in presenting Adams with a doctor of public service honorary degree.

Adams and Julie Walters serve on the seven-member recipient selection committee. In discussing who should be the inaugural recipient of the prize, Walters had stressed the importance of advocacy. 鈥淥ur recipient, Bill McKibben, is the leading advocate for environmental action action to stop the Earth hurtling into climate change from an over dependence on fossil fuels,鈥� said Adams. 鈥淚n November [2011] I joined him in a demonstration at the White House in opposition to the Keystone pipeline. Over 12,000 citizens, young and old, standing 10 deep in a circle around the White House鈥擝ill called it a hug鈥攁 few days later the pipeline was halted by the president. Through it all, Bill has been a friend to me and to our planet.鈥�

In accepting the prize McKibben thanked Rose and Walters for their leadership, and called Adams the 鈥渓ion of the environmental movement.鈥� Turning to the class of 2012, McKibben said that climate change is not only the greatest problem of their lifetime, but also the greatest problem civilization has ever faced. 鈥淚 look forward to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with many of you in the years ahead,鈥� McKibben said.

McKibben is the founder of , the world鈥檚 largest grassroots climate campaign, with activists in every country but North Korea. Since 2009, 350.org has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries. Time magazine has called McKibben 鈥渢he planet鈥檚 best green journalist鈥� and The Boston Globe said in 2010 that he was 鈥減robably the country鈥檚 most important environmentalist.鈥� McKibben鈥檚 first book, 鈥淭he End of Nature,鈥� is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change.

In 2006 McKibben helped lead a five-day walk across Vermont to demand action on global warming that some newspaper accounts called the largest climate-change demonstration to date in America. In 2011 he led the largest civil-disobedience action in 30 years in the U.S., as part of a protest against proposed pipelines to the tar sands of Canada. McKibben received the Guggenheim and Lyndhurst fellowships and won the Lannan Prize for nonfiction writing in 2000. In 2011, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Rose and Walters created this prize to focus attention on the need to reduce the impact of human lives on the planet, particularly given the rising population predictions for this century. 鈥淓ducation is a necessity if we are to understand the problems facing the natural world and its inhabitants,鈥� said Rose. 鈥淛ulie and I wanted to endow the prize at Dickinson because we fully support the curriculum, which promotes student awareness of the environment and training for professional careers in the sciences as well as responsible living for the protection of all life forms.鈥�

Rose and Walters endowed the prize to honor Adams and his 40 years of dedication and service to environmental causes.

鈥淚n our opinion, the most important issue of today is not politics, is not jobs, is not Wall Street, is not Facebook. It鈥檚 the planet, stupid,鈥� said Rose. 鈥淲e鈥檝e established this prize to honor John [Adams], because the environment needs defenders like him. We鈥檇 love to see someone in this graduating class achieve this award in the future.鈥�