Author Guide · Environmental Writing
Books Written by
In 1989 Random House published The End of Nature, a book first serialised in The New Yorker and now widely described as the first book about climate change for a general audience. Its author, Bill McKibben, born in 1960, had spent the 1980s writing more than 400 “Talk of the Town” pieces for the magazine. The book has been printed in more than 20 languages. Nearly two decades later he and seven Middlebury College students founded 350.org, named after the level of carbon dioxide in parts per million that scientists considered safe, and in 2021 he started Third Act, for climate activists over 60. Between the two careers he kept writing: about television, genetic engineering, local economies, his own suburban boyhood and, most recently, cheap solar power. This guide covers his 12 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 12 key books · 1989–2025 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Bill McKibben’s best-known book is The End of Nature (1989), often called the first book on climate change for general readers. His other key books include Deep Economy (2007), Eaarth (2010), Falter (2019) and Here Comes the Sun (2025). Start with The End of Nature; the list below shows how his argument moves from warning to organising to the case for solar power.
Where to Start with Bill McKibben
If you want the book that started it
→ The End of Nature (1989) — the 1989 warning about global warming.
If you want the climate story thirty years on
→ Falter (2019) — his 2019 follow-up to The End of Nature.
If you want something hopeful and practical
→ Here Comes the Sun (2025) — the 2025 case for solar and wind.
If you want his life as an activist
→ Oil and Honey (2013) — Keystone XL, jail and beekeeping.
12 Bill McKibben Books, in Order
The End of Nature
McKibben argues that by changing the atmosphere, and so the weather, humans have left no part of the earth untouched, and that nature as something independent of us has therefore ended. The book was serialised in The New Yorker before Random House published it in 1989, and it has been printed in more than 20 languages.
The Age of Missing Information
An experiment in two parts. McKibben recorded every programme broadcast on every channel of a cable system in Fairfax, Virginia, during one 24-hour day, nearly 2,000 hours of television, and watched it all. He set that against 24 hours spent on a mountain in upstate New York, and compares what each day taught him.
Hope, Human and Wild
After the warning of The End of Nature, McKibben goes looking for places that have found other ways to live: the regrowing forests of the Adirondacks, the Brazilian city of Curitiba and the Indian state of Kerala. Little, Brown published it in October 1995.
Maybe One
Written as the father of one child, the book argues that American families should consider stopping at one, for environmental reasons. It challenges the belief that only children are spoiled or antisocial and looks at China’s one-child policy.
Enough
A case for restraint on heritable genetic engineering, robotics and nanotechnology. McKibben argues that designer genes would entrench inequality and that the developed world already has “enough”, and that humanity is not yet wise enough to trade its humanity for something engineered.
Deep Economy
McKibben argues that economic growth has stopped making people happier and has widened inequality, and makes the case for local economies. He reports from China, Bangladesh and India, from American farmers’ markets and a Vermont radio station, and from his own decision to buy only from local farmers and eat with the seasons.
Eaarth
Twenty years after The End of Nature, McKibben argues that climate change is no longer a future threat: carbon dioxide has passed 350 parts per million and we already live on a different planet, which he spells with an extra “a”. He proposes smaller, sturdier communities that grow their own food and make their own power.
Oil and Honey
Two stories in parallel: the campaign against the Keystone XL pipeline, including the three days he spent in jail in Washington, D.C., and the launch of the fossil-fuel divestment campaign; and his time with Kirk Webster, a beekeeper in Vermont’s Champlain Valley whose farm he helped finance.
Radio Free Vermont
His only novel. Vern Barclay, a Vermont radio host, goes underground after a run-in with the station’s new owners and starts broadcasting a pirate podcast in praise of local businesses and Vermont independence, while his small band of secessionists plays increasingly daring pranks. Blue Rider Press published it in November 2017.
Falter
Presented as a follow-up to The End of Nature, thirty years on. McKibben sets climate change beside artificial intelligence and gene editing as threats to what he calls the human game, blames fossil-fuel companies including Exxon and the Koch brothers for blocking action, and argues that solar power and nonviolent resistance still offer a way out.
The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon
McKibben grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, where the American Revolution began, and gave tours of the Battle Green as a teenager. The book uses three symbols of that boyhood, patriotism, church and the suburbs, to ask how the country he believed in went wrong, mixing memoir with history, theology and climate science.
Here Comes the Sun
McKibben argues that solar and wind power are now cheaper than fossil fuels, so the question is how fast the switch can happen. Among his examples: cheap Chinese panels let homes and businesses in Pakistan add the equivalent of a third of the country’s grid within a year. W. W. Norton published it in 2025.
In What Order to Read Bill McKibben
None of his books depend on another, but publication order shows a clear arc. The first books are about loss and limits (The End of Nature, Enough), the middle ones about rebuilding locally (Deep Economy, Eaarth), and the later ones about organising and about solutions (Oil and Honey, Here Comes the Sun).
A good pairing is The End of Nature followed by Falter, which he wrote as its sequel thirty years later. Read Radio Free Vermont whenever you want a break: it is the same set of ideas in the form of a comic novel.
A reading path
1. The End of Nature (1989)
2. Deep Economy (2007)
3. Oil and Honey (2013)
4. Falter (2019)
5. Here Comes the Sun (2025)
Everything Else Bill McKibben Published
Beyond the 12 key books: 7 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Memoirs and personal books
3
3 books · 1998–2005
- 1998Hundred Dollar Holidaya case for a simpler, calmer holiday season
- 2000Long Distancea year spent training for cross-country ski races
- 2005Wandering Homea walk from his Vermont home to his old home in the Adirondacks
Handbooks, collections and anthologies
4
4 books · 2007–2011
- 2007Fight Global Warming Nowa handbook for climate action in your own community
- 2008The Bill McKibben Readeressays and pieces from across his career
- 2008American Earthan anthology of American environmental writing since Thoreau, as editor
- 2011The Global Warming Readerkey writing on climate change, as editor
The years · 1960–2025
Quick facts about Bill McKibben
- Known for
- Bill McKibben is known for writing the first book about climate change for a general audience and for founding the climate campaign group 350.org.
- 1960
- Born in Palo Alto, California
- 2008
- Founds 350.org with seven Middlebury students
- Born
- 8 December 1960, Palo Alto, California; grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts
- Education
- Harvard College, 1982; president of The Harvard Crimson
- Early career
- More than 400 “Talk of the Town” pieces for The New Yorker in the 1980s
- Founded
- 350.org (2008) and Third Act (2021)
- Honours
- Gandhi Peace Award (2013); Right Livelihood Award, with 350.org (2014)
- Lives
- Ripton, Vermont, with the writer Sue Halpern; Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College
The red mark is 1989: The End of Nature, his first book and the first on climate change for general readers.
How Bill McKibben Writes: Reporting, Experiments and Arithmetic
McKibben learned to write in short reported pieces: more than 400 of them for the “Talk of the Town” section of The New Yorker in the 1980s. His books keep that voice, plain, first-person and close to the ground. The End of Nature pairs climate science with his own walks in the Adirondacks, and The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon goes back to the streets of Lexington where he grew up.
Many of his books are built on a personal experiment. He watched nearly 2,000 hours of recorded television for The Age of Missing Information, trained for a year of cross-country ski races for Long Distance, bought only from local farmers and ate seasonal food for Deep Economy, and walked from Vermont to the Adirondacks for Wandering Home. The experiment gives an abstract argument, about media, growth or community, a body to live in.
Since founding 350.org in 2008 he has also written as an organiser, and he argues with numbers: 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide, and in his 2012 Rolling Stone essay the gap between the carbon the world can safely burn and the far larger reserves fossil-fuel companies hold. Here Comes the Sun uses the same method for good news, building its case from the falling cost of solar panels and the speed at which they are being installed.
Frequently asked questions about Bill McKibben’s books
How many books has Bill McKibben written?
About twenty, as author or editor. Twelve are the key books on this page, from The End of Nature (1989) to Here Comes the Sun (2025); seven more, including memoirs, a climate handbook and two anthologies he edited, are listed under everything else he published.
What are Bill McKibben’s books in order?
The End of Nature (1989), The Age of Missing Information (1992), Hope, Human and Wild (1995), Maybe One (1998), Enough (2003), Deep Economy (2007), Eaarth (2010), Oil and Honey (2013), Radio Free Vermont (2017), Falter (2019), The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon (2022) and Here Comes the Sun (2025).
Where should I start with Bill McKibben?
With The End of Nature (1989), the book that made his name and set out the argument the rest of his work builds on. If you want his current view, read Here Comes the Sun (2025) next.
What is Bill McKibben’s most famous book?
The End of Nature (1989). It was serialised in The New Yorker, is widely regarded as the first book about climate change for a general audience, and has been printed in more than 20 languages.
Is Bill McKibben still alive?
Yes. He was born on 8 December 1960 in Palo Alto, California, and lives in Ripton, Vermont, with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern. His most recent book is Here Comes the Sun (2025).
Did Bill McKibben found 350.org?
Yes. He started it in 2008 with seven students at Middlebury College, where he is Schumann Distinguished Scholar. The name comes from 350 parts per million, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that scientists considered safe. In 2009 it coordinated more than 5,000 demonstrations in 181 countries.
What is Third Act?
A climate group McKibben launched in September 2021 for activists aged 60 and over, with the aim of bringing older people into the climate fight.
Has Bill McKibben written fiction?
One novel: Radio Free Vermont (2017), a comic fable about a Vermont radio host who goes underground and broadcasts the case for local business and Vermont independence.
What was the Planet of the Humans controversy?
In 2020 the documentary Planet of the Humans, directed by Jeff Gibbs and produced by Michael Moore, accused McKibben of backing biomass burning and of corporate ties. McKibben replied that he had once supported burning biomass but changed his mind when research showed its carbon cost, and that he has never been paid by 350.org.
What awards has Bill McKibben won?
Among others, a Guggenheim Fellowship (1993), the Lannan Literary Award for nonfiction (2000), the Gandhi Peace Award (2013) and the Right Livelihood Award, shared with 350.org (2014).
Footnotes
- Bill McKibben — Wikipedia
- Books — billmckibben.com
- Bill McKibben — Faraday Institute, Cambridge
- Movement makers — Middlebury College
- Response to Planet of the Humans — 350.org, 2020
- Here Comes the Sun excerpt — Science Friday, 2025
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“We have deprived nature of its independence, and that is fatal to its meaning.”
— Bill McKibben, The End of Nature (1989)
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