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Jim Merkel is the prize-winning author of Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite Earth, an environmentalist and sought after speaker at colleges and conferences. He directs the Global Living Project that consults with campuses and municipalities as well as giving workshops and lectures. His recent work helped Dartmouth earn the highest grade given on the Sustainability Report Card issued by the Sustainable Endowments Institute for the two years he led the campus’s sustainability efforts.
Originally a military engineer trained in foreign military sales, the Exxon Valdez disaster and the invasion of Iraq prompted him to devote his life to sustainability and world peace. Jim founded the Global Living Project (GLP) and initiated the GLP Summer Institute where teams of researchers attempted to live on an equitable portion of the biosphere.
Jim initiated the "Cycling for a Sustainable Future" speaking tour that has logged over 17,000 miles delivering lectures and workshops at over 40 colleges and universities. He has led over 1,000 workshops on personal and institutional sustainability.
The gravity of these issues has motivated a new brand of community leader who put their values into action in step with Mahatma Gandhi’s advice “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” To put it bluntly, many institutions and individuals can no longer afford to operate unsustainably.
Join Jim for the commencement of the 8th annual Sustainable Living Festival & Clean Energy Expo and become ‘visionaries’ of possible sustainable futures. From vision to action, witness the birth of a sustainable culture where low-impact becomes the “default mode” for people around the globe. In this presentation Merkel will highlight how “real-world status quo” has led to stress, overwork, climate change, poverty and wars, but, also, how it is possible to package your life’s energy, loves and skills to create a more secure and ecologically intact world for you and your children. It will require real change -- deep change.
Government and big–business continually urge Americans to live beyond personal and planetary means to save ‘the economy’ even as they consume 250 times more than the Earth’s poorest billion people. This keynote will demonstrate a way forward based upon ethical relationships with humanity, nature and future generations.
For information on other workshops and presentations, click here.
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