Bill McKibben on "Here Comes the Sun" and the Path to a Climate-Safe Future

Following the conversation, we invite you to join us for a meet-and-greet with the author, book signing and light refreshments.

Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization (August 19, 2025, WWNorton)

Bill McKibben, Environmental activist; Founder, Third Act; Best-selling author

Ken Corts, Professor, Economic Analysis and Policy, Marcel Desautels Chair in Entrepreneurship and Academic Director, Rotman Sustainability Inititiaves, Rotman School of Management

From the acclaimed environmentalist, a call to harness the power of the sun and rewrite our scientific, economic, and political future.

Our climate, and our democracy, are melting down. But Bill McKibben, one of the first to sound the alarm about the climate crisis, insists the moment is also full of possibility. Energy from the sun and wind is suddenly the cheapest power on the planet and growing faster than any energy source in history—if we can keep accelerating the pace, we have a chance.

Here Comes the Sun tells the story of the sudden spike in power from the sun and wind—and the desperate fight of the fossil fuel industry and their politicians to hold this new power at bay. From the everyday citizens who installed solar panels equal to a third of Pakistan’s electric grid in a year to the world’s sixth-largest economy—California—nearly halving its use of natural gas in the last two years, Bill McKibben traces the arrival of plentiful, inexpensive solar energy. And he shows how solar power is more than just a path out of the climate crisis: it is a chance to reorder the world on saner and more humane grounds. You can’t hoard solar energy or hold it in reserves—it’s available to all.

There’s no guarantee we can make this change in time, but there is a hope—in McKibben’s eyes, our best hope for a new civilization: one that looks up to the sun, every day, as the star that fuels our world.

Bill McKibben is the author of more than twenty books, including the bestsellers The End of Nature, Falter, and Deep Economy. Founder of Third Act, a project organizing people over sixty for progressive change, he lives in Vermont with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern.

Kenneth S. Corts is Professor, Economic Analysis and Policy and holds the Marcel Desautels Chair in Entrepreneurship and Academic Director of Rotman Sustainability Inititiaves at the Rotman School of Management.

At the University of Toronto, he has held several leadership roles, including Interim Dean at Rotman and Acting Vice-Provost, Academic Operations. As a microeconomist, Professor Corts explores industrial organization, competition policy, organizational economics, and energy policy and his research has been supported by prestigious organizations such as the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He has published in leading academic journals like the Rand Journal of Economics and the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, and authored widely-used Harvard Business School case studies. In addition to his academic contributions, he has provided expert testimony in competition policy cases before the Competition Tribunal and Ontario Superior Court and advised on antitrust issues in the U.S.

This event is available to attend in-person or virtually via livestream.

Rotman Events is committed to accessibility for all people. If you have any access needs or if there are any ways we can support your full participation in this session, please email ZXZlbnRzIHwgcm90bWFuICEgdXRvcm9udG8gISBjYQ== no later than 2 weeks in advance of the event and we will be glad to work with you to make the appropriate arrangements.

• The event will be hosted in Desautels Hall at the Rotman School of Management (105 Saint George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3E6). Your registration fee includes a copy of the book, meet-and-greet with book signing by the author, as well as access to a video replay of the session for 30 days.

• Rotman Events will email registrants a link to the livestream. Your registration fee includes access to the livestream, video replay for 30 days, a copy of the book and shipping fees. The book will be shipped to registrants after the event. Please allow 3 - 4 weeks for delivery.

• Unable to attend the event due to scheduling conflicts? Not to worry. All registrants (in-person or livestream) can access the full recording on-demand for one month after the live event.

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