FARMINGTON — Nationally known environmentalist, educator, writer and activist Bill McKibben will give the talk, "The Most Important Number in the World- Building the People Powered Movement to Fight Global Warming," is free and open to the public and will take place at 7:30 p.m., Friday, March 13, in University of Maine at Farmington's Nordica Auditorium.

A bestselling author and scholar in environmental studies, McKibben is a frequent writer on global warming, alternative energy, the importance of local economies and the risks associated with human genetic engineering. He is actively involved with the fight against climate change and, beginning in the summer of 2006, led the organization of the largest demonstrations against global warming in American history.

McKibben is the author of 10 books observing contemporary life and the environment, including his latest work, "Deep Economy," in which he puts forward a new way to think about the food we eat, the energy we use and the way to create a hopeful and sustainable future. He wrote the first general audience book on global warming, "The End of Nature," in 1989, which has appeared in print in more than 20 languages.

McKibben is a frequent contributor to many national publications, including The New York Times, Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Review of Books, Orion Magazine and Rolling Stone. He was president of the Harvard Crimson newspaper in college. After graduation, he worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker, writing much of the "Talk of the Town" column from 1982 to early 1987.

He currently is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College and resides in Ripton, Vt.

McKibben's presentation is co-sponsored by the University's Diversity Committee and Sustainable Campus Coalition.

For more information, contact Valerie Huebner, executive assistant to the UMF president, at 778-7258, or huebner@maine.edu.