May Boeve

A woman with blonde hair and glasses speaks into a microphone
Boeve on a panel for the Institute for Policy Studies in 2013 alongside Ai-Jen Poo, Jamie Raskin, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Robert Greenstein.

May Boeve is an American environmental activist. She is a founder and executive director of 350.org, a climate NGO.[1][2][3] The Guardian called her "the new face of the climate change movement."[4]

Career

Boeve attended Middlebury College, where she became involved with environmental and social justice activism.[1] She helped get Middlebury's administration to commit to going carbon-neutral.[5] Boeve then collaborated with Bill McKibben and others to launch the Step It Up initiative, which has hosted thousands of demonstrations and "organized the first open-source, web-based day of action dedicated to stopping climate change."[5] Boeve was a contributor to the 2007 book "Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community," which was published by Holt.[6]

350.org

Boeve founded 350.org in 2008 alongside Bill McKibben.[7]

Boeve is among relatively few women leaders of large environmental organizations, and was quoted saying "There's a structural sexism problem, full stop."[4] At 350, Boeve has helped organize climate protests and advocated for fossil fuel divestment and a global Green New Deal.[8][3] In 2011, Boeve was arrested while protesting the Keystone XL pipeline in front of the White House.[9][10]

Under Boeve's direction, 350 increased its staff size beyond its budget, leading to reports of turmoil within the organization and 25 people being laid off.[1]

Recognition

Boeve won a Brower Youth Award in 2006.[11][5] Boeve was profiled as a "Next Generation Leader" by TIME in 2015.[12] She received a New Frontier Award from the John F. Kennedy Library in 2017 and was a finalist for a Pritzker award from the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability in 2019.[10][13][14]

Personal life

Boeve grew up in Sonoma and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.[10][15] She married David Bryson, a consultant, in 2018.[6] Boeve is a direct descendant of William Huntington Russell.[6] She has cited Rebecca Solnit as an influence.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c "The group that brought down Keystone XL faces agonies of its own". POLITICO. 20 February 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  2. ^ "The Forgotten Climate Crisis?". Project Syndicate. 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2023-10-16.
  3. ^ a b "May Boeve on inequality and climate change". Ford Foundation. Retrieved 2023-10-16.
  4. ^ a b "May Boeve: the new face of the climate change movement". the Guardian. 2015-04-08. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  5. ^ a b c Shear, Leanne (2009-04-08). "Youth in Action: May Boeve, Climate Change Activist". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  6. ^ a b c "May Boeve, David Bryson". The New York Times. 2018-09-23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  7. ^ "May Boeve (finalist)". Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. 2019-07-15. Retrieved 2023-10-16.
  8. ^ Times, The New York (2019-10-07). "Climate and Energy Experts Debate How to Respond to a Warming World". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  9. ^ "In a Major Victory, Keystone XL Pipeline Canceled". Sierra Club. 2021-06-10. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  10. ^ a b c "May Boeve: How Sonomans can get involved in climate change action". Sonoma Index-Tribune. 2018-02-13. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  11. ^ "May Boeve". Brower Youth Awards. 2006-10-23. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  12. ^ "Meet the Woman Taking on the Fossil-Fuel Industry". Time. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  13. ^ "May Boeve (2017) | JFK Library". www.jfklibrary.org. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  14. ^ Colgan, David (2019-08-20). "2019 Pritzker finalists: May Boeve, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Varshini Prakash". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. ^ "May Boeve (finalist)". Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. 2019-07-15. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  16. ^ "A Conversation about Climate Activism with May Boeve, Executive Director of 350.org". Bioneers. 2018-09-17. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  • Quotations related to May Boeve at Wikiquote