The Observer: What do you want to do in your Third Act?

My first awareness of the idea of a “third act” in our life came more than 20 years ago from business guru Edgar Bronfman. Bronfman’s main goal in writing his 2002 book “The Third Act” was to show people how they can reinvent themselves after retirement. Life in three acts. If you are over 60, you’re in the third act of your three-act play.

Act I is the first 25 years or so of life; when you form your values, prepare for adulthood, and become who and what you are.

Act II is the next 35 years when you establish adult relationships, pursue your career, and do the work Act I prepared you for. Act III is what happens after you retire; a time to refocus while staying purposeful throughout the years that remain with you. Act III is the time, in the words of environmental activist Bill McKibben to do “the things we have to do before we go”

I don’t know if Bill McKibben was inspired by Edgar Bronfman, but in 2021 McKibben launched a movement called Third Act.

His idea fits like a practiced hand into the theoretical glove described by Bronfman. Third Act is an organization established to battle climate change. The project is targeted explicitly to people in Bronfman’s third (and final) act.

In launching Third Act, McKibben was aware that retired people have the life experiences, the acquired skills, and the material resources to build a better future. One example of the work the Third Act is doing is getting people to realize that the biggest banks make it possible for major corporations to exploit the environment. Despite the climate crisis, the biggest banks continue to fund coal, gas, and oil company expansions.

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The Third Act website points out that since the Paris Climate Accords of 2015, big banks have loaned more than three trillion dollars to these companies, “even as scientists have told us we must stop the expansion of this industry.” One way to throttle back the industry’s damaging actions is for individuals to stop doing business with these big banks.

Last week, York got to meet Bill McKibben (via Zoom) thanks to the third annual Climate Action lecture series sponsored by York Ready for Climate Action, the York Public Library and the York Land Trust. More than 100 people registered to hear what he had to say. One of the things he talked about was Third Act.

McKibben has been inspiring activists for years. The author of some 20 books beginning in 1989 with “The End of Nature,” McKibben has earned a reputation as one of America’s leading public intellectuals; and one of the world’s most creative and prominent environmental activists.

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Third Act has an explicit agenda, the principal goal of which is to build a community of Americans over 60 who are determined to reverse course on global warming. The organization rests on local chapters engaged in environmental activism. Across the country, in more than 20 states, local chapters of Third Act are initiating collective action campaigns. One of these chapters is in Maine.

I spoke to Molly Schen, head of the communications team at Third Act Maine. She told me: “Many times I feel like we're already done for. So many signs are pointing to us having passed the ‘tipping point.’ Ice is melting. Seas are boiling. Forests are on fire. Droughts are ravishing crops.”

She pointed out that experts have concluded that we have six years to reduce carbon emissions by 50%.

Schen also told me Third Act is saying essentially: “Okay elders, you helped make this mess. What are you going to do to fix it?" She makes a good case for working with others who are taking on this problem and making strides toward solutions. Six years (2030) is not very far off.

If you want to know more about Third Act, you can register with the local branch at https://thirdact.org/working-groups/maine and ask to be put on their mailing list. If you want to Zoom into the next installment of the “Living in a Climate Changed World” series at the YPL, it will be held on March 13 (next Wednesday) at 7 p.m. This next installment will feature Taylor Maguire of York’s planning office and local state Rep. Gerry Runte.

Ron McAllister is a sociologist and writer who lives in York.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: The Observer: What do you want to do in your Third Act?