Since 2010 he has been executive director of Black Rock Solar, a non-profit company affiliated with the Burning Man festival, that is focused on installing solar power and doing lighting efficiency projects for non-profits, schools, Native American tribes, and municipalities in Nevada.
He was co-editor of the UK journal The Ecologist, and editor for a Uruguayan information service for NGOs.
[citation needed] McCully has written extensively on water, energy, climate, carbon trading, human rights and development policies and given presentations at numerous conferences and universities around the world including Yale, Harvard, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Columbia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Makerere University (Uganda), University of Cape Town, and Kyoto University.
He represented international advocacy NGOs on the Steering Committee of the UN Environment Programme’s Dams and Development Project.
[citation needed] McCully's is author of Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams (St Martin’s Press 1996 and 2001) which has been translated into five languages and was described by Indian author Arundhati Roy as a "truly dazzling book".