Thursday, April 19 at 7 pm I will be giving a special public lecture at New
College in Santa Rosa, CA, where I teach. I’ll use this opportunity to
explore a few of areas that I haven’t addressed in any previous talks:

1. The energy issues arising from governments’ attempts to deal with the
problem of climate change (looking specifically at the arguments and
proposals in Thomas Friedman’s article “The Power of Green” as
representative of mainstream thinking in this area)
2. The implications for electricity production of the Energy Watch Group’s
report on global coal supplies
3. A summary of the prospects for nuclear power and biofuels

No surprise: all of this leads to the conclusion that our main strategy for
surviving the decline of fossil fuels will be radical conservation.

The following is the public description of the event:

The Energy Transition: Global Response to Climate Change and Fossil Fuel
Depletion

The key shifts in human cultural evolution were energy transitions--from
scavenging to hunting and gathering, to agriculture, to industrialism. Today
we are at the beginning of the most large-scale, hurried, and fateful energy
transition in the history of our species--away from fossil fuels and toward
some mix of energy alternatives and energy conservation that has yet to be
worked out. This transition is compelled by the combined necessities of
climate change and the depletion of the very fuels that cause it--coal, oil,
and natural gas. Noted Peak Oil educator Richard Heinberg will explore
overlapping climate and depletion issues and assess some of the energy
options being widely discussed--including nuclear power, biofuels, and
"clean coal." He will also introduce relevant and surprising data from
recent studies.

Richard Heinberg (New College Core Faculty) is the author of seven books
including THE PARTY'S OVER, POWERDOWN, and THE OIL DEPLETION PROTOCOL. He
travels internationally to speak on oil depletion and energy policy, is a
recipient of the M. King Hubbert Award for Excellence in Energy Education,
and appears in many film documentaries, including Leonardo DiCaprio's
forthcoming "11th Hour."

The lecture is open to the public, with a $5 requested donation.

New College of California
99 6th Street
Santa Rosa CA 95401
707-568-2605