In this episode, I speak with Richard Heinberg — Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and one of the world’s foremost advocates for a shift away from our current reliance on fossil fuels.▴ We examine Richard’s recent essay “Our Bonus Decade,” in which he examines the role peak oil played in the 2008 financial crisis and what the long-term consequences will be as a result of the fossil fuel industry’s transition to unconventional oil production this past decade.
In our examination of the themes presented Richard’s recent essay “Our Bonus Decade,” Richard discusses the role skyrocketing oil prices played in the financial crisis of 2008 and how this crisis coincided with a broader shift to unconventional fossil fuel production in our society, including an increased reliance on exceedingly destructive extractive methods such as fracking and tar sand oil extraction (like in Alberta, Canada). What will our civilization’s reliance on fossil fuels mean in the coming years as we come up against not only peak oil production — but also abrupt climate disruption and widespread ecological collapse, in great part as a result of our reliance on fossil fuels these past several centuries? Richard examines this question, and more, in this episode.
Richard Heinberg is the author of thirteen books, including ‘Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines,’ ‘The End of Growth,’ and most recently ‘Our Renewable Future: Laying the Path for One Hundred Percent Clean Energy’ co-authored with David Fridley. Richard is Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and is regarded as one of the world’s foremost advocates for a shift away from our current reliance on fossil fuels.▴
▴Source: http://bit.ly/RHabout
Episode Notes:
- Read Richard’s essay “Our Bonus Decade”: http://bit.ly/OurBonusDecade
- Learn more about Richard and his work at his website: http://richardheinberg.com
- Learn more about the Post Carbon Institute here: https://www.postcarbon.org
- Richard mentions: https://www.resilience.org
- The songs featured in this episode are “Relentless Drag (Mike Slott Remix)” and “And We Gonna (Samiyam Chopsticks Remix)” by Shigeto from the album Full Circle Remixes.