Richard Heinberg Speaking to Australian Audiences

September 2012

Tour Dates:

• Brisbane: 6 pm Friday 14 September, Abel Smith Lecture Theatre, University of Queensland – St Lucia Campus. RSVP Jane O’Sullivan j.osullivan@uq.edu.au
• Sunshine Coast: 5.30 pm Saturday 15 September, The Big Pineapple, Woombye RSVP David Robertson deltakilo@iprimus.com.au
• Sydney: 6.30pm Tuesday 18 September, Guthrie Theatre, University of Technology Sydney, 702-730 Harris Street, Ultimo. Optional donation ($5-10 suggested) Inquiries: 02 9680 3245 nsw@population.org.au
• Canberra: 7pm, Friday 21 September, Manning Clark Theatre 2, ANU. Entry by gold coin donation. Bookings through http://richardheinbergincanberra.eventbrite.com/ Inquiries: jenny.goldie@optusnet.com.au
• Melbourne: 7.30 pm Saturday 22 September, Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne. Entry $5 at door. Inquiries: Jenny Warfe warfej@bigpond.com
• Adelaide: 7pm Tuesday 25 September, Barbara Hanrahan Bldg, UniSA West Campus. Donation at door.  Bookings: John Coulter 08 8388 2153 jrpfc@bigpond.com
• Perth: 6pm, Thursday 27 September, Wesfarmers Lecture Theatre, UWA Business School, Hackett Drive, Crawley. No bookings but come early. Inquiries: Peter Strachan pstrach@iinet.net.au
• Sydney: 2pm, Saturday 29 September, Sydney Opera House, Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

Richard Heinberg explains the close link between the resource/environment and the social/economic components of the present disintegration. As a journalist with a keen understanding of science and maths he does it better, more comprehensively and more clearly than most others. While the conventional wisdom is that we must get ‘the economy’ growing again, Heinberg shows that not only is this the wrong strategy, it is actually making the situation worse and more intractable.

Richard is a Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost Peak Oil educators. Richard’s latest book The End of Growth follows a number of others that deal with declining resources, particularly oil. His books have been translated into eight languages. Since 2002, Richard has given over four hundred lectures on oil depletion to a wide variety of audiences. He is a recipient of the M. King Hubbert Award for Excellence in Energy Education (2006). He has appeared in a number of documentaries, the most recent being Earth 2100 ABC (US) television, 2009).

Continuous growth of either population or GDP is impossible in a finite world. Both these drivers of unsustainability have now run up against Nature’s biophysical limits. Nature is now forcing humanity to a transition, one that is as profound as the transition from gatherer/hunter to settled agriculturalist 10,000 years ago.