State of Our Ecology

This morning on Exploration, Dr. Richard Heinberg, author of Powerdown, will be talking about ecological collapse. Then, Eric Assadourian of the World Watch Institute will be speaking about the State of the World.

Richard Heinberg is a Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost Peak Oil educators. He has authored scores of essays and articles that have appeared in such journals as Nature, The American Prospect, Public Policy Research, Quarterly Review, The Ecologist, Resurgence, The Futurist, European Business Review, Earth Island Journal, Yes!, and The Sun; and on web sites such as Resilience.org, TheOilDrum.com, Alternet.org, ProjectCensored.com, and Counterpunch.com.
He has been quoted in Time Magazine and has spoken to hundreds of audiences in 14 countries, including members of the European Parliament. He has appeared in many film and television documentaries, including Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour, is a recipient of the M. King Hubbert Award for Excellence in Energy Education, and in 2012 was appointed to His Majesty the King of Bhutan’s International Expert Working Group for the New Development Paradigm initiative.
Richard’s animations Don’t Worry, Drive On, Who Killed Economic Growth? and 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Minutes (winner of a YouTubes’s/DoGooder Video of the Year Award) have been viewed by 1.5 million people .
Since 2002, he has delivered more than five hundred lectures to a wide variety of audiences—from insurance executives to peace activists, from local and national elected officials to Jesuit volunteers.
He lives in northern California with his wife and is an avid violin player.
************

Erik Assadourian is a Senior Fellow at Worldwatch Institute, where he has studied cultural change, consumerism, economic degrowth, ecological ethics, corporate responsibility, and sustainable communities over the past 11 years. Erik has directed two editions of Vital Signs and four editions of State of the World, including State of the World 2013.

Erik also directs Worldwatch’s Transforming Cultures project, which explores innovative new ways to intentionally and proactively transform cultural norms so that living sustainably feels as natural as living as a consumer feels today. Through this project, Erik directed State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability and designed Catan: Oil Springs, an eco-educational scenario for the popular board game Settlers of Catan.

Over the years he has been interviewed by media around the world and has traveled extensively to communicate his research findings. Before joining Worldwatch, Erik learned environmental organizing as a fellow with Green Corps, and worked as a Toxics and Environmental Health Field Organizer with U.S. PIRG. He graduated from Dartmouth College with majors in Psychology and Religion modified with Anthropology.

 

 


Share This Episode