Dispelling the Myths of a Renewable Energy Transition – Wed, April 19 · 7 – 8pm BST (Online)

Renewable energy technologies that offer an alternative to fossil fuel dependency are advancing rapidly, but they aren’t ushering in the environmentally responsible future we imagined. That’s because they are serving the same destructive and unequal economic ends that fossil fuels have cultivated over the past two centuries. Absent a slower and more mindful approach to the energy transition, solar panels, and EV batteries could simply be the next mass of materials to be irresponsibly and inequitably extracted from the Earth for human benefit (or more accurately some humans’ benefit).

Our panel will discuss this possibility and the science, ecology, and economics behind the energy transition. We will compare our hopes for a truly sustainable economy to the reality of the transition, as currently enacted. And we’ll discuss alternative visions of sustainability to guide us back on course, including slowing down, degrowing the economy, and rethinking our relationship with animals – including our pets!

Speakers include: William E. Rees, ecological economist and co-creator of the eco-footprint indicator; John Mulrow, Professor of Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University; and Miriam Stevens, Ph.D. Student in Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue. Erik Assadourian, sustainability researcher and director of the Gaian Way, will moderate.