Life After Growth:
Why the Economy is Shrinking and What to Do About It

Richard Heinberg is regarded as one of the world’s foremost Peak Oil educators. When he says that our recent economic recession represents a fundamental turning point in our economic history, we listen.

This plenary session from the inaugural Great Lakes Bioneers Chicago event, sponsored by Eco-Justice Collaborative in 2012, was given shortly after Heinberg completed his book “The End of Growth: Adapting the Our New Economic Reality ”. In this video, he draws from the conclusions reached in his book to present a compelling argument that growth not only has ceased, but that it may never return in the same way. This, says Heinberg, is because energy and resource limits are increasingly constraining economic expansion.  In other words, “the expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits”.

What does that mean for those of us who have come to depend on an every-expanding economy? Richard Heinberg claims that families and communities may actually be better off in a sustainable, “steady-state” economy – one that values people and nature over high-rate financial returns.

Watch, tell us what you think, and share widely! Change is coming, and the way we think and act about how we use energy and other natural resources is critical if we are to preserve the planet we live on and build a more just, sustainable world.

Short Biography, Richard Heinberg

Richard Heingberg is 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 websites such as EnergyBulletin.net, TheOilDrum.com, Alternet.org, ProjectCensored.com, and Counterpunch.com.

Richard has been quoted in Time magazine, appeared in many film and television documentaries and has spoken to hundreds of audiences in 14 countries and is a recipient of the M. King Hubbert Award for Excellence in Energy Education.

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