Richard Heinberg spoke at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Opera House. The video is available here

We seem to be hurtling down the path towards an out-sized Australia

In June 2010, Prime Minister Julia Gillard famously said: “Australia should not hurtle down the track towards a big population.”

She was distancing herself from her  predecessor Kevin Rudd, who had famously said on ABC TV's 7.30 Report that he believed in a “Big Australia”, of 36 million by 2050.

While in Australia Richard Heinberg has featured in the media recently:

Lateline Business

ABC Classic FM with Margaret Throsby

With Ian Henschke on 891 Adelaide

Summary of speech published in The Canberra Times

No going back for Arctic

When Arctic sea-ice levels finally hit the anticipated record low this week, I felt a mixture of fear and panic (Arctic sea-ice levels on the verge of record low, GW, 31 August). Trend lines on graphs of sea-ice extent show the Arctic could be ice-free as early as September 2015 and almost certainly by 2020. With more exposed ocean absorbing more radiation and less ice to reflect it, a positive feedback mechanism has been set in train.

Professor Michael T. Klare presents the full talk on his latest book – The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources – to the Carnegie Council on March 20, 2012. The talk is followed by an audience Q&A. @ 60 minutes.

Jeff Rubin, economist and winner of the 2010 National Business Book Award for his title Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, speaks at the Toronto Reference Library May 14, 2012. With CBC’s Michael Hlinka.

Jeff Rubin – Part 1

Prepare for oil's decline

The Iranian navy has warned it could close the strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes (Iran: We'll close the strait of Hormuz, GW, 13-19 January 2012).

This would not be good for anyone, least of all the Iranians, but it may help us to prepare for what is to come as global oil supplies begin to decline, perhaps as early as 2015.

The Canberra Times published the following letter from ACT Peak Oil President Jenny Goldie on January 3:

CLIMATE OF DOOM

As one who tries to inform people about the implications of peak oil, I was infuriated by being lumped with such ''apocalypse-predicting subcultures'' as Christians who anticipate an imminent day of rapture when all non-believers will perish, and interpreters of the Mayan calendar who are convinced the world will end on December 31, 2012 (''Apocalypse tomorrow'', Panorama, December 31, p12).