Future Human: End of the Oil Age
Event Info
Description
On October 13, Future Human reconvenes at The Book Club in Shoreditch for End of the Oil Age, where we will be discussing the future of energy and its impact on our lives. We’ll have all the usual intelligent guests, audience involvement, great cocktails and big-screen Twitter antics. You can buy tickets here; advance purchase is strongly recommended as numbers are limited.
In 2005, the world entered the ‘post peak-oil’ era, meaning that global oil production is on a downward curve – although naturally major oil corporations dispute this.
The implications for our lifestyles are enormous: over 150 years the oil boom has powered a massive expansion of industry, transport, trade, agriculture and financial services in the Western world. As oil declines, so will everything that depends on it, unless the shortage is solved by new energy solutions. Will the death of crude give birth to a new age of energy? And what will this look like?
From travelling-wave nuclear reactors to catalysts that set cement like jelly, and electric vehicle networks to nanotech powered solar arrays, the global energy economy that emerges from the shadow of the Oil Age will look very different indeed. But who are the new players in this quest for global economic primacy? What are their prospects? And how will this great transition disrupt the world’s current energy powers?
Joining us to discuss these questions are some of the UK’s foremost thinkers on energy and the future of the oil industry:
- Jeremy Leggett is a campaigner, writer and businessman focusing on post-oil energy. He is the founder of Solarcentury, the UK’s largest independent solar energy company, as well as its sister charity SolarAid; has written the books Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis, and The Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era; and is a founding director at New Energies Invest AG, the world’s first private equity fund for renewable energy.
- Mark Stevenson is a comedian and author of An Optimist’s Tour of the Future, a survey of a world heading towards nanotechnology, space flight and a new era of energy. He is also co-founder and COO of Flow Associates, a consultancy focusing on cultural education and digital engagement; and also works at ReAgency, a science communications consultancy.
- Shaun Chamberlin is the author of The Transition Timeline, which outlines a potential roadmap for the UK becoming a sustainable post-oil society. He is also the co-founder of Transition Town Kingston, aiming to change Kingston-upon-Thames’s energy use to help combat climate change and reduce reliance on oil; is working towards implementing energy rationing system Tradable Energy Quotas; and blogs at darkoptimism.org.
Rather than merely pointing fingers at big oil companies, at End of the Oil Age we’ll discuss the realities of the energy crisis at home and abroad, and the innovations and ideas that will take us out of it. It should be an illuminating and hopefully optimistic evening – we hope you can join us. Once again, tickets can be bought here.
Future Human is a unique monthly event that reinvents the intellectual salon for a decade of radical change and innovation. Guests are invited to open their minds, become a part of the show and debate important ideas of the age with pioneering thinkers. The event is an interactive, brain-spinning spectacle that takes its audience to the frontiers of our radically altered near future, and then provides access to strong cocktails.
Press:
‘A blend of intimacy, anarchy and intellectual nourishment… the salon has arrived in the 21st century’ – The Sunday Times
One of London’s Five Best Talk Events – The Evening Standard
‘Hurrah! We get to pretend to be sophisticated members of the intelligentsia’ – Grazia
‘Lively, informative and fun’ – The Daily Telegraph
‘The new salon for hip intellectuals… book early, tickets sell like (calorie free) hot cakes’ – Time Out
Details:
FUTURE HUMAN: END OF THE OIL AGE
Wednesday October 13, 2010
Main event is 7.00 pm to 9.30 pm, DJs until late
@ The Book Club, Leonard Street, Shoreditch, London EC2A 4RH (map)
Tickets are strictly limited and advance purchase is advised. They can be bought HERE.
PLEASE NOTE THAT ONCE PURCHASED, TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE ON THE DOOR UNDER YOUR NAME (I.E. THEY WILL NOT BE POSTED AHEAD OF THE EVENT)
Contact info(at)badidea.co.uk if you have an enquiry.
