The challenges of  "peak oil," climate change, and food scarcity are all symptoms of the same basic root cause, an unsustainable economy. The industrial era of economic development was fueled by cheap fossil energy. We are not necessarily running out of energy, but we are running out of "cheap energy," and all of the remaining sources of fossil energy represent serious risks to the environment -- global climate change in particular. In addition, replacing fossil energy with biological energy, as from ethanol and biodiesel, threatens the earth's ability to produce sufficient food for a growing human population. We humans are biological beings; we rely on biological energy for our survival. To meet the triple challenges of peak oil, climate change, and food scarcity, we must replace the old industrial economic paradigm of extraction and exploitation with the new sustainable economic paradigm of renewal and regeneration. We must rethink the purpose and meaning of nature, society, and economy.

Presented at the University of Illinois-Springfield (UIS) Public Affairs Center Conference Room C/D on September 29 at 7:00 p.m.  Sponsored by the UIS Speaker's Series, Students Allied for a Greener Earth (SAGE), UIS Department of Environmental Studies, University of Illinois Extension and Slow Food Springfield.  For more information               (217) 206-7895        .

Location:  University of Illinois-Springfield (UIS) Public Affairs Center Conference Room C/D