Past Keynote Speakers

2010 Keynote Speakers

Saturday, May 22, 12:30 pm

John Michael Greer
The Long Road to the Green Future

Many discussions of peak oil, and the broader crisis of industrial civilization in which peak oil plays a central part, assume that the challenges we face can either be solved by technical fixes, or are so far beyond our control that global catastrophe is imminent. According to John Michael Greer, neither of these views does justice to the complex predicament in which the misguided choices of the recent past have landed us.  Instead of a bit of tinkering or an apocalyptic collapse, he says, the future before us is a long and difficult age full of crisis and possibility. While the decline and fall of industrial civilization may be a foregone conclusion, our own actions here and now can help plant the seeds of the green societies of the future.

John Michael Greer, age 47, is an author, scholar of ecological history, Druid leader, environmentalist, blogger and organic gardener. His blog The Archdruid Report has become one of the most respected weekly commentaries on the social and economic implications of peak oil and the impending end of cheap energy. His 2008 book The Long Descent has been hailed as one of the most original, incisive, sobering yet ultimately hopeful books yet written on the peak oil topic. In its 2009 sequel, The Ecotechnic Future, Greer describes the eventual emergence of a truly sustainable society from the wreckage of today’s energy-mad, eco-destructive, self-consuming global civilization. Greer is also the founder and director of the Cultural Conservers Foundation and, since 2002, the Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America.

Sunday, May 23, 12:30 pm

Michael C. Ruppert  
State of the Lifeboat

The world is running short of energy—especially cheap, easy-to-find oil. Shortages, along with resulting price increases, threaten industrialized civilization, the global economy, and our entire way of life. In this riveting presentation, Michael C. Ruppert, author of Confronting Collapse, details the intricate connections between money and energy, including the ways in which oil shortages and price spikes triggered the economic crash that began in September 2008. Given the 96 percent correlation between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions and the unlikelihood of economic growth without a spike in energy use, Ruppert argues that we are not, in fact, on the verge of economic recovery, but on the verge of complete collapse. But there is still hope. Ruppert outlines a plan of action, including the creation of a second strategic petroleum reserve for the use of state and local governments, the immediate implementation of a national Feed-in Tariff mandating that electric utilities pay 3 percent above market rates for all surplus electricity generated from renewable sources, a thorough assessment of soil conditions nationwide, and an emergency action plan for soil restoration and sustainable agriculture.

Michael C. Ruppert is a former Los Angeles Police Department narcotics investigator turned investigative journalist. He is the author of Crossing the Rubicon (2004), A Presidential Energy Policy (2009), and most recently, Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World – A 25-Point Program for Action (2010). He founded the website From the Wilderness, blogs (with Jenna Orkin) at www.mikeruppert.blogspot.com, and stars in the film Collapse, currently screening in select theaters nationwide.  When not writing and speaking on global trends, he also plays in the band New White Trash. He lives in Los Angeles.

Michael C. Ruppert’s appearance is co-sponsored by Chelsea Green Publishing.

EarthWorks Speakers Bureau