This is the end... and you may like it that way

Is economic growth at an end? Did the current recession mark a permanent break from decades of expansion? Commentator Richard Heinberg thinks so, and is prepared to argue that's a good thing.

The Centre for Environment & Sustainability is presenting a lecture by Heinberg on March 25 - Life After Growth: Why the Economy is Shrinking and What to Do About It. It takes place at the University of Western Ontario 3M Centre, Room 3250, 4:30-6 p.m.

According to the centre, Heinberg is regarded as one of the world’s foremost proponents of the Peak Oil theory. Peak oil is the point at which the rate of oil extraction reaches maximum production, after which production begins a slide.

Heinberg will discuss how the economic recession represents a break from recent history and how growth has ceased and may never return because energy and resource limits are handcuffing expansion. He argues families and communities may be better off in a so-called steady-state economy.

A columnist for the Ecologist Magazine, author of nine books and a frequent lecturer, Heinberg is a senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, a California-based think tank focused on climate change, energy scarcity and issues related to sustainability.

Provided by University of Western Ontario