Many environmentalists regard climate disorder as humanity’s core problem. They believe a rapid energy transition dependent on the high-volume mining of rare earth minerals is the best way forward. But a growing number of experts have questioned this so-called green path and its technological optimism given mineral and water constraints and rampant political disintegration.
The critics regard growing climate disorder as just one of nearly a dozen physical symptoms of overshoot: overconsumption of materials and energy by 8 billion people (relentless growth) on a finite planet. To avoid a chaotic collapse, climate experts advocate for a rapid reduction in energy consumption by 40 percent, a relocalization of economies and an end to growth.
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BIOGRAPHY
For more than three decades Andrew Nikiforuk has written about energy, economics and the West for a variety of Canadian publications including the Walrus, Maclean’s, Canadian Business, The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business, Chatelaine, Georgia Straight, Equinox and Harrowsmith.
His books include Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig’s War Against Big Oil, which won the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction in 2002, The Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of the Continent, Empire of the Beetle, The Energy of Slaves: Oil and the New Servitude, and Slick Water. Nikiforuk is now a contributing editor for Canada’s best independent newspaper, the Tyee.
