Richard Heinberg, a senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute and a prominent voice on global energy trends, will give a public presentation on December 16 examining what he describes as mounting pressures on both the world’s—and Vermont’s—energy systems.

The talk, hosted on Zoom at 5 p.m., will outline supply-and-demand challenges facing the electric grid, along with the economic impacts that could follow. Heinberg is expected to assess several potential pathways to ease those constraints, drawing on decades of research into fossil-fuel depletion, renewable-energy transitions, and community resilience.

Participants may join virtually or attend a group viewing at the University of Vermont, where the event will be streamed in Jeffords Hall, Room 234.

The presentation is jointly sponsored by Better(not bigger)Vermont and Leadership for the Ecozoic, a learning community based at UVM and McGill University that focuses on ecological civilization and systems change.

Heinberg is the author of 14 books about energy, economics and society, including The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality, Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World, and The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies. He is widely regarded as one of the leading analysts of peak oil and long-term energy trends.

A detailed biography is available on his Post Carbon Institute webpage. Those wishing to attend may request the Zoom link by emailing BetterNotBiggerVT@gmail.com.