TONIGHT: Complex Systems: Peak Oil, EROI, and Our Financial Future, Feb. 8

Tonight Feb. 8, 7:30 p.m.
Wendy Williamson Auditorium

The UAA Complex Systems Group presents "Peak Oil, EROI, and Our Financial Future" with Dr. Charles Hall, Professor, Environmental and Forest Biology at the State University of New York.

Dr. Hall has said, "Few people understand with any degree of sophistication the dependence of modern societies and economies on energy and particularly petroleum, although the basics have been a part of the scientific literature for many decades -- for those who wished to pay attention.

"The world appears to be transitioning from a period when the use of high quality energy, and our economies, grew reliably and often exponentially at two or three percent a year to one where they are flat or even declining. Our principles, equations and expectations of economics and finance were derived during the times of energy growth, but those principles, equations and expectations appear to be in need of revision as we transition to lower quality fuels, including both lower grade fossil fuels and also solar alternatives.

"While most aspects of the future cannot be predicted precisely, this one-hour seminar explores some of the probable implications of the transition to lower quality fuels and the need to develop biophysical economics as a supplement or alternative to conventional social-science based economics."

Dr. Hall received his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under Dr. H.T. Odum. His fields of interest are Systems Ecology, Energetics and Biophysical Economics. Dr. Hall is author, coauthor or editor of six books and 230 articles that have appeared in Science, Nature, BioScience, American Scientist and other scientific journals.

For more information, please contact Cheryl Wright at (907) 786-4748.