Richard Douthwaite looked at the problems created by the availability of cheap energy. He believes it shaped capitalism and our monetary systems, led manufacturers and farmers to adopt unsustainable technologies, and permitted a six-fold increase in the human population while creating a concentration of power and wealth in very few hands.
Richard Douthwaite is an economist, journalist and author specialising in energy, climate and sustainability issues. He is the co-founder of the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability (Feasta), an economics think-tank based in Ireland. His books include The Growth Illusion (1992), widely regarded as a classic, Short Circuit (1996) and The Ecology of Money (1999).
Recorded on day one of The New Emergency Conference: Managing Risk and Building Resilience in a Resource Constrained World. Held on 10-12 June 2009, All Hallows College, Drumcondra, Dublin 9, Ireland.
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