Storytelling Beyond ‘Planet of the Humans’
SolarFest Trustee Dave Conna and Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, enjoy a wide-ranging conversation; including our shared, disappointing experience of being included in the recent Michael Moore movie, and quickly going beyond to address the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Video Footnotes (timecode)
- 0:35 Partial list of companies and organizations started at SolarFest:
- CV Solar and Wind, founded in 1996 by John Blitterdorf (long time SF Board of Trustees and present VP)
- Grassroots Solar, founded by Bill LaBerge (SolarFest President of BoT)
- High Peaks Solar, founded by Kevin Bailey (SF Trustee)
- USA Solar Store, Founded in 2001 by Dave Bonta (Past SF board)
- Theatre in the Woods, founded by Melissa Chestnut-Tangerman (did EVERY possible role at SF)
- 1:10 Richard Heinberg biography
- 1:25 SolarFest in “Planet of the Humans” starts around 7:00
- 1:35 Anecdote titled “This Is How I Feel Sometimes” from “Power Down: Options and Actions for a Post Carbon World”, 4th printing, Aug. 2005, p. 11-13
- 8:05 Reviews of Michael Moore’s “Planet of the Humans” (scroll down for a long list of reviews)
- 13:30 Debunking myths presented in PoTH about solar energy:
- Myth #1: Solar panels consume more energy in their manufacture than they will ever produce
FACT: It takes between three and four years of usage with present technology for a solar panel to recover its embedded energy: www.nrel.gov/docs/fy99osti/24619.pdf - Myth #2: Solar panels have lifetimes of 10 years (casual statement of solar energy material supplier presented in PoTH, leaving an incorrect impression).
FACT: Good quality solar panels will last for at least 25 years www.nrel.gov/state-local-tribal/blog/posts/stat-faqs-part2-lifetime-of-pv-panels.html
- Myth #1: Solar panels consume more energy in their manufacture than they will ever produce
- 50:50 Climate Ride is a national organization that raises funds for environmental groups by operating multi-day bike rides and hikes
- 1:05:45 Museletter # 326: Pandemic Response Requires Post-Growth Economic Thinking
- 1:07:35 Richard Heinberg’s websites:
Richard Heinberg is the author of thirteen books including:
– Our Renewable Future: Laying the Path for One Hundred Percent Clean Energy co-authored with David Fridley (June 2016)
– Afterburn (2015)
– Snake Oil (July 2013)
– The End of Growth (August 2011)
– The Post Carbon Reader (2010) (editor)
– Blackout: Coal, Climate, and the Last Energy Crisis (2009)
– Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines (2007)
– The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Plan to Avert Oil Wars, Terrorism & Economic Collapse (2006)
– Powerdown: Options & Actions for a Post-Carbon World (2004)
– The Party’s Over: Oil, War & the Fate of Industrial Societies (2003)
He is Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and is regarded as one of the world’s foremost advocates for a shift away from our current reliance on fossil fuels. He has authored scores of essays and articles that have appeared in such journals as Nature, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, The American Prospect, Public Policy Research, Quarterly Review, Yes!, and The Sun; and on websites such as Resilience.org, TheOilDrum.com, Alternet.org, ProjectCensored.com, Counterpunch.com, Commondreams.org, Citylab.com, Pacific Standard, Ensia.com, Ecowatch.org, and Truthout.com
Richard has delivered hundreds of lectures on energy and climate issues to audiences in 14 countries, addressing policy makers at many levels, from local City Councils to members of the European Parliament. He has been quoted and interviewed countless times for print (including for Reuters, the Associated Press, and Time Magazine), television (including Good Morning America, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Al-Jazeera, and C-SPAN), and radio (including NPR, WABC, and Air America).
Richard has appeared in many film and television documentaries, including Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour. He is a recipient of the M. King Hubbert Award for Excellence in Energy Education, and in 2012 was appointed to His Majesty the King of Bhutan’s International Expert Working Group for the New Development Paradigm initiative.
Richard’s animations Don’t Worry, Drive On, Who Killed Economic Growth? and 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds (winner of a YouTubes’s/DoGooder Video of the Year Award) have been viewed by nearly two million people.