Please join us as energy and policy expert Vaclav Smil discusses the “fashionable cult worship” of rapid energy transitions and how we are likely to remain a fossil-fueled civilization for generations to come.
Vaclav Smil does interdisciplinary research in the fields of energy, environmental, and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy. He has published 40 books and nearly 500 papers on these topics. He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Science Academy). In 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the top 100 global thinkers and in 2013 he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada. He has worked as a consultant for many U.S., E.U. and international institutions, has been an invited speaker in more than 400 conferences and workshops in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and Africa, and has lectured at many universities in North America, Europe, and East Asia. “The word 'polymath' was invented to describe people like him," writes Bill Gates. “There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil.”
This talk is part of the monthly Colloquium Series offered by AAAS to provide a forum to explore timely topics relevant to science and society. These events are free of charge and open to the public. If you would like to know more about the series, or if you would like to propose a speaker, please contact hmcinnis@aaas.org.