Hosted by the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney, together with the Journal of Australian Political Economy (JAPE) and the Political Economy Student Society (ECOPSoc). Speaker: Kim Stanley Robinson
When: 25 November 2021, 2-3:30pm (Sydney time/AEDT)
Where: Online via Zoom. The link will be sent prior to the event to those registered.
All welcome.

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/dodging-a-mass-extinction-event-climate-change-and-necessity-tickets-185446002987

Dodging a Mass Extinction Event: Climate Change and Necessity

The 2020s will be a pivotal decade in history, as human civilization faces the necessity of getting into a more balanced relationship with the biosphere that is our one and only home. The transformations required will be social, technological, and economic. Some discussion of how these might come about will be sketched out in various science fictional scenarios, including a best-case result you can still believe in. About the speaker The public intellectual Kim Stanley Robinson is an acclaimed award-winning radical science fiction author of more than 20 books, and many essays and short stories. His works, through the lens of an inherently political genre, present the possibility of an alternate future to the ecological devastation created by capitalism. A speaker at the UN’s COP-26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (1-12 November 2021), his works include this essay recently published in The Financial Times A climate plan for a world in flames (https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2021/08/kim-stanley-robinson-a-climate-plan-for-a-world-in-flames.html ) his book The Ministry for the Future (https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/883-fiction/6892-j-r-burgmann-reviews-the-ministry-for-the-future-by-kim-stanley-robinson ) and an insightful talk Rethinking our Relationship with the Biosphere (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=489I0gZlepM). About the Wheelwright Lecture The annual E.L. ‘Ted’ Wheelwright Memorial Lecture (https://www.ppesydney.net/wheelwright-lecture/ ) is held to commemorate the pioneering role that Ted Wheelwright played in developing studies in Political Economy in Australia.

Established in 2008, previous Wheelwright speakers include: Susan Ferguson, Jayati Ghosh and Adam Tooze (2020), Susanne Soederberg (2019), Alfredo Saad-Filho (2018), Katherine Gibson (2017), David Ruccio (2016), Erik Olin Wright (2015), Leo Panitch (2014), Susan George (2013), Diane Elson (2012), Sheila Dow (2011), Fred Block (2010), Jim Stanford (2009), and Walden Bello (2008).