The Greening the Apocalypse team talk peak oil with Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow with the Post Carbon Institute. Richard is regarded as one of the world’s foremost advocates for a shift away from our current reliance on fossil fuels. He’s the author of 13 books, including some seminal works with titles like The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality, and Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World. His latest book is Our Renewable Future: Laying the Path to One Hundred Percent Clean Energy (available for free online!) co-authored with Berkeley energy expert David Fridley. If you want to do an online course with Richard checkout Think Resilience. This is the first of a two part interview.
Later in the show we talk about the concept of ‘energy slaves’. Check out this video an Olympic cyclist vs. a toaster.
First broadcast at Greening the Apocalypse on 30 May 2017
Richard is Senior Fellow of 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 is the author of fourteen books, including some of the seminal works on society’s current energy and environmental sustainability crisis. He has authored hundreds of essays and articles that have appeared in such journals as Nature and The Wall Street Journal; delivered hundreds of lectures on energy and climate issues to audiences on six continents; and has been quoted and interviewed countless times for print, television, and radio. His monthly MuseLetter has been in publication since 1992. Full bio at postcarbon.org.
Tags: energy transition, peak oil
Related Articles
'SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_posts.ID
FROM wp_posts LEFT JOIN wp_term_relationships ON (wp_posts.ID = wp_term_relationships.object_id)
WHERE 1=1 AND wp_posts.ID NOT IN (3467339) AND (
wp_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id IN (1,8995)
) AND wp_posts.post_type = \'post\' AND ((wp_posts.post_status = \'publish\'))
GROUP BY wp_posts.ID
ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC
LIMIT 0, 3'
By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
Financial markets so far have reflected the belief that the Iran war will be over soon and that commerce will return to normal. I explain why I think this belief is unwarranted and why President Trump’s latest announcement regarding bombing Iran’s power plants is economic suicide.
March 22, 2026
By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
Oil price manipulation is taking many forms after the closure of one of the world’s major choke points for oil transport sent oil prices higher.
March 15, 2026
By Chris Rhodes, Energy Balance
Hence, the severe restrictions in the flow of oil though the Strait of Hormuz, resulting from the recent US-Iranian attacks, may be seen as a stark rehearsal for the consequences of a severe shock in the global oil supply, as might be experienced from a “peak oil” crisis, with volatile price spikes and supply chain disruptions.
March 13, 2026