1069: Saving our Future from Climate Change

Milan Ilnyckyj
2024-06-19

My PhD dissertation examined the fossil fuel divestment movement at Canadian universities, and how participating in organizing it affected the political beliefs and behaviours of activists. In this seminar, I will put the research project in context: first discussing the features that make climate change such an intractable and threatening problem, and then discussing my research results in the context of what they teach us about how solving the problem may be possible. The talk will go in sequence through the main details about climate change and planetary habitability, today's fossil fuel-dominated energy system, and a potential global climate-safe energy system.

My speaking notes are accessible at:

Sources:

My dissertation elaborates on many of these points and addresses complexities which were cut for time in this talk:

One strong source for humanity’s energy history is:

Richard Rhodes. Energy: A Human History. Simon & Schuster, 2018

One major source of energy figures is:

Robert Jaffe and Washington Taylor. The Physics of Energy. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

The major source for my discussion of the fossil fuel energy system and alternatives is:

David Mackay. Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air. UIT Cambridge Ltd, 2009.

Available for free at: