Event: "The Small World of Petrocarbons"

I am launching the Fall 2010 speaking engagement season with a couple of fun gigs. The first is a free lecture at the University of Alberta on energy (hint: it's not just about energy) on Thursday October 14, 3:30 pm in Edmonton. The talk is titled "The Small World of Petrocarbons" and it details some of the strange and unusual things that I have encountered in my adventures in the oil sands, the Arctic, Central Asia, and beyond that make me want to rethink how I think about energy. Details below or click here. 

The second is a a benefit for PEN Canada, part of LitFest, Canada's non-fiction writing festival, the same day in Edmonton. I'll be reading something from The Price of a Bargain, not sure what. The PEN Canada Writer's Cabaret kicks off at 7PM on October 14th. This one isn't free -- sorry. Click here for tickets and more information. 

_________________________

Gordon Laird: "The Small World of Petrocarbons"
New Directions in Culture, Politics and Theory / 2010-2011 Lecture Series
Presented by the Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies and the Department of English and Film Studies

October 14, 3:30-5:30 pm
Humanities Centre Lecture Theatre 3 (HC L-3)

Fuels and chemicals derived from crude oil and natural gas enable the creation of high value foods, products, services and transport central to the economy. Yet our lack of progress on the problems associated with petrocarbons – from carbon emissions to bitumen pollution – suggests that there is still much that we do not understand about fossil fuels and how they affect in our world. Petrocarbons shape us in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, not merely by force of profit and industry, but also by nature of their deeply imbedded role within cultures, institutions and democracies. Laird will explore a number of recent changes that may suggest new opportunities for understanding, such as the rise of energy manufacturing; the entrance of petrocarbons into the knowledge economy; the evolution of consumer consciousness; the dissemination of cheap renewable power; the renewed notion of the commons; as well as the curious volatility of global energy prices and supply, reflective of growing global disequilibrium in markets and geopolitics.

Gordon Laird, journalist and author (most recently) of The Price of a Bargain: The Quest for Cheap and the Death of Globalization. His most recent magazine feature for The Walrus reported on the University of Alberta and its future: http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2010.09-education-office-of-the-president/