8 October 2015 18:11

Professor Ugo Bardi, of the Club of Rome, and author of Extracted: How the Quest for Mineral Wealth is Plundering the Planet, will be giving a public lecture next week.

Professor Bardi will be speaking on ‘Resource Depletion and Climate Change: Two Faces of the Same Coin’ on Monday 12 October at 6.15pm at Lancaster University Management School.

As we dig, drill, and excavate to unearth the planet’s mineral bounty, the resources we exploit from the earth are gradually becoming exhausted. Mineral treasures that took millions, or even billions, of years to form are now being squandered in just centuries or sometimes just decades.

Will there come a time when we actually run out of minerals? Debates already soar over how we are going to obtain energy without oil, coal, and gas. But what about the other mineral losses we face? Without mineral fertilisers and fuels, how are we going to produce the food we need? Carbon neutral technologies that combat climate change rely on these scarce minerals, too. 

Harry Hoster, Director of Energy Lancaster and Professor of Physical Chemistry, says: “It is an honour to have such a distinguished guest at Lancaster University. Professor Bardi tackles the most important challenge facing the planet today: adapting to climate change, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and scarce minerals, and all this while meeting the earth's energy demands without reducing our standard of living. Professor Bardi is a great example of how to put deep scientific research into real-world practice.”

To make sure that we have enough space, please register here on Eventbrite.

Refreshments will be served after the talk.

More on Professor Ugo Bardi: Ugo Bardi was a post-doctoral fellow with the University of New York and the University of Berkeley, before taking a permanent position as Professor at the University of Florence. He is a fellow of the Fulbright foundation and of the Japanese Society for the Advancement of Science (JSPS). He has been the recipient of several NATO fellowships and has managed several international research projects for NATO, the European Union, and the European Science Foundation (ESF). He is a member of the scientific committee of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) and Chief Editor of “Frontiers in Energy Systems and Policy”. He has also published The Limits to Growth Revisited.