Biophysical limits to growth

Speaker: Mike Joy

Biophysical limits to growth

Date: 9 May 2019 Time: 4.00 pm

Civilisation is facing peak everything, and climate change is but one symptom.  Here in New Zealand we are not immune to these threats resulting from these peaks. They are the biophysical realities we have ignored and are the manifestation of planetary boundaries we are hitting, they are the Limits to growth we were warned about starting in the 1970s. We take Energy for granted, without realising just how much our life is dominated by fossil fuel energy I will introduce the idea of energy slaves and talk about how we must learn to live without them. The crucial importance of a concept known as energy returned on energy invested (EROI), it is declining this has major implications for humankind. I will discuss the energy transition away from fossil carbon, including energy density and its consequences and the possibilities for NZs energy transition

Bio:

Mike was a late starter in academia, he first attended university in in his early thirties at Massey Palmerston North where he received a BSc, MSc and PhD in Ecology and then began lecturing there in ecology and environmental science in 2003. He became an outspoken advocate for environmental protection after seeing first-hand the declines in freshwater health in New Zealand.

Mike has received a number of awards for this work which include an Ecology in Action award from the NZ Ecological Society, an Old Blue from Forest and Bird, a Tertiary Education Union NZ Award of Excellence for Academic Freedom and contribution to Public Education, the 2013 Royal Society of New Zealand Charles Fleming Award for protection of the New Zealand environment, the Morgan Foundation inaugural River Voice Award in 2015 and the inaugural New Zealand Universities Critic and Conscience award in 2016 and was a semi-finalist for the 2018 Kiwibank New Zealander of the year.

Mike has developed bioassessment tools used by many Regional Councils and consultants and has published scientific papers in many fields from artificial intelligence and data mining, freshwater fish ecology, freshwater bioassessment to the freshwater ecology of sub-Antarctic islands.

He has been working for two decades at the interface of science and policy in New Zealand. In his new role as senior researcher with the Institute of Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University, he hopes to work on improving the connection between science, policy and real outcomes to address the multiple environmental issues facing New Zealand.