After attending the UN’s COP-26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, author Kim Stanley Robinson delivered the E.L. Ted Wheelwright Memorial Lecture on Nov. 25, 2021. He titled it "Dodging a Mass Extinction Event: Climate Change and Necessity." The annual lecture is hosted by the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney, together with the Journal of Australian Political Economy and the Political Economy Student Society, and Robinson's talk reflects upon his time at COP-26. 

About the talk

The 2020s will be a pivotal decade in history, as human civilization faces the necessity of getting into a more balanced relationship with the biosphere that is our one and only home. The transformations required will be social, technological and economic. Some discussion of how these might come about will be sketched out in various science fictional scenarios, including a best-case result you can still believe in.

WATCH a recording of Robinson's lecture from the link above. It is followed by an informative discussion with Emeritus Professor Dick Bryan, and a question and answer session with students from the Department of Political Economy.

Listen to the lecture audio like a podcast, without the video.