This is a one hour long presentation given by Dr. M'Gonigle as part of the BC Creek Protection Society's lecture series on environment and energy at the University of Victoria, October 29th 2009.

 

For good reasons, climate change dominates the current headlines and presents itself as a difficult problem to solve within the framework of growth-based economies. Without a larger vision, governments have long prevaricated in taking action. Now, they seek solutions through minor policy changes, supposedly renewable energy sources and futuristic technologies. Their goal is to fix the problem--and get back to business-as-usual. 

 

However, upon close examination this approach to climate change proves to be intrinsically unsustainable. Instead, governments are prone to an ever-growing global dependence on a consumptive economic machine that is running out of space and time. This economy is oblivious to its planetary context; resurrecting it is a dream of a world gone by, all the while forsaking an opportunity for re-invention that can easily slip away.

 

Dr. M'Gonigle is the EcoResearch Professor in Environmental Law and Policy in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria, one of the founders of Greenpeace International, EcoJustice, Smart Growth BC, the Dogwood Initiative, and the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at UVic. He has written extensively in the areas of resource and environmental law and policy, and has been developing a new field of green legal theory.