The Sustainable Energy Forum 2006 is sponsored by the University of
Maryland's Conservation Biology & Sustainable Development program. It is
co-sponsored by Wallace Global Fund, Sustainable Scale Project, NRDC, and
NRG Wind Systems.
With this year's theme on "Peak Oil and the Environment," the conference
offers more than 20 leading sustainability thinkers, scientists and
policymakers exploring the challenges of oil production peaking, and its
implications for the economy, climate, geopolitical stability and human
well-being; and possible adaptations, including alternative energy sources
and reducing energy use.
"The problem of the peaking of world conventional oil production is unlike
any yet faced by modern industrial society," said a recent Department of
Energy commissioned study, whose co-author, Roger Bedzek, is a conference
speaker.
Also speaking will be James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute
for Space Studies, who made headlines recently by exposing the Bush
administration's attempts to censor him after he called for quick
reductions of greenhouse gases.
Other speakers include Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), who organized a
House caucus on Peak Oil; Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy
Institute, who addresses the problems Peak Oil poses in his new book "Plan
B 2.0"; and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, a proponent of domestically
produced energy sources, including wind.
Mona Sahlin, Sweden's minister for Sustainable Development, will discuss
her country's initiative to be free of oil dependence by 2020. Additional
presenters include Michael Klare, author of "Blood Oil"; former World Bank
economist Herman Daly; Robert Costanza, Director of the Gund Institute for
Ecological Economics, and several other authors in the field.