The Great Disruption

“Owing to past neglect, in the face of the plainest warnings, we have entered upon a period of danger. The era of procrastination, of half measures, of soothing and baffling expedience of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences…We cannot avoid this period, we are in it now…”
- Winston Churchill November 12, 1936.

“The evidence does, in fact, suggest that what we’re getting now is a first taste of the disruption, economic and political, that we’ll face in a warming world. And...there will be much more, and much worse, to come.”
- Paul Krugman, February 6, 2011.

Six years ago Paul Gilding forecast an inevitable crash of the global ecosystem – his view in 2011 is that the global crisis is no longer just an environmental issue, and how we respond now will decide the future of human civilisation. World food prices hit record highs in January 2011, driven by huge increases in the prices of wheat, corn, sugar and oils. Extreme floods, drought and temperatures are all clear signals that the ecological system is at its limit, strained by an economy which has grown too big. Paul believes we can come out the other side of this “Great Disruption” in better shape – and he’s here to tell us how.

Chair: Grant Redvers.

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