Thomas Homer-Dixon
The Upside of Down
Wednesday, May 23, 2007, 07:30 PM
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This special-event is not included in season passes for the 2007 Illahee Lecture Series. Discounts exist for season ticket holders. Please call Illahee to order discounted tickets: (503) 222-2719.September 11th won't be the last time we walk out of our cities, writes Thomas Homer-Dixon. In his new book, The Upside of Down, he argues that peak oil, climate change, terrorism, and the widening gap between rich and poor have made the world increasingly vulnerable to breakdown.
But it is also ripe for renewal. Although recent disasters have caused tremendous suffering, they have taught us how we can reinvigorate the economic, political and social systems that sustain us. Can capitalism provide for the world's well-being, equity and environment in the 21st century? Yes, says Homer-Dixon, if we think creatively, act boldly and develop resilient societies in advance.
Thomas Homer-Dixon is Director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto and Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto.
His research focuses on threats to global security in the 21st century and on how societies adapt to complex economic, ecological, and technological change.
His books include The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization (2006); The Ingenuity Gap (2000), which won the 2001 Governor General's Non-fiction Award; and Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (1999), which received the 2000 Lynton Keith Caldwell Prize from the American Political Science Association.