Energy is power. Even minor disruptions in the discovery, treatment, distribution, or consumption of energy can produce major disruptions in social, political, economic, environmental, and cultural structures. Energy is a lever unlike any other, and those who have access and influence to this lever closely guard it.
On Saturday, May 10th, The Architectural League, as part of its ongoing initiative The Five Thousand Pound Life, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) will host The Five Thousand Pound Life: The Energy Issue, an afternoon symposium exploring energy and its connection to architecture. Jeremy Leggett, author of The Energy of Nations: Risk Blindness and the Road to Renaissance, will deliver a keynote address on his view of the systemic risks the fossil fuel industry poses to our environmental and economic future: risks of the intensification of climate change, a bubble in capital markets, an overvaluation of the promise of shale oil and gas, and the impact of misplaced complacency about the long-term balance of supply and demand in energy markets.
The symposium will also include discussions between architects and the investors, entrepreneurs, scientists, policy experts, journalists, and filmmakers closest to the power of energy. Additional participants include Kate Gordon, Vice President and Director of the Climate and Energy Program at Next Generation and Executive Director of Risky Business; Michelle Addington, Professor at the Yale School of Architecture and Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies; Rachel Boynton, Producer and Director of the feature-length documentary film Big Men; and Ed Crooks, US Industry and Energy Editor at the Financial Times. For a full list of speakers, visit the League’s website.
The Five Thousand Pound Life: The Energy Issue
with a keynote address by Jeremy Leggett
#5KLEI
4.0 AIA and New York State CEUs
Time & Place
Saturday, May 10, 2014
2:00 – 6:30pm
The Times Center
242 West 41st Street
Tickets
This event is free and open to all. RSVP required to rsvp@archleague.org.
Visit the League website for more information about the symposium and The Five Thousand Pound Life.