Water shortages in the western and southern states; the rising cost of gasoline; the backlash against bottled water - these are just some of the myriad ways in which oil and water have become resources under stress. Concerns about scarcity, availability, access, control, and cost are common to both oil and water, but are manifest in very different ways. Shortage of oil means something very different to a middle class family in the Midwest than shortage of water to a village in India. Conflict over water emerges differently in the Great Lakes region than conflict over oil in Iraq. H2Oil: Mixing Oil and Water raises the key questions we should be asking about these essential resources at the global, regional, and individual level.

This opening program will feature Richard Heinberg, author and Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, in conversation with Steve Edwards of Chicago Public Radio.

As an expert on peak oil, an eco-philosopher, and a writer, Richard Heinberg is uniquely suited to engage in these questions through the lens of the humanities. His latest book, Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines, examines both oil and water and addresses many of the cultural, psychological, and practical changes we might have to make as nature dictates new limits.

Steve Edwards is currently the Acting Program Director of Chicago Public Radio and the former host of Eight Forty-Eight, Chicago Public Radio’s award-winning weekday morning newsmagazine.

Recorded Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at Chicago History Museum.