Dinner with Lovins and Wilber
Posted on Apr 21st, 2006
by 
Casey
Casey
Today I picked up Amory Lovins at the Rocky Mountain Institute's Boulder office and we headed down to Denver for dinner at Ken's loft. I have been a fan of Lovin's work since I read Natural Capitalism in my LA days. Needless to say, I was honored to have this opportunity. His latest work, Winning the Oil Endgame is available for free download and from what I heard tonight it is a must read. RMI applies practical expertise to complex problems and focuses on solutions that meet global needs at a marketplace level. While negotiating the Boulder-Denver commute, Amory and I discussed hyper-light, fuel efficient cars that cost the same to produce as conventional autos. At the loft he described his work with top military generals in designing super-efficient buildings on billion-dollar budgets, and his work with the Bonobo Apes in Iowa in which the apes actually communicated their desires for their own habitat design!
Ken asked about nuclear power and it's level of efficiency, and Amory revealed the economics of nuclear power and how it has never been an efficient source of energy. He went on to explain how micro-power and renewable energy has actually taken over the market as the leading source of energy and continues to grow at a rate of 20% annually, all without us even hearing about it!
Ken caught Amory up on the latest work of Integral Institute and they shared recollections from their days in Aspen (they first met over 20 years ago through Ken's late wife, Treya.) I was moved buy the gentle genius Amory embodied and the sincere Bodhisattvic vow these two carry into the world, each in their own unique way.
Back in Boulder we stopped into Whole Foods so Amory could get some Japanese seaweed to make his favorite soup. We parted ways at his hotel, but i have a feeling we will cross paths again.... CC
Ken asked about nuclear power and it's level of efficiency, and Amory revealed the economics of nuclear power and how it has never been an efficient source of energy. He went on to explain how micro-power and renewable energy has actually taken over the market as the leading source of energy and continues to grow at a rate of 20% annually, all without us even hearing about it!
Ken caught Amory up on the latest work of Integral Institute and they shared recollections from their days in Aspen (they first met over 20 years ago through Ken's late wife, Treya.) I was moved buy the gentle genius Amory embodied and the sincere Bodhisattvic vow these two carry into the world, each in their own unique way.
Back in Boulder we stopped into Whole Foods so Amory could get some Japanese seaweed to make his favorite soup. We parted ways at his hotel, but i have a feeling we will cross paths again.... CC
Access: Public
amory lovins
April 2008
nice. great story man. got pics? i bookmarked the ebook. will check it. you should blog more of these kinds of stuff you know ;)
t's like THIS is news. thanks for sharing this casey. almost like, if you could invite any 5 guests – throughout history – to dinner, who would you invite? add three more giants to these two – let's say, the shakyamuni buddha, albert einstein, and your grandfather – and there you'd have it. what an honor, eh?
the last time i visited the rmi site, i didn't find hunter lovins mentioned among staff or directors, or anywhere on the site. reading your post had me sort of picking up where i left off with this unanswered question: where's hunter?
quick search and here she is!: http://www.natcapinc.com/core_hunter.htm
thank you, as well, for the work you are doing at i-i. great stuff!
Thank you for sharing this. I just went and read all about the Bonobos and their linguistic patterns. Truly amazing. It makes me want to go to Iowa, which I don't often say.
I'm glad to hear you had such a brilliant evening.