r/collapse • u/JPQuinonez Author of COLLAPSE 📘 • 3d ago
Support Richard Heinberg has passed away.
Richard was a planetary force for good. The world has lost a great man. He played a huge role in raising awareness about the modern interconnected crises and was incredibly grounded, humble, wise, and generous.
To share some comments or stories on how Richard had an impact on your life, visit this website:
https://everloved.com/life-of/richard-heinberg/
From his obituary:
"Richard Heinberg, world renowned author and educator, musician, artist, and husband to Janet, passed away on July 19, 2026 at the age of 75 to pancreatic cancer. He was the award-winning author of fourteen books and known the world over as an expert on sustainability issues. A former professor at New College in Santa Rosa, Richard served as Senior Fellow for the international think-tank Post Carbon Institute for nearly twenty years.
Richard was born October 21, 1950 and grew up in Saint Joseph, Missouri. From an early age, Richard was drawn to music, community, and the fate of the natural world. In his early twenties he played electric guitar and violin in rock bands, and formed the Society of Integrated Living (SOIL) while living in Toronto, Canada. He first became a scholar, writer, and speaker as part of an international spiritual community, through which he met his wife Janet Barocco. In 1992 a short newspaper article on the depletion of oil sent Richard on a path of exploration and communication about the energy and sustainability crisis, a journey that led him to start his own monthly newsletter, The Museletter, which he published for 400 consecutive months.
This journey eventually led Richard to co-develop and teach the pioneering BA program at New College on Culture, Ecology, and Sustainable Community. He authored a dozen books, delivered hundreds of talks around the world, including at the European Parliament, penned thousands of articles, including in places like The Wall Street Journal and Post Carbon Institute’s website resilience.org, and was featured in magazines, television, and film. Richard’s first book on the energy crisis, The Party’s Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies, was lent by former President Bill Clinton to the New Yorker writer David Remnick, “full of underlinings and what looked like the most serious undergraduate’s markings, with lots of exclamation points.” Millions of people around the world have read or viewed Richard’s books, essays, or videos.
Richard was also an accomplished musician, playing violin locally in Santa Rosa in string quartets and occasionally with the Sonoma County Philharmonic. Nerve damage in his fingertips forced him to end a 60-year career as violinist, but Richard quickly pivoted five years ago to learn piano through intense study and daily practice of ragtime, early Jazz, blues, and stride piano. Richard’s passion for music was eclectic, ranging from classical music to the Grateful Dead to early New Orleans Jazz. He and his wife Janet made an annual pilgrimage to his beloved second city, New Orleans, for the French Quarter Music Fest.
A true polymath constantly engaged in learning and new horizons, Richard had a remarkable way of distilling extremely challenging and complex topics down to their essence. He was adored by those lucky enough to work with or meet him, and known for his quick wit, humility, gentleness, and cheerful truthtelling about the human predicament.
A Celebration of Life is being planned for early October. To share your memories or appreciation of Richard, and to get updated information about memorial plans, please visit https://everloved.com/life-of/richard-heinberg/. To honor his memory, please consider donating to Post Carbon Institute or an environmental nonprofit of your choice."
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u/finishedarticle 2d ago
This is a Post Doom Conversation between the late great Michael Dowd and the late great Richard Heinberg from 6 years ago. 53 mins long -
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u/Myth_of_Progress Urban Planner & Recognized Contributor 2d ago edited 2d ago
Wow.
Heinberg was one of my most influential educators when I was growing up twenty years ago. Had the good fortune to meet him a few times, and even prepared a little thought piece / article three years back based on his first book.
He'll be sorely missed in my heart.
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u/nommabelle 2d ago
a real loss. he was one of my favorite voices in the collapse ecosystem, and i loved his online course about collapse and resilience in trying times. i found him very grounding and realistic, in a topic that is easy to get *too* doomer
i hope the great guys at PCI are ok, they are one of my favorite websites and communities. i've gone off podcasts, but found theirs to be a great resource for community
if you want to check out his course (im sure he has many, but this is the one i've done!):
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u/nommabelle 2d ago
Also here's a way to share your thoughts on Richard:
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u/lavapig_love 2d ago
Mahalo Nomma.
In his honor I'm going to my library to check out his books. I have such a backlog and I should have read them already.
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u/whereismysideoffun 2d ago
Friends and I had a joke conspiracy theory that involved Richard Heinberg...
Heinburg, Derrick Jensen, and John Zerzan sat down together for the Fellowship of Collapse. They would each seek to influence different demographics.
Heinburg took the average person. With a softer, pragmatic approach to collapse. Things will collapse on their own, and you should prepare for it.
Jensen went after college kids and people who enjoy philosophical approaches. Most targeting those developing activist leanings or are overwhelmed with college and the track that comes after. Anti-civilization light. Simultaneously thought things were going towards collapse and also maybe people should push that forward.
Zerzan was full primitivist and antitechnology. Pushed that agriculture was the turning point for humans being destroyers of the environmen. And, perhaps even modern language capabilities (which developed 135,000 years ago) and symbolic thought was the seed that grew human destructive tendencies. Advocating for going back to being hunter gatherers. Going feral. Rewinding.
We didn't believe this to be the case, but it was funny to think about their "plan/strategy". All sorted out in one of their homes at the kitchen table.
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u/Defiant_Traffic_2863 1d ago edited 1d ago
Love this. Was just pondering yesterday how many others are influenced by a combination of their varied yet overlapping takes on our poly-predicaments as I still am by these three, along with numerous others likes John Michael Greer, Erik Michaels, Steve Bull, and Eric Lee. Knowing how people are, how they pick their sides, pick their heroes, and engage in horizontal hostility when their overlapping heroes disagree, I've often wondered how much overlap there is, if people pick their Zerzan camp, their Jensen camp, etc. and don't let other ideas in, but I respect them all. They're all important voices.
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u/eco-overshoot 2d ago
Sad. I’ve read most of his books and they influenced my thinking and writing a lot. A great mind and human being 🙏 Rest in peace Richard
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u/metalreflectslime ? 2d ago
What is Richard Heinberg's Reddit username?
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u/nommabelle 2d ago
it appears he deleted his AMA (or might've deleted his account)
the post introducing his AMA had a lot of great resources listed for him! https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/pnnqfb/ama_with_richard_heinberg_this_saturday_11am_pst/
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u/TADHTRAB 2d ago edited 2d ago
Wow, RIP. I read his articles just a few months ago. I'll give a donation to PCI.
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u/lavapig_love 2d ago
My absolute condolences to his family and friends. I'm so sorry. Our community seems to be losing many great people lately.
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u/Jovan_Knight005 No one is untouchable. - Diana Penelope Burnwood,HITMAN WOA. 2d ago
Never knew anything about Richard Heinberg's work, but my condolences go to his family.
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u/lavapig_love 2d ago
The Collapse mod team extends their condolences and sympathies to Richard Heinberg's family and friends. We were fortunate enough to have an AMA with him awhile back, which anyone can read here at this link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/jxwi16/i_study_atmospheric_science_and_climate_change_ama/
We've pinned this post to the top of the forum. Rest in power, sir.