Post Carbon Newsletter #7 September 2005
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Post Carbon Newsletter #7, September 2005
*In The Wake of Katrina: A Call To Prepare* *Community Supported
Manufacturing* *Post Carbon News Updates* *Outpost Folks: Rose Kudlac
of Post Carbon Toronto* *Post Carbon Board Members: Richard Heinberg*
*'Katrina, New Orleans, and Peak Oil' by Richard Heinberg* *September
Peak Oil Conference*
*1. In The Wake of Katrina: A Call To Prepare*
It is now over a week since the devastating Hurricane Katrina struck
the Gulf coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Anyone with an
Internet connexion or a television will have seen the kind of
terrible suffering and misery that are more commonly seen in the
so-called Third World. On Global Public Media we have posted a
particularly harrowing but iconic report from the BBC
{http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/news/490} which lays bare what
happens what the system fails.
Many will hope that lessons will be learned, so that the agony of
the American Deep South is not completely in vain. Comparisons with
the global South - another euphemism for the poor and plundered of
the planet - do not inspire much confidence.
Nor do comparisons with the great blackout which affected fifty
million people in the north east of the North American continent
almost exactly two years ago - the electricity grid and power systems
are still perilously fragile, and Katrina has left about ten per cent
of US natural gas supply shut in, on which electricity production
increasingly relies in North America (and many other places).
Unlike oil, there is no easy way for North America to get foreign
replacement supplies of natural gas. There is mounting unease in high
places that an American natural gas crisis will greatly worsen the
difficulties with oil and gasoline supplies.
There are many lessons that can be learnt from the horror of this
hurricane - a horror that vast numbers of poor people in other
nations already know so well: Be very wary of depending on
far-distant places and people to furnish your safety, food, health,
power, and fuel.
The people of New Orleans knew their system was inadequate to
protect them - some tried very hard to rectify the situation, but
they failed.
The most terrible lesson of Katrina appears to be this: we, the
ordinary people of this planet, are pretty much on our own for oil
peak. Most of our governments, except for a few at local level and
some brave lone politicians, have not even admitted to the concept of
peak oil, far less begun planning for it.
We who care are now all New Orleaners, we are all vulnerable: the
question is, are we going to do anything serious about it?
Most people who read this newsletter know that the global oil supply
and natural gas supply in all English-speaking nations (except
Australia) is in peril. If Katrina turns out to herald the decline of
world oil and triggers a natural gas crisis, who out there - in any
country, anywhere - is sure that their village, town or city is
ready?
If you are ready - tell us about it and help others to learn.
If you are not ready, please consider joining with us
{http://www.postcarbon.org/relocalize/network} in our very practical
attempts to make both emergency and long-term preparations for this
new world that will have to run on ever less oil, a system that must
largely de-industrialise, an economy that will have to contract both
in financial and spatial terms.
We must start to relocalize now and begin living locally once again.
Julian Darley
Director of Post Carbon Institute
Vancouver, BC office
*2. Community Supported Manufacturing (CSM) *
One of the ways we can relocalize is by making our supply lines
shorter so that we produce our vital needs as locally as possible. At
present this is almost impossible under normal economic conditions, so
we are developing a system, based on community-supported agriculture,
called - you guessed it - Community Supported Manufacturing.
CSM will help us bring our manufacturing and provisioning back under
our control and back into our locale - it will therefore create
desperately needed jobs as globalization collapses for want of cheap
energy (and maybe lack of cheap money too). The idea of relocalized
provisioning is central to Post Carbon Institute’s plans for dealing
with peak oil, global warming and ecological degradation of the
world.
The longest chapter in our forthcoming book, “Relocalize Now!
Getting Ready for Climate Change and the End of Cheap Oil” (to be
published by New Society Publishers this fall/autumn) describes
Community Supported Manufacturing in some detail, but the real
working out will be in communities who want to participate.
For more explanation of Community Supported Manufacturing and how
you can get involved, please see the longer article
{http://www.postcarbon.org/relocalize/manufacturing} on the Post
Carbon website.
*
3. Post Carbon News Updates*
/Julian Darley Will Introduce Permaculture Co-Originator David
Holmgren /
The Vancouver Permaculture Network presents"Permaculture Strategies
in a World of Declining Fossil Fuel" with David Holmgren, introduced
by Julian Darley.
The three hour event will be hosted by the University of British
Columbia Faculty of Land and Food Systems and UBC Farm.
David Holmgren has been talking about the coming energy crises for
decades - and developing the permaculture system as a direct response
to energy decline.
Even if you don't live in Vancouver and can't attend the event, on
Global Public Media you can see (and hear) Julian Darley's recent
interview with David Holmgren
{http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/interviews/460}.
For more details of the event, please visit Post Carbon's website
{http://www.postcarbon.org/node/585}.
/Post Carbon Local Energy Farm/
Peter Myers, co-founder of Flathead Outpost
{http://www.postcarbon.org/groups/flathead}, has agreed to purchase
land (possibly in conjunction with other Outpost members) where a
Post Carbon prototype Local Energy Farm will be developed.
Post Carbon Institute is continuing to raise funds to build, equip,
and staff the farm and build an extensive materials workshop for
repairing a wide range of items and for light manufacturing.
We are also working with Peter to establish a school to prepare
children for the post-petroleum world, as well as post carbon
workshop and courses for adults.
We shall feature an interview with Peter Myers and more on the
progress of the energy farm in the next newsletter.
/Postcarbon.org Website Re-Design /
Our web site has undergone deep structural re-design. Our last web
site groaned under the weight of large amounts of information. We
have more and more Outposts and needed to streamline the interface to
help them. Outposts and associates in the Relocalization Network also
need easy–to-use tools to communicate with their members.
The new look is meant to inspire you to action - to give you the
sense that something practical can be done.
There are those that accuse peak oil adherents of being somewhat
‘doom and gloom’ at times. Sometimes, however, reality isn't very
cheerful - surely we don't need any further reminders of that, but
Post Carbon Institute is vigorously practical, both online and
offline. To help members, affiliates, and the 'walking worried' in
general, we are developing a powerful suite of web-based tools to
integrate and cross-fertilise our preparations for a post-carbon
world.
The basis of our new web site is an 'open-source' system called
drupal (drupal.org), which is expandable so that each group or
Outpost can add their own content. Drupal also gives us blogging,
better event capability, integrated forums, the ability quickly to
create a web presence for groups, a single sign-on to all of our
sites, and much more. If you have not already done so, please
register now at http://www.postcarbon.org/user/register
{http://www.postcarbon.org/user/register}
{http://www.postcarbon.org/register}.
Please let us know {mailto:website@postcarbon.org} if you come
across any glitches or problems while using the postcarbon.org
website.
/The Oil Age Poster/
With the assistance of Post Carbon Institute’s David Room, Rob
Bracken and Dave Menninger of San Francisco Post Carbon have
developed a full color poster that traces the history of the Oil Age
from its beginnings in the hills of western Pennsylvania to its rise
as the engine of global industrial economies.
Two hundred years of the Oil Age are depicted in the poster’s main
chart, which features a year-by-year rendering of Colin Campbell’s
Depletion Model. Historical annotations as well as detailed data on
production, trade and reserves make this poster a versatile tool for
presenting the realities and implications of global oil production
and its impending peak.
The 23"x36" (58x91cm) poster is printed on heavyweight recycled
paper and shipped unfolded in a tube. Along with several other
members of SF Post Carbon, the team intends to get the poster in
middle and high schools to raise awareness of our oil predicament
with youth.
The poster is available from Post Carbon Books
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=META&Product_Code=oilageposter}
for $10 plus shipping and handling:
Click here to donate a poster
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=META&Product_Code=oilageposterdonation}
to be placed in a classroom
*
4. Outpost Folks*
This is the first in a series of Outpost profiles we will be running
in the newsletter. All Outposts and Relocalization Groups are
organized according to local skills, knowledge, directions and
desires. Each has its own form and function. It is an awareness of
oil peak and the aim to do something serious, practical, and
structural about it that distinguishes our groups. Knowing about
other Outposts, Outpost projects, and those in the wider
Relocalization Network not only connects us all together, but it is a
chance to exchange information and help one other. This profile is
about the Toronto, Canada Outpost called “Post Carbon Toronto”.
Post Carbon Toronto
Post Carbon Toronto {http://toronto.postcarbon.org} began when Rose
Kudlac met with another person in her city who knew about peak oil,
but not about any of the online material. Sensing a need to connect
local people, through Post Carbon Institute and through meetup.com,
she found other people who wanted to work on raising awareness and
fostering informed responses to energy descent. These people are now
part of the Post Carbon Toronto organizing team.
To date Rose has located:
local experts, including academics, through articles about peak oil
in the mainstream press or posts to on-line forums, and who have
worked and lectured in this area extensively; colleagues through Post
Carbon Institute and meetups; people and networks through
participation in events and volunteering in projects with 'natural
allies', which have included alternative energy projects,
permaculture workshops, and more; people, projects and issues at
public events, book promotions, meetings, forums on energy,
infrastructure, and space. Through a local environmental store, Rose
has also discovered:
the Coalition for a Green Economy, a group of eco-preneurs that have
been meeting for over ten years and who have spawned ground-breaking
local and national green projects. This group fought for the
legalization of hemp growing in Canada. Now they are working on
launching a local chapter of BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local
Living Economies; a Green Economy course featuring presentations by
local experts and leaders on different issues; and a post graduation
program at a university called "Business and the Environment", which
connects a business school and a faculty of environmental studies.
Viewing the End of Suburbia documentary is mandatory for the program.
Some of the people located above, have become advisors to Post Carbon
Toronto.
Through Post Carbon Institute, and other outreach, local individuals
and groups have contacted the outpost who are focused on:
bringing peak oil into the classroom facilitating a pedestrian city
action to mitigate climate change helping with the follow-up
documentary Escape from Suburbia (produced in Toronto) raising energy
awareness in their neighbourhoods or communities Post Carbon Toronto
{http://toronto.postcarbon.org} is currently working on a conference
“Transportation Infrastructure and Energy”, for transportation
planners and officials, with a government funding source located by
an advisor.
An online e-mail list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/torontopeakoil/
{http://groups.yahoo.com/group/torontopeakoil/}, currently with
nearly 70 members, helps the group disseminate notices about local
events and research related to energy descent, and keep part of the
network engaged.
Rose sees Outposts as catalysts for action in their local
communities. She says they take on the responsibility for raising
awareness and growing the network. In this role, Outposts engage with
local government, businesses, educational institutions and NGOs that
may or may not know about the energy predicament but are willing to
work in an integrated fashion.
Rose Kudlac adds that Outposts can grow organically from the
swelling ranks of those aware of our dependence on fossil fuels and
the damage to our ecosystems, and who want to lessen dependence on
the government-corporate-industrial grid. Such groups typically
coalesce from oil-awareness meetings and discussions after End of
Suburbia screenings.
Other groups may be intentionally formed by individuals within a
community through house parties, reading groups and local gatherings.
In a large city, such an Outpost is more likely to be involved working
with and informing other groups than with itself taking on programs
directly.
Where Ouposts evolve from existing groups such as book clubs,
renewable energy cooperatives and eco-villages, such groups can
'become' an Outpost or simply add Post Carbon experiments to their
range of programs.
If you are interested in starting an outpost, contact
outposts@postcarbon.org {mailto:outposts@postcarbon.org} to set up a
phone conversation.
*
5. Introducing Post Carbon Institute Board Members
{http://www.metafoundation.org/board.php}: Richard Heinberg,
journalist, educator, lecturer and musician*
In so many ways, Richard Heinberg is emblematic of what Post Carbon
Institute stands for.
Not only does he think, write and lecture about Peak Oil and the
ecological/social impact of corporate-industrial society, he is
working tirelessly on broad community-level solutions to the problems
caused by these world trends.
Richard is a core faculty member of Santa Rosa’s New College of
California {http://www.newcollege.edu/northbay/index.cfm} and directs
a year-long, intensive course on Culture, Ecology, and Sustainable
Community.
He has appeared on national radio and television stations in many
countries, and his essays have been published in dozens of magazines
and journals. Richard travels internationally to speak on the subject
of Peak Oil and has given over 100 presentations on the subject before
university and general audiences.
Richard is the author of six books
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=META&Category_Code=Books}:
The Party's Over: Energy Resources and the Fate of Industrial
Societies
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=TPO&Category_Code=Books}
Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World
{http://www.powerdown.ws}. Memories and Visions of Paradise:
Exploring the Universal Myth of a Lost Golden Age Celebrate the
Solstice: Honoring the Earth's Seasonal Rhythms through Festival and
Ceremony A New Covenant with Nature: Notes on the End of Civilization
and the Renewal of Culture Cloning the Buddha: A Spiritual and Moral
Critique of Biotechnology Global Public Media has made a DVD of
Richard giving an overview of Powerdown
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=RHVideo&Category_Code=Video}
(along with a bonus interview by Post Carbon Institute's David Room).
Richard is also author-editor-publisher of the monthly Museletter
{http://www.museletter.com}, a continuing critique of
corporate-capitalist industrial civilization and a re-visioning of
humanity's prospects for the next millennium. Subjects range from
global economics to religion to the origin of humanity's antipathy
toward nature.
Subscription to the Museletter is available through the Post Carbon
bookstore
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Newsltr}
and back-issues are online at www.museletter.com
{http://www.museletter.com/}
All Richard's work is informed by a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary
study of history and culture.
Richard and his wife, Janet Barocco, live in a house they have
renovated for energy efficiency and use their back yard for growing
food. Richard is also an accomplished violinist.
*6. 'Katrina, New Orleans, and Peak Oil' - A Feature Article by
Richard Heinberg*
The scenes were heart-wrenching and mind-boggling: an entire modern
American metropolis had effectively ceased to exist as an organized
society...when it came to reporting on the damage to oil production
and refining facilities, most media outlets took at face value the
glib and non-specific assurances of the petroleum industry... And all
of this is occurring at a time when the global supply of oil is barely
able to meet demand...
Read the whole article on Global Public Media here
{http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/articles/479}, see and hear more
interviews with Richard Heinberg on GPM
{http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/people/richard_heinberg}, and read
more articles at Richard's Museletter.com
{http://www.museletter.com/} website.
*
7. September Peak Oil Conference*
The “*Second U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions*”
will be held September 23-25, 2005 in Yellow Springs, Ohio (see
www.communitysolution.org {http://www.communitysolution.org/}).
The end of cheap abundant oil represents an unprecedented challenge
for humanity. It heralds the end of many things to which we have
become accustomed; the ever-growing economy, transportation as we
know it, cheap food and goods from around the globe.
Many react to these coming changes with fear and dread. But Community
Solutions envisions a more cooperative, just and equitable world of
small local communities.
This conference will explore:
The implications of Peak Oil An in-depth look at changes in
agriculture The characteristics of a new economy Peak Oil’s effect on
our financial system Alternatives to oil and our high energy way of
life The communities of the future Ways to transition and answers to
"What should I do now?" Keynote Speakers:
*Richard Heinberg: *Author, /The Party’s Over /and /Powerdown:
Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World/ *Michael Shuman:
*Author, /Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global
Age/ Other Presenters:
*Diana Leafe Christian: *Author, Creating a Life Together
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=clt&Category_Code=Books}
and Editor of /Communities /magazine *Jan Lundberg: *Founder, Culture
Change and /Auto Free Times /magazine *Robert Waldrop: *President,
Oklahoma Food Cooperative and moderator of online discussion group
“Running on Empty” *Steve Andrews: *Co-founder of the Association for
the Study of Peak Oil – U.S., energy consultant and free-lance writer
on Peak Oil *Liz Walker: *Director and co-founder, Eco-Village at
Ithaca and author, /Eco-Village at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable
Culture/ *Pat Murphy: *Director, The Community Solution and Editor of
/New Solutions/ *Megan Quinn: *Outreach Director, The Community
Solution and Project Manager of its program “Agraria” *Faith Morgan:
*Board Member, The Community Solution For conference information
including full speaker descriptions and registration information,
visit www.communitysolution.org {http://www.communitysolution.org/}
-----
content! Click here to see the whole newsletter
{http://www.postcarbon.org/news/newsletters}./
Post Carbon Newsletter #7, September 2005
*In The Wake of Katrina: A Call To Prepare* *Community Supported
Manufacturing* *Post Carbon News Updates* *Outpost Folks: Rose Kudlac
of Post Carbon Toronto* *Post Carbon Board Members: Richard Heinberg*
*'Katrina, New Orleans, and Peak Oil' by Richard Heinberg* *September
Peak Oil Conference*
*1. In The Wake of Katrina: A Call To Prepare*
It is now over a week since the devastating Hurricane Katrina struck
the Gulf coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Anyone with an
Internet connexion or a television will have seen the kind of
terrible suffering and misery that are more commonly seen in the
so-called Third World. On Global Public Media we have posted a
particularly harrowing but iconic report from the BBC
{http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/news/490} which lays bare what
happens what the system fails.
Many will hope that lessons will be learned, so that the agony of
the American Deep South is not completely in vain. Comparisons with
the global South - another euphemism for the poor and plundered of
the planet - do not inspire much confidence.
Nor do comparisons with the great blackout which affected fifty
million people in the north east of the North American continent
almost exactly two years ago - the electricity grid and power systems
are still perilously fragile, and Katrina has left about ten per cent
of US natural gas supply shut in, on which electricity production
increasingly relies in North America (and many other places).
Unlike oil, there is no easy way for North America to get foreign
replacement supplies of natural gas. There is mounting unease in high
places that an American natural gas crisis will greatly worsen the
difficulties with oil and gasoline supplies.
There are many lessons that can be learnt from the horror of this
hurricane - a horror that vast numbers of poor people in other
nations already know so well: Be very wary of depending on
far-distant places and people to furnish your safety, food, health,
power, and fuel.
The people of New Orleans knew their system was inadequate to
protect them - some tried very hard to rectify the situation, but
they failed.
The most terrible lesson of Katrina appears to be this: we, the
ordinary people of this planet, are pretty much on our own for oil
peak. Most of our governments, except for a few at local level and
some brave lone politicians, have not even admitted to the concept of
peak oil, far less begun planning for it.
We who care are now all New Orleaners, we are all vulnerable: the
question is, are we going to do anything serious about it?
Most people who read this newsletter know that the global oil supply
and natural gas supply in all English-speaking nations (except
Australia) is in peril. If Katrina turns out to herald the decline of
world oil and triggers a natural gas crisis, who out there - in any
country, anywhere - is sure that their village, town or city is
ready?
If you are ready - tell us about it and help others to learn.
If you are not ready, please consider joining with us
{http://www.postcarbon.org/relocalize/network} in our very practical
attempts to make both emergency and long-term preparations for this
new world that will have to run on ever less oil, a system that must
largely de-industrialise, an economy that will have to contract both
in financial and spatial terms.
We must start to relocalize now and begin living locally once again.
Julian Darley
Director of Post Carbon Institute
Vancouver, BC office
*2. Community Supported Manufacturing (CSM) *
One of the ways we can relocalize is by making our supply lines
shorter so that we produce our vital needs as locally as possible. At
present this is almost impossible under normal economic conditions, so
we are developing a system, based on community-supported agriculture,
called - you guessed it - Community Supported Manufacturing.
CSM will help us bring our manufacturing and provisioning back under
our control and back into our locale - it will therefore create
desperately needed jobs as globalization collapses for want of cheap
energy (and maybe lack of cheap money too). The idea of relocalized
provisioning is central to Post Carbon Institute’s plans for dealing
with peak oil, global warming and ecological degradation of the
world.
The longest chapter in our forthcoming book, “Relocalize Now!
Getting Ready for Climate Change and the End of Cheap Oil” (to be
published by New Society Publishers this fall/autumn) describes
Community Supported Manufacturing in some detail, but the real
working out will be in communities who want to participate.
For more explanation of Community Supported Manufacturing and how
you can get involved, please see the longer article
{http://www.postcarbon.org/relocalize/manufacturing} on the Post
Carbon website.
*
3. Post Carbon News Updates*
/Julian Darley Will Introduce Permaculture Co-Originator David
Holmgren /
The Vancouver Permaculture Network presents"Permaculture Strategies
in a World of Declining Fossil Fuel" with David Holmgren, introduced
by Julian Darley.
The three hour event will be hosted by the University of British
Columbia Faculty of Land and Food Systems and UBC Farm.
David Holmgren has been talking about the coming energy crises for
decades - and developing the permaculture system as a direct response
to energy decline.
Even if you don't live in Vancouver and can't attend the event, on
Global Public Media you can see (and hear) Julian Darley's recent
interview with David Holmgren
{http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/interviews/460}.
For more details of the event, please visit Post Carbon's website
{http://www.postcarbon.org/node/585}.
/Post Carbon Local Energy Farm/
Peter Myers, co-founder of Flathead Outpost
{http://www.postcarbon.org/groups/flathead}, has agreed to purchase
land (possibly in conjunction with other Outpost members) where a
Post Carbon prototype Local Energy Farm will be developed.
Post Carbon Institute is continuing to raise funds to build, equip,
and staff the farm and build an extensive materials workshop for
repairing a wide range of items and for light manufacturing.
We are also working with Peter to establish a school to prepare
children for the post-petroleum world, as well as post carbon
workshop and courses for adults.
We shall feature an interview with Peter Myers and more on the
progress of the energy farm in the next newsletter.
/Postcarbon.org Website Re-Design /
Our web site has undergone deep structural re-design. Our last web
site groaned under the weight of large amounts of information. We
have more and more Outposts and needed to streamline the interface to
help them. Outposts and associates in the Relocalization Network also
need easy–to-use tools to communicate with their members.
The new look is meant to inspire you to action - to give you the
sense that something practical can be done.
There are those that accuse peak oil adherents of being somewhat
‘doom and gloom’ at times. Sometimes, however, reality isn't very
cheerful - surely we don't need any further reminders of that, but
Post Carbon Institute is vigorously practical, both online and
offline. To help members, affiliates, and the 'walking worried' in
general, we are developing a powerful suite of web-based tools to
integrate and cross-fertilise our preparations for a post-carbon
world.
The basis of our new web site is an 'open-source' system called
drupal (drupal.org), which is expandable so that each group or
Outpost can add their own content. Drupal also gives us blogging,
better event capability, integrated forums, the ability quickly to
create a web presence for groups, a single sign-on to all of our
sites, and much more. If you have not already done so, please
register now at http://www.postcarbon.org/user/register
{http://www.postcarbon.org/user/register}
{http://www.postcarbon.org/register}.
Please let us know {mailto:website@postcarbon.org} if you come
across any glitches or problems while using the postcarbon.org
website.
/The Oil Age Poster/
With the assistance of Post Carbon Institute’s David Room, Rob
Bracken and Dave Menninger of San Francisco Post Carbon have
developed a full color poster that traces the history of the Oil Age
from its beginnings in the hills of western Pennsylvania to its rise
as the engine of global industrial economies.
Two hundred years of the Oil Age are depicted in the poster’s main
chart, which features a year-by-year rendering of Colin Campbell’s
Depletion Model. Historical annotations as well as detailed data on
production, trade and reserves make this poster a versatile tool for
presenting the realities and implications of global oil production
and its impending peak.
The 23"x36" (58x91cm) poster is printed on heavyweight recycled
paper and shipped unfolded in a tube. Along with several other
members of SF Post Carbon, the team intends to get the poster in
middle and high schools to raise awareness of our oil predicament
with youth.
The poster is available from Post Carbon Books
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=META&Product_Code=oilageposter}
for $10 plus shipping and handling:
Click here to donate a poster
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=META&Product_Code=oilageposterdonation}
to be placed in a classroom
*
4. Outpost Folks*
This is the first in a series of Outpost profiles we will be running
in the newsletter. All Outposts and Relocalization Groups are
organized according to local skills, knowledge, directions and
desires. Each has its own form and function. It is an awareness of
oil peak and the aim to do something serious, practical, and
structural about it that distinguishes our groups. Knowing about
other Outposts, Outpost projects, and those in the wider
Relocalization Network not only connects us all together, but it is a
chance to exchange information and help one other. This profile is
about the Toronto, Canada Outpost called “Post Carbon Toronto”.
Post Carbon Toronto
Post Carbon Toronto {http://toronto.postcarbon.org} began when Rose
Kudlac met with another person in her city who knew about peak oil,
but not about any of the online material. Sensing a need to connect
local people, through Post Carbon Institute and through meetup.com,
she found other people who wanted to work on raising awareness and
fostering informed responses to energy descent. These people are now
part of the Post Carbon Toronto organizing team.
To date Rose has located:
local experts, including academics, through articles about peak oil
in the mainstream press or posts to on-line forums, and who have
worked and lectured in this area extensively; colleagues through Post
Carbon Institute and meetups; people and networks through
participation in events and volunteering in projects with 'natural
allies', which have included alternative energy projects,
permaculture workshops, and more; people, projects and issues at
public events, book promotions, meetings, forums on energy,
infrastructure, and space. Through a local environmental store, Rose
has also discovered:
the Coalition for a Green Economy, a group of eco-preneurs that have
been meeting for over ten years and who have spawned ground-breaking
local and national green projects. This group fought for the
legalization of hemp growing in Canada. Now they are working on
launching a local chapter of BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local
Living Economies; a Green Economy course featuring presentations by
local experts and leaders on different issues; and a post graduation
program at a university called "Business and the Environment", which
connects a business school and a faculty of environmental studies.
Viewing the End of Suburbia documentary is mandatory for the program.
Some of the people located above, have become advisors to Post Carbon
Toronto.
Through Post Carbon Institute, and other outreach, local individuals
and groups have contacted the outpost who are focused on:
bringing peak oil into the classroom facilitating a pedestrian city
action to mitigate climate change helping with the follow-up
documentary Escape from Suburbia (produced in Toronto) raising energy
awareness in their neighbourhoods or communities Post Carbon Toronto
{http://toronto.postcarbon.org} is currently working on a conference
“Transportation Infrastructure and Energy”, for transportation
planners and officials, with a government funding source located by
an advisor.
An online e-mail list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/torontopeakoil/
{http://groups.yahoo.com/group/torontopeakoil/}, currently with
nearly 70 members, helps the group disseminate notices about local
events and research related to energy descent, and keep part of the
network engaged.
Rose sees Outposts as catalysts for action in their local
communities. She says they take on the responsibility for raising
awareness and growing the network. In this role, Outposts engage with
local government, businesses, educational institutions and NGOs that
may or may not know about the energy predicament but are willing to
work in an integrated fashion.
Rose Kudlac adds that Outposts can grow organically from the
swelling ranks of those aware of our dependence on fossil fuels and
the damage to our ecosystems, and who want to lessen dependence on
the government-corporate-industrial grid. Such groups typically
coalesce from oil-awareness meetings and discussions after End of
Suburbia screenings.
Other groups may be intentionally formed by individuals within a
community through house parties, reading groups and local gatherings.
In a large city, such an Outpost is more likely to be involved working
with and informing other groups than with itself taking on programs
directly.
Where Ouposts evolve from existing groups such as book clubs,
renewable energy cooperatives and eco-villages, such groups can
'become' an Outpost or simply add Post Carbon experiments to their
range of programs.
If you are interested in starting an outpost, contact
outposts@postcarbon.org {mailto:outposts@postcarbon.org} to set up a
phone conversation.
*
5. Introducing Post Carbon Institute Board Members
{http://www.metafoundation.org/board.php}: Richard Heinberg,
journalist, educator, lecturer and musician*
In so many ways, Richard Heinberg is emblematic of what Post Carbon
Institute stands for.
Not only does he think, write and lecture about Peak Oil and the
ecological/social impact of corporate-industrial society, he is
working tirelessly on broad community-level solutions to the problems
caused by these world trends.
Richard is a core faculty member of Santa Rosa’s New College of
California {http://www.newcollege.edu/northbay/index.cfm} and directs
a year-long, intensive course on Culture, Ecology, and Sustainable
Community.
He has appeared on national radio and television stations in many
countries, and his essays have been published in dozens of magazines
and journals. Richard travels internationally to speak on the subject
of Peak Oil and has given over 100 presentations on the subject before
university and general audiences.
Richard is the author of six books
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=META&Category_Code=Books}:
The Party's Over: Energy Resources and the Fate of Industrial
Societies
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=TPO&Category_Code=Books}
Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World
{http://www.powerdown.ws}. Memories and Visions of Paradise:
Exploring the Universal Myth of a Lost Golden Age Celebrate the
Solstice: Honoring the Earth's Seasonal Rhythms through Festival and
Ceremony A New Covenant with Nature: Notes on the End of Civilization
and the Renewal of Culture Cloning the Buddha: A Spiritual and Moral
Critique of Biotechnology Global Public Media has made a DVD of
Richard giving an overview of Powerdown
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=RHVideo&Category_Code=Video}
(along with a bonus interview by Post Carbon Institute's David Room).
Richard is also author-editor-publisher of the monthly Museletter
{http://www.museletter.com}, a continuing critique of
corporate-capitalist industrial civilization and a re-visioning of
humanity's prospects for the next millennium. Subjects range from
global economics to religion to the origin of humanity's antipathy
toward nature.
Subscription to the Museletter is available through the Post Carbon
bookstore
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Newsltr}
and back-issues are online at www.museletter.com
{http://www.museletter.com/}
All Richard's work is informed by a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary
study of history and culture.
Richard and his wife, Janet Barocco, live in a house they have
renovated for energy efficiency and use their back yard for growing
food. Richard is also an accomplished violinist.
*6. 'Katrina, New Orleans, and Peak Oil' - A Feature Article by
Richard Heinberg*
The scenes were heart-wrenching and mind-boggling: an entire modern
American metropolis had effectively ceased to exist as an organized
society...when it came to reporting on the damage to oil production
and refining facilities, most media outlets took at face value the
glib and non-specific assurances of the petroleum industry... And all
of this is occurring at a time when the global supply of oil is barely
able to meet demand...
Read the whole article on Global Public Media here
{http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/articles/479}, see and hear more
interviews with Richard Heinberg on GPM
{http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/people/richard_heinberg}, and read
more articles at Richard's Museletter.com
{http://www.museletter.com/} website.
*
7. September Peak Oil Conference*
The “*Second U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions*”
will be held September 23-25, 2005 in Yellow Springs, Ohio (see
www.communitysolution.org {http://www.communitysolution.org/}).
The end of cheap abundant oil represents an unprecedented challenge
for humanity. It heralds the end of many things to which we have
become accustomed; the ever-growing economy, transportation as we
know it, cheap food and goods from around the globe.
Many react to these coming changes with fear and dread. But Community
Solutions envisions a more cooperative, just and equitable world of
small local communities.
This conference will explore:
The implications of Peak Oil An in-depth look at changes in
agriculture The characteristics of a new economy Peak Oil’s effect on
our financial system Alternatives to oil and our high energy way of
life The communities of the future Ways to transition and answers to
"What should I do now?" Keynote Speakers:
*Richard Heinberg: *Author, /The Party’s Over /and /Powerdown:
Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World/ *Michael Shuman:
*Author, /Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global
Age/ Other Presenters:
*Diana Leafe Christian: *Author, Creating a Life Together
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=clt&Category_Code=Books}
and Editor of /Communities /magazine *Jan Lundberg: *Founder, Culture
Change and /Auto Free Times /magazine *Robert Waldrop: *President,
Oklahoma Food Cooperative and moderator of online discussion group
“Running on Empty” *Steve Andrews: *Co-founder of the Association for
the Study of Peak Oil – U.S., energy consultant and free-lance writer
on Peak Oil *Liz Walker: *Director and co-founder, Eco-Village at
Ithaca and author, /Eco-Village at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable
Culture/ *Pat Murphy: *Director, The Community Solution and Editor of
/New Solutions/ *Megan Quinn: *Outreach Director, The Community
Solution and Project Manager of its program “Agraria” *Faith Morgan:
*Board Member, The Community Solution For conference information
including full speaker descriptions and registration information,
visit www.communitysolution.org {http://www.communitysolution.org/}
-----
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