Peak oil meeting looks at local level

By Lauren Heaton

As major contributors to world oil depletion and climate change, Americans eat more, drive more and demand more living space than any other society. By learning how to eat locally, ride-share more efficiently and live in less energy-consuming spaces, individuals as well as communities can become part of the answer to these problems. “Planning for Hard Times,” the fourth U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions to be held at Antioch College this Friday to Sunday, Oct. 26 to 28, will explore how the small community can model massive lifestyle change in the areas of food, housing and transportation.

The critical nature of the small community as a solution to the fuel and climate change crises becomes clearer each year, at least to those at The Community Services, Inc., who sponsor the annual Peak Oil conference. When the conferences began in 2004, the focus was on what peak oil was, when it would occur and how it might affect the country and the world.

But events in recent years, according to Community Solution outreach director Megan Quinn Bachman and representative Faith Morgan, have revealed a more dire picture of the decline in world oil reserves, evidenced by the rise in oil prices, which hit an all-time high of 89 dollars per barrel this month. The pollution caused by the world’s rising use of fuel has led to a climate change crisis that has already manifested in the monstrous hurricanes in 2005 and the melting of the polar ice caps, they believe.

According to figures from the Community Solution, while the production of just one ton of CO2 emissions per person each year in the U.S. would be sustainable, currently the U.S. produces 20 tons of CO2 per person.

“‘Planning for Hard Times’ is stating boldly that we are facing some challenging times ahead, and we need to develop practical skills to change the way we approach food, housing and transportation,” Quinn said. “We’re going to need drastic cuts, on the order of 90 to 95 percent reduction in energy use, in order to avoid the kind of crisis that is consuming.”

By preparing now, said Morgan, creator of the film The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, communities can avoid what will be a devastating collapse of the worldwide manufacturing and transportation systems we currently rely on for nearly all of our needs. We will also need to reduce our carbon emissions by 90 percent by 2050 to avoid the climate change that also threatens us.

The change will involve moving the institutions that ground the current American lifestyle. Regarding the way we eat, according to the Community Solution Web site, the average American is accustomed to being able to choose from 300,000 food and beverage items based in large part on manufactured variations of wheat, corn sweeteners, hydrogenated soybean oil and a spectrum of artificial flavors. The current food industry, for every one calorie consumed, requires 10 calories of energy to process and transport the food from the manufacturing site to its destination.

The Community Solution’s new food model, which would alleviate dependence on fuel, includes rebuilding local agriculture into the community, through local crop fields, orchards and vegetable gardens, as well as reinstituting canning and saving for the winter months.

As for housing, homes are the biggest single source of energy consumption, and given the 100 million homes that already exist, retrofitting by installing energy-efficient windows, reinforcing insulation, damming air leaks and installing energy-efficient appliances is the more effective way of reducing energy consumption in the home. Transportation too must embrace a new system known at the “smart Jitney,” or ride-share system coordinated through cell phones, the Internet and GPS and utilizing private vehicles, according to the Web site.

Speaking at the conference this year is internationally known author David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World and more recently The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, a look at how corporate consolidation models the rise of empires, which create “fortune for the few and misery for the many,” according to Korten’s personal Web site.

Korten will give the keynote talk on Friday evening, from 7:30 to 9 p.m., on The Great Turning, which outlines the morally imperative choice people have to transition from a dominator society to one that functions through partnership and cooperation. According to Quinn, that way of living would necessitate more sustainable practices and a return to the local community.

Thomas Princen is associate professor of natural resources and environmental policy at the University of Michigan and the author of The Logic of Sufficiency, his second publication about seeking enough when more is possible. The book addresses how to live well when resources are running low without sacrifice or suffering by relying on group principles. Princen’s first book, Confronting Consumption, won the 2003 International Studies Association Award for best work in international environmental politics. He will give Saturday night’s address from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

Returning to the conference this year to speak is world-renowned peak oil educator Richard Heinberg, a research fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and faculty member of New College of California where he teaches a program on “Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Community.” Other speakers include Linda Wigington, Affordable Comfort Inc.’s manager of program design and development, Judy Wicks, founder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, author Sharon Astyk, and area residents Bob Steinbach and Larry Halpern.

The cost to attend the conference (after the early registration discount) is $200 for Community Solution members, $225 for nonmembers and $145 for students, all of which includes Saturday’s lunch and dinner and Sunday’s lunch. Yellow Springs residents are also invited to attend single sessions for $10 per session.

Visit www.communitysolution.org for more information

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com