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News Archive
Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP) PrimerHere is a good introduction to "Energy Descent Action Plans" from the Energy Bulletin, including a brief primer on peak oil and permaculture. This would be a good article to send to neighborhood council members, council district staff and other public official types to try and start a conversation, if you are so inclined. - Jennifer (Pasadena Post Carbon Outpost). The concept of Energy Descent Action Plans isn't a widely known or discussed one. Even the issue which forms the EDAP's main inspiration - Peak Oil - may not be widely appreciated. So I've written a background briefing below. It's a work in progress, and being adapted from a document written for the Melbourne Food Network, so there may be some regional assumptions. But I hope that it might be a useful source document for others. – Adam (@energybulletin.net) |
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Technofix bubbles of hydrogen and biofuels at Pentagon’s Energy ConversationWritten by Jan Lundberg for CultureChange.org Energy in the form of hydrogen, as well as biofuels, is one of the few mainstays of hope for clinging to global economic growth. When it comes to today’s growing worries over both the world peak in oil extraction and global warming, government and industry favor certain renewable energy technologies to supplement and then supplant decades more of fossil fueling. What of lifestyle change and truly sustainable, local economics? That's not what's being planned for you by the corporate state or even by some entities we would trust. Therefore, we are all allowing a tragic waste of time and more global warming that is avoidable. The technological solution (or "the technofix") is what we examine in this report, for its appeal serves to excuse the absence of immediate, realistic national and global action on preparing for what a growing number of people see as petrocollapse. |
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The Tilth Producers Internet Audio Archive
The Tilth Producers Internet Audio Archive has the beginning of an excellent library of conference keynote speeches and workshops related to sustainable agriculture and permaculture. Listen online for free: www.tilthproducers.org
Also, if you enjoy getting this kind of information by listening online (as I do), check out www.globalpublicmedia.org - Public service broadcasting for a post-carbon world, www.loe.org - Living on Earth (weekly enviro show from NPR), www.beyondorganic.com - Beyond Organic Radio (another weekly enviro show with a focus on food issues, based in Northern CA), and www.radio4all.net - a lot of the local audio activists in Sound Posse upload their stuff here. |
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The Power of Community screened at Carlotta's Passion
For more information on this documentary, visit:
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July 15th Direct Action for Climate Justice
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Save the South Central Farm!THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND HAS SECURED AN OPPORTUNITY TO SAVE THE SOUTH CENTRAL FARM! The 14-acre South Central Farm, located at 41st and Alameda Streets in South Los Angeles, is thought to be the largest community garden in the United States. After a contentious three-year land-use battle that made news around the world, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) has secured an opportunity to save the Farm. Within the confines of a tentative purchase agreement, TPL hopes to help unify stakeholders and different sectors of Los Angeles to raise the money necessary to purchase the land. The community goal is to raise $1 million in less than 30 days, for this we need your help. Los Angeles must step up to the plate and help save this land. We have the opportunity to eliminate park poverty in this highly urbanized and semi-industrial neighborhood. We can make permanent and public the community and cultural benefits of the green oasis created by 360 families as they continue to grow healthy fruits, vegetables and medicinal plants to supplement their food budgets. Without the help of donors—both major and modest—the fate of the South Central Farm remains in doubt. Help us save this important community asset and transform it into a true multi-cultural regional resource built on the unique relationship between people and the land. If you would like more information about the project, fundraising or Parks for People-LA, please call Bob Reid 213.380.4233 x 14 or email at bob.reid@tpl.org or Alina Bokde 213.380.4233 x 27 Donation form at http://www.southcentralfarmers.com |
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San Francisco Passes Peak Oil ResolutionCampaign by Local Activists Persuaded Board of Supervisors of Looming Energy Crunch; Landmark Initiative Urges Development of ‘Action and Response Plan’ San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) April 15, 2006 -- San Francisco on Tuesday became the first major U.S. city to pass a resolution acknowledging the threats posed by peak oil, urging the city to develop a comprehensive plan to respond to the emerging global energy crunch. |
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Giving micropower to the people
Countering climate change should begin at home, says Alan Knight in The Green Room this week. A hands-on approach to energy generation, he argues, gives people a sense of empowerment and the impetus to reduce their environmental footprints. |
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The oil is going, the oil is going!
"A posh conference room on the 33rd floor of a skyscraper in downtown San Francisco is an elegant if ironic perch from which to ponder the uncertain future of life as we know it. Yet the 20 people assembled around the golden conference table for the February monthly meeting of the San Francisco Post Carbon group believe that sooner rather than later that stream of cars and trucks will falter, if not actually stop, altogether. And as the geopolitical and economic dominoes start to fall in the wake of climbing oil prices, some wonder with macabre humor how long it will be before they'll have to climb 33 flights of stairs if they want to make it to this room." |
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Why the Farmers Must Winby Leslie Radford
Entitled “Los Angeles gothic,” the lead editorial in Saturday's Los Angeles Times evokes the horrific, not the rural. The Times took up for fat-cat developers, industrial sprawl, and backroom deal-making with a ferocity unmatched even by the shirking Mayor’s office or the stolidly silent City Council. Only the California State Appellate and Supreme Courts, in granting the City Council license to violate the City Charter’s to sell off publicly-owned property, has bent over so adamantly to advance the interests of robber barons. Read
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Cities for People not CarsGreen Cities and the End of the Age of Oilby Richard RegisterThe oil-burning, fume-spewing private automobile is only part of a larger environmentally damaging system - the energy-intensive sprawling infrastructure of our cities. When small buildings are scattered over large areas, more energy is required for heating and cooling as well as for transportation. Pedestrian-friendly Green Cities - built for people, bicycles, mass transit and renewable energy - would not only cut air pollution, they also would promote the rebuilding of essential soil and water resources while increasing plant and animal biodiversity. |
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Earthworks Farm Community Supported Agriculture
Earthworks new website: http://www.ewent.org/ |
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Petrocollapse and Food Security at the South Central Farm Jan Lundberg, oil industry analyst, founder of Auto-Free Times and www.culturechange.org came to Los Angeles last weekend to speak on the issues surrounding peak oil. I attended the Sunday afternoon talk on “Petrocollapse and Food Security”, an appropriate title for the location, the South Central Farm. The farm may be receiving an eviction notice any day now, and in the light of Jan’s talk, this makes no sense at all. The average distance food travels between the farm and the dinner table in this country is 1500 miles. Our city’s food supply lines are dangerously dependent on petroleum-powered transportation and petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides. Rather than destroy existing vibrant, community-operated agricultural production we should be supporting and expanding it to every neighborhood in town. |
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Alternatives to PlasticBy PAUL GOETTLICH Over the past few of years, many people asked for help in getting plastic out of their lives. It is hoped that this article guides you to a cleaner lifestyle. While it is presently impossible to actually remove all plastic from one's life, it is definitely worth reducing it to a minimum.
Read More: Related: Rejecting the Toxic Plague, The War on Plastic, Our Synthetic Sea - A 22 minute documentary about exponential buildup of “non-biodegradable” plastic debris in the world’s ocean
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Trouble in the Garden The 350 families who banded together as the South
Central Farmers transformed an industrial dump into a jungle paradise.
But now they’re being evicted The space is the South Central Community Farm, a 14-acre community garden just south of downtown smack on Alameda Street, right up alongside the industrial warehouses of the City of Vernon. The contrast with community gardens elsewhere in the city is shocking. These aren’t tiny weekend projects with a few tomatoes and California poppies. The 330 spaces here are large, 20 X 30 feet, many of them doubled- and tripled-up into larger plots, crammed with a tropical density of native Mesoamerican plants – full-grown guava trees, avocados, tamarinds, and palms draped in vines bearing huge pumpkins and chayotes, leaf vegetables, corn, seeds like chipilin grown for spice, and rank upon rank of cactus cut for nopales. The families who work these plots are all chosen to receive one because they are impoverished by USDA standards, and use them to augment their household food supply. These are survival gardens. Read more at http://www.lacitybeat.com Update: Court Rules Against South Central Farm,
Immediate Support Needed!
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Sustainable Living Workshops in Santa Monica |
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Lawn to be replaced with Edible Landscape in Los Angeles
http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates/main.html |
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Master Gardener Program will be Training New VolunteersOn 13 Saturdays from March 4th to May 27th, 2006, the Common Ground Garden Program will train Los Angeles County volunteers to help low-income and limited-resource residents to grow and eat more nutritious vegetables. Applicants should know the basics of gardening and be active community volunteers (not necessarily in gardening). There is a $100 material fee (partial scholarships are available for low-income participants) and the training is from 9 AM to 4 PM each Saturday. To get onto the mailing list, contact Administrative Assistant Gloria Mitchell at phone 323-260-3348 or email gjmitche@ucdavis.edu Deadline to request application packet is January 16, 2006. |
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Fruit Trees in Los Angeles Combat Hunger
From TreePeople.org:
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Sun Valley Watershed Stakeholders Group Addresses Flooding, Water Conservation, Recreation, Wildlife Habitat and Polution
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It is within our power – even the Unknown Consumer’s!
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DRY DIPSTICK LAUNCHES "BEYOND PEAK" |
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Free NYC Cyclists Campaign
Take action: www.worldcarfree.net/nyc/index.php |
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The Second U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community SolutionsMore than 350 people from 39 states and five countries gathered with about 100 area residents in Yellow Springs, Ohio in late September to learn how to prepare at the local level for the coming steep decline in global oil production. Richard Heinberg, author of the seminal work, The Party's Over, gave a keynote address on the unprecedented challenge of peak oil at the global and local level. Steve Andrews, the ASPO — USA co-founder, followed with an assessment of alternative fuels..."Long term, we must focus on renewables," he said. Jan Lundberg, founder of the Auto Free Times magazine, Alliance for a Paving Moratorium, and CultureChange.org, talked of this upcoming petrocollapse as a chaotic disruption of society that may occur from even a small decline in oil supplies. Read more:www.communitysolution.org/p2conf1.html |
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Petrocollapse for change of cultureJan Lundberg speaks at Manhattan peak oil conference, Oct. 5 ...One reason for my stance is that petrocollapse, like peak oil, is inevitable and is right up ahead. There is little the government can do about it except to try to protect the most powerful elites. This will not work in the long run, and more equitable means of people helping one another will jump in. I’m accused of being too optimistic about a new culture of egalitarianism and mutual aid, when I predict cooperation and solidarity will be the order of the new day. I frankly do not see any alternative if we are to survive as a species, and if peace is the only state we can allow at this juncture. Read more: www.lapostcarbon.org/petrocollapse.htm |
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A Peek Beyond the Peak: Heinberg in Venice, Californiaby Margaret Morris On July 16, the United Methodist Church of Venice hosted a gathering under the sponsorship of the Post Carbon Institute dealing literally with the end of civilization as we know it. Richard Heinberg, one of the world’s most respected experts on peak oil, spoke to a group of 50 to 60 people about the impending depletion of the world’s petroleum reserves and how best to meet the challenges this presents. He is a professor of ecology and author of Powerdown — Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World and The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies. |
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Love-Ins No More, Now We Have Critical Mass!Published September 19, 2005 by CICLE.org
...A growing awareness of the downside of the bell curve of world crude oil supply has created a thirst for information among the forward-thinkers of L.A. Exacerbating the decline in oil production is the volatile motor fuel supply/demand balance; we are on the razor's edge. Current events in the Gulf Coast area are the text-book example of this; one glitch in the petrol-system and prices rise and waves of anxiety are generated. A video concerning peak oil would be shown at F y C. Since I wanted to see these particular videos I decided to pedal over there at the appointed hour. Some of us have already begun changing our lifestyle for less petroleum-dependence. Bicycles are the new symbols of opting out of corporate commodification of transportation, cutting the oil-umbilical cord, while simplifying and naturalizing our lives. Love-ins of the 60's have given way to Critical Masses in modern times...." Read more at www.cicle.org/news/harvs_fyc.html |
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Md. Representative Roscoe Bartlett hosts public Peak Oil conferenceby Paula Hay Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, representing Maryland’s 6th district in the U.S. House of Representatives, hosted an energy conference Sept. 26 focused entirely on Peak Oil and its potential solutions. Approximately 400 people filled the Kussmaul Theater at Frederick Community College in Frederick, Md., to hear a broad range of expert perspective on the issue. Read more at adaptationzine.com/content/bartlett-conf |
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In Los Angeles:
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Update on the South Central FarmI'm writing this message on behalf of the South Central Farmers today to thank those of you who have showed support and interest in our struggle. Currently things have been quiet at the farm as we wait for our appeal to be prcessed in the Supreme Court, but we still have the threat and fear of physical eviction. At the moment we are looking to build a "phone tree" for that in the event of an action against us, we can call in friends to support us. However, you should know that there is possibly a risk of being arrested. I know for some of you it is not a risk you'd like to take but you can still support us by showing up at the farm as witnesses. The importance is having people there to have an imposing presence on the authorites and developer. You can also help by contacting the media and swarming them with urgent messages of our situation. If you are interested in supporting us or would like visit the farm, contact me so we can make arrangements or visit the farm Sunday for our open to the public farmers market (41st ST. and Alameda, Los Angeles). If you have any questions or would like to give us an endorsement through your organization, please contact me. Also, every Wednsday night we have our support coalition meeting at 7:00 pm at the farm to discuss our struggle to save the farm, community, culture and the supplemental food supply for hundreds of families. Thank you, Fernando |
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What is an Ecological Footprint?
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Upcoming USA Peak Oil Events Second U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions Congressman Roscoe G. Bartlett’s Maryland 6th District 2005 Energy
Conference Sustainable Living Fair with keynote by Pat Murphy of “The Community
Solution” Peak Hour Conference on Community Development and Alternative Energy
Global Oil Depletion and Implications for the Pacific Northwest
Petrocollapse Conference ASPO – USA Denver World Oil Conference Beyond Oil: Intelligent
Response to Peak Oil Impacts |
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THE ESSENCE OF PERMACULTUREBy David Holmgren [Permaculture] is 'Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs. People, their buildings and the ways in which they organise themselves are central to permaculture. Thus the permaculture vision of permanent or sustainable agriculture has evolved to one of permanent or sustainable culture. The design system |
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Food Safety, Costs and Oil Dependency Lead Pasadena Residents to Grow FoodSuburbanites getting back to farming roots Pasadena residents Jules Dervaes, Tony Kleintz, and Dermott O'Connor and others are interviewed about growing their own food. Read more at lapostcarbon.org/PasadenaUrbanFarming.html |
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Inevitable: New Orleans as victim of oil There is more than a double whammy at play in the U.S. Gulf as
to the energy supply picture. Besides the devastation of the general
infrastructure, Katrina has inflicted two shortage situations as
never before experienced simultaneously: oil (and refined products),
and natural gas. |
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Council supports Sustainable Willits:
Unanimous vote for economic localization [The relocalization effort in Willits seems to be making great
headway, this is a group we should watch - Eric Einem] A statement calling for sustainable local production of necessary
goods and services including food was unanimously endorsed by the
city council Wednesday night. |
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The 'Green Car' Myth Consider the energy required to move a 130-pound human body by
foot as compared to moving that same body the same distance seated
behind the wheel of a 4,000-pound SUV. The average human can hit
about 5 miles-per-hour in a brisk walk while the typical car averages
40 mph (city and freeway). While it is true that you can move eight
times faster inside a two-ton vehicle, accomplishing this feat requires
burning around 1,900 times as much energy (and that’s not factoring
in friction, which increases with speed). This should tell you something
about the fundamental insanity of depending on gas-fueled cars in
an oil-starved future. |
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Jamey Hecht reports on ASPO in Lisbon Portugal After three days of mathematically powerful modeling, surveys of
the discrepancies between industry and government statistics, histories
of the political distortions affecting reserve reporting, and regional
studies of basins and traps, nobody could blithely walk out the
conference doors with much hope for world economic growth. |
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Announcing ASPO-USA A Non-profit, Non-partisan Research and Public Education Initiative
to Address America's Peak Oil Energy Challenge |
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LA Post Carbon at the 2004 Doo
Dah Parade
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Return to homepage |
Sumbitted
by Jennifer Murphy
The
film, "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak
Oil" was shown at Carlotta's Passion, an art gallery
in Eagle Rock, California on May 26th. Instead of how
Cuba survived peak oil, this film is more about how
Cuba survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and their
subsequent cessation of support. It serves as a valuable
lesson for us regarding life in the post carbon era. 
On
July 15th, the "Group of 8" (G8) richest industrialized
countries will gather in St. Petersburg, Russia to plot
their continued commodification and domination of the
planet, this time under the euphemistic banner of "Energy
Security." A leaked G8 "Communique on Energy Security"
calls for trillions of dollars in new investments in
oil, gas and coal production worldwide, plus wide-scale
global expansion of nuclear energy. With runaway climate
change looming just over the horizon, such neoliberal
business-as-usual poses a direct threat to the continuation
of life on Earth as we know it. Resistance is self defense.
The G8 agenda promotes petroleum-dependent "Energy Security"
that pollutes our land and atmosphere, exploits poor
and indigenous communities, and scorches the Earth’s
climate. Their recipe for catastrophe must be met with
our global resistance! 
Alan
Knight 
Katharine
Mieszkowski interviews leaders of bay area Post Carbon
Groups and Matt Savinar in this Salon.com article.
In
its Saturday editorial, the Los Angeles Times reduced
virtually all the civic concerns of the historically
neglected South Central to “niceties” and condemned
a swath of the district to being a “concrete-and-asphalt”
wasteland,“ "a seemingly endless sweep” of “industrial
warehouses, packing plants, and junkyards.” It proclaimed
that developer Ralph Horowitz must triumph, and the
South Central Farm must be razed. The Times was wrong. 
Community
Supported Agriculture is a direct partnership between
the consumer and the farmer. The CSA member buys a share
of the farm at the beginning of the growing season.
In exchange, the farmer grows exceptionally high quality
vegetables, herbs, and fruits. Every week, the produce
is picked and immediately delivered to local drop off
sites, where members pick up their shares. This arrangement
is ecologically sound because it reduces the long-distance
trucking involved in much of today's produce delivery.
In addition, all the produce is organically grown. This
method of growing food is healthier and more environmentally
sustainable for the consumer, agricultural worker, and
the land itself. The amount of vegetables, flowers and
herbs available each week depends on the season and
the growing conditions, but a CSA "share" often amply
feeds a family of four. Earthworks Enterprises will
be working diligently to generate enough production
as the year progresses to begin a CSA program for the
local community.
by
Jennifer Murphy 
Excerpt
from 
Simplicity
and health versus consumerism
If
you are interested in finding out what you can do to shrink your
footprint on your environment then join residents in Santa Monica
who are working together to actively make a difference. Join one
of the many 6-week workshops and learn about all the things you
can do in the following areas: WATER, ENERGY, WASTE, CHEMICALS,
TRANSPORTATION, AND FOOD & SHOPPING. We are focused on helping you
to create the positive change you want to make. Expect to save $200
- $300 on utility bills from adopting the suggestions we recommend.
Workshop is subsidized by the City of Santa Monica and material
costs are only $25 for Santa Monica residents and $35 for all others.
Call or email to be apart of the next workshops starting in January.
Workshops are ongoing through the year. 
GardenLab
announces Edible Landscapes #2. They are currently seeking the skilled,
eager and adventurous occupants of one conventional American house
on a typical street of endless sprawling lawns. These L.A. citizens
should be brave enough to break this toxic uniformity, by having
their entire front lawn removed and replaced by an edible landscape.
The landscapes will be established in Spring 2006 and will be the
basis of an exhibition the following Autumn. 
For
those of us that have been following the issue of global oil peak
and our dependency on fossil fuels, we know that food security will
become a major issue as fossil fuels go into decline. If you think
otherwise, check out the article 
The
mission of the Sun Valley Watershed Stakeholders Group is to solve
the local flooding problem while retaining all stormwater runoff
from the watershed, increasing water conservation, recreational
opportunities, and wildlife habitat, and reducing stormwater pollution.
There's something exciting going on in Sun Valley! A serious effort
to solve the area's chronic flooding problem is underway, but that's
not the half of it. Planners envision a solution that will bring
many other benefits to the community as well. The implementation
here of what's known as a "watershed approach" to urban environmental
problems could focus regional and national attention on Sun Valley.
On this website, we'll provide both an introduction to the Sun Valley
Watershed Project and a clearinghouse for project information. We
hope you'll find the site informative and useful - maybe even inspiring! 
DryDipstick,
a web guide to Peak Oil, launches BeyondPeak.com, a guide to self-sufficiency
and preparing for, and dealing with, Peak Oil and economic collapse.
The new website focuses on preparation for, and dealing with, the
effects of Peak Oil, economic collapse, and a host of other looming
disruptions, any one of which could cause serious problems in our
society. Mick Winter, founder of both Dry Dipstick and Beyond Peak,
says: "Many visitors to Dry Dipstick have told us, 'Okay, we get
Peak Oil. Now what can we do about it?'" 
A
year ago on Aug. 27, the New York City police mounted a major offensive,
but not against drug dealers, terrorists or criminals. They went
after people on bicycles, cracking down on a Critical Mass group
bicycle ride. Since then, more than 500 cyclists have been arrested
and many more have had their bicycles stolen by police. Video evidence
shows beautiful, peaceful bike rides in New York with artistic bikes,
stunt bikes and even small children on training bikes. Then, the
camera shows unresisting cyclists being stopped by the police, beaten
to the ground, tear gassed and hauled away in handcuffs. Truckloads
of bikes have been confiscated, many cut from their locks while
their owners stand by helplessly. This is a blatant abuse of human
rights, not to mention the equal rights to use public streets. World
Carfree Network has initiated the "Free NYC Cyclists" campaign.
You can help by sending letters to the New York mayor and police
commissioner demanding an end to the arrests, by organizing screenings
of the documentary film Still We Ride and by passing out letters
at your local bike rides and other events. 
This
is one of the topics that will be covered in the Permaculture Design
Certificate Course. Come see what people are calling "tremendously
hopeful", "life-changing" and "an enormous breath of fresh air"...
Join us as we will examine some of the most inspiring examples of
human ingenuity and sustainable solutions ever documented. It will
be held one weekend a month for six months, second weekends of Oct
2005 through March 2006. There are still spaces available. Reserve
your space now! 
