I would love to go to this year's gathering of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (and Gas), but I can't afford to stay away from
the Ecovillage Training Center for very long, and I've already started my Fall trip for 2011. I am in Maryland now, and next week, if I don't get my skull cracked in a "
kettle" on Wall Street, I will be attending the
Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics Conference in NYC. I would, very much, like to have someone at ASPO with an audio recorder (or video - your Android or iPhone should more than do the trick) to represent the C-Realm community.
Mark Robinowitz, a guest on
this year's 9/11 edition of the C-Realm Podcast, sent out the following email this morning:
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Next month the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas, USA will have its annual conference in Washington, D.C., a few blocks from the US Capitol.
I've been to the last three meetings and they are the most diverse gatherings I've experienced in terms of participant backgrounds. Transition Town organizers. Wall Street investors. Permaculture practitioners. Military officers. Solar power experts. Corporate officials. Government bureaucrats. Elected officials. Petroleum engineers. Intelligence agency operatives.
Where else could you see a stage (at the 2010 conference) that featured both the former Secretary of Energy (and CIA Director) James Schlesinger and John Michael Greer, the "archdruid" of Peak Oil?
Greer has a recent essay "
The Peak Oil Initiation"
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2011/10/peak-oil-initiation.html about the psychology of Peak Energy.
Unfortunately, few environmental groups prioritize ecological responses to Peak Energy and most social justice efforts have yet to closely look at the interconnections between energy and economy. Many environmentalists campaign against the symptoms of Peak Oil -- such as the tar sands mining operation in Canada and offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico -- but rarely examine options for how to use the remaining oil on the energy downslope. It is likely that an integration of Peak Energy and Climate Change would be needed for the needed energy shifts, since solely focusing on Peak or Climate concerns is unlikely to be effective. Fossil fuels are at the root of our industrial civilization and the tremendous growth in human population over the past century and a half. How to gently climb down from the energy peak is probably the biggest challenge in our species history.
If you cannot attend this important event, please take a moment to urge others to attend. If you believe in writing your Senators and Representatives, you could recommend that they send their legislative assistants to the ASPO briefings. If you donate to causes with offices in DC, please urge them to attend. Please also consider asking media institutions to cover this story, both the ASPO conference itself and the role of Peak Energy in the unfolding economic crisis as we pass the limits to growth on a round, finite planet.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Mark Robinowitz
speaking for myself
www.peakchoice.org"Peak Choice: Cooperation or Collapse"
Earth - Energy - Money
forthcoming in 2012
www.oilempire.us/peak-money.html"Peak Money: a permanent change"
www.oilempire.us/triple-crisis.htmlPeaked Oil, Climate Chaos, Overshoot
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If you think you might have the interest, energy, time, and resources to attend the conference and want to act as a C-Realm correspondent, do contact me and I'll see about getting your press credentials.