ASPO Conference

Taking the Next Steps on an Education of Limits

sastyk — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 07:03:24 +0000

Taking the Next Steps on an Education of Limits

Well, the astrophysicist and I finally managed to write something together. More than a year and a half ago when I moved to Scienceblogs I promised that Eric would be my sometime- collaborator. I promise I did not realize was a total lie. You see, the way we've managed over the years to raise four kids, run a farm and work several jobs is that we trade off responsibilities - when I'm working in front of the computer, he's with the kids or working the farm. When he's at work teaching, I'm home doing the same. Yes, we do have evenings together after the kids go to bed, but what we found is that if we're not too tired to do anything but sit and read, well, we can think of more fun things to do than write blog posts together.

We finally did manage to write something together, though - a Peak Oil Review Commentary - about the challenges of teaching the issues raised by material limits, peak oil and resource depletion. This is a subject near and dear to both our hearts,
and one that I've been working with ASPO-USA to start bringing to the forefront.

Both of us find that students (and indeed nearly everyone) also have radically inflated assumptions about the merits of renewable energies, and no implicit grasp of EROEI, either as a concept or of its mathematics. This cannot be chalked up only to poor mathematical education (although it would only be helpful to have a population where everyone understands calculus, if we can't express our ideas without higher mathematics, the movement to address Peak Oil is doomed) - it is the very concept of energy return over investment that most students have not had presented to them. Once students "get" EROEI, they are often excited and astonished that no one ever proposed this to them before.

Again, EROEI concepts are not only the territory of physicists, mathematicians and geologists. The idea that a society with a declining resource base needs to think hard about returns applies across the board. This is a natural concept for business students, and I know more than one historian analyzing collapsed societies through the lens of the return they got from their investments in complexity. Seen through an EROEI-educated lens, the arts, in which human creativity transcends the base materials in which they work, whether the athletic human body (dance, theater), paper and pen (writing), the plastic arts, etc...begin to look awfully good again. Agricultural education is obviously a natural setting as well to begin see the possibilities for wealth of the biological kind that can emerge from an EROEI-educated society.

The value of these and other basic concepts does not begin at the college level. Both simplified EROEI calculations and the conceptual framework that a lower energy life does not mean certain doom are things that could be taught to students at much earlier ages than the college level - once these ideas are intuitive to a critical mass of the population, it becomes much easier to convey them. Indeed, we know many teachers who are attempting to bring these issues up to high school, middle school and even elementary aged students. As homeschoolers to three of our boys, ranging in age from nine to five, we have found that the basic intellectual grounding of these concepts is accessible as soon as you master single digit arithmetic, in the case of EROEI, or as soon as you can begin logic exercise like "Well, you could eat the cookie or give it to your friend if you only have one cookie...but what's a third choice? What else could you do?"

The biggest difficulty for most of us who teach these issues - and we know many others working in many fields and across disciplines and with students of all ages - is that so many of us are operating in isolation, attempting to invent something that does not wholly exist yet. That so many people are doing so admirable a job is remarkable - but it also doesn't have to be this way.

At this point, there simply is no resource for teachers working on these issues to share experiences. ASPO is going to step up and take a lead here, helping those of us birthing a nascent discipline to come together and organized our work. If you teach or study these issues and would like to participate in a discussion list, and perhaps eventually in the first-ever Peak Oil Student and Teacher Conference this year in Washington DC, please email us at education@aspousa.org. We look forward to having you join the discussion!

Sharon

sastyk Tue, 08/02/2011 - 03:03

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The Breaking of the Fellowship of the Peak

sastyk — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 19:08:34 +0000

The Breaking of the Fellowship of the Peak

Final report from John on the ASPO Conference

I am back on the train to New York, reviewing what occurred in the last three days. Thinking over what I learned in the talks given on an autopsy of the Gulf Oil spill brings to mind the ones given in the "Message, Media and Outreach" section.

There was no question that in the speaker's minds that the Gulf accident was the result of a series of almost inexplicable mistakes by the crew on the rig. There was a profound lack of communication between various levels of command both on the rig and above. As the errors were discussed, the realization of what was ignored became mind-boggling. Yet the speakers thought that BP technical actions on stopping the leak were more than adequate, if not commendable. When people asked why it took so long to stop the leak, the real issue is how BP was able to stop the leak so quickly. One speaker noted in discussing the issue of using a nuclear device (which was not possible in this case thank goodness), that Russia had success in stopping three out four gas well blowouts on which it was tried. The fourth gas well is still burning. Please note that I think that there was many other issues surrounding the way BP handled this leak that may not be at all commendable. It is an open question, maybe, whether the environment damage caused by the leak was made much worse by their actions.

Thinking back over the media coverage that I remember of this disaster, one issue that stands out in my mind was how it was claimed that this well was pushing the limits of deep water drilling. It turns out it wasn't. Wells have been drilled that are more than twice as deep. The area was a tricky one to drill in, but the dangers of the high gas pressures that were encountered were well known. This well was not far from being an average deep water well, of which hundreds have been drilled. This ignorance of these facts was manipulated in typically fashion by certain groups. I will cite one that appears to be from "conservative" commentators - this accident was the government's fault because by banning shallow water drilling, oil and companies were forced into deep water where they have little experience. Barf.

The observant reader will notice that I refer to groups in plural. I find what is now labeled as liberal opinions is often, but not always, far more factually correct than conservative ones. However such opinions often leave me with a burning question: "Yes, that is correct/good/moral. But what must we give up, and how, in order to do this?" (Sharon's work does not invoke this response for some reason.)

For to give up things we will, whether it is now willingly, or later unwillingly. One way or another, we will lose our precious, our barrel of power. What did not come out clearly of the sound and fury surrounding the coverage of the Gulf accident was the why of where we were drilling. Yes, I know why and probably you do too. But my day job co-workers don't and I bet yours don't either. Once again, the opportunity to talk about peak oil and what it implies to the public was lost.

Yes, that issue of getting a society to peacefully give things up was addressed in the Media and Message section. But will those messages overcome the message that "It is the government's/poor's/blacks'/gays' fault."?

I though that giving things up was unsurprisingly a theme of the conference, especially the last day. From Dr. Schlumberger's delightful talk on The Future of Air Transportation to Sharon's thoughtful "Feeding a Planet after Peak Oil", what we will give up and what we must not was a recurring theme.

At the end of the conference, a number of the panelists returned to the podium and were asked what they are doing in their life to prepare for what they see is going to happen. All had done something. Some had oriented their entire lives towards this (guess who), one had a careful plan to take their family to safety in another country in which they had deep roots. What are your plans?

Then it was over.

I want to thank Sharon so much for this opportunity to help her on this blog. It was an honor to be able to post on a site that I respect so highly.

sastyk Sun, 10/10/2010 - 15:08

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Assuming your question wasnât rhetorical . . . I am following Sharonâs lead. The beauty of this path for me is that even if she is totally wrong (no, I have not been brainwashed by Fox), it is the way I want to live ANYWAY. Hopefully I will have a less challenging time of adapting in place because I already live in a rural setting on a road to nowhere anybody else wants to go. I am learning how to grow and store my own foods. Eating will be less challenging because I already eat a plant-based diet. IMHO, the animal-based diet that so many people rely on will become the ultimate of luxuries.

Perry, your path is commendable. Industrialized meat destroys soil by demanding erosive and poison-dependent corn and soil rotations for feedstocks, pollutes through the dumping of concentrated manures, and sickens by encouraging superbugs.

Ultimately, soil health must be maintained. Diversified cropping and a largely vegetarian diet are needed. However, I think there is a place on small farms for humanely raised stock, for food and fiber and manure, which, properly handled, will help to maintain soil health.

We can draw worst case and best case scenarios from the data. Worst case is the triumph of the climate deniers in next two or more elections, leading to the taking of decisions that will perhaps condemn humanity to take our place among the roster of vanished species.

Best case is a la Sharon Astyk. I think most of us, not in the current generation necessarily, but in historical times, soon, will give up our lives. Most of the remainder will be grindingly poor. Perhaps, after that, another civilization may arise upon other energy-exploitative terms than fossil fuels. Perhaps several such civilizations.

And then? The Earth was only ever going to be habitable for a short time, geologically speaking. And then there is the expanding darkness. Entropy, you know.

For me, I'll espouse Sharon's best case. Eke out a low-carbon life. Eat home-grown kale. Not too much. Mostly plants. And have the neighbors over at Thanksgiving.

"Corn and soy." Self-proofing is the pits.

@ risa b.,

My father raised hogs from WWII to the 1980's. He typically piled manure until it went through a "heat" - began turning to compost - to kill any contained weed seed. That simple process made the "manure" problem pretty much a non-issue around our farm. Claiming that all manure, by nature, is biologically toxic to water and man is incendiary and only true when deliberate steps are taken to cause problems. Composting can be a simple step to "detox" manure.

If everyone goes vegetarian, and Peak Oil means no appreciable amount of goods will be transported across nations or oceans - what do you propose to make your shoes of? Before intercontinental rubber and modern plastic, that answer was leather. Leather has always been a byproduct of providing meat for the table. I have a delightful pair of leather and denim gloves, many industrial and construction tasks require the toughness and durability of leather. If you have never welded, let me give you a hint: Think of flying sparks, drops of burning metal. Even fire-resistant cloth is quickly perforated, it just doesn't burn. Wool is gathered from sheep - that only yield for a few years. Goats, llamas, and other animals are used for leather and wool.

Horses, at one time, were used for leather as well as work and for food. Horses grace the tables in Europe and Japan today. Until the last couple of decades horse meat was a viable industry and export product for the US is not resulting, as well as necessary means of handling excess animals.

In the mean time, the "everyone vegetarian" war cry is assuming a lot of residual wealth, residual energy, and residual petroleum products that might or might not be available.

Farm work is rough on clothes - if you aren't using draft animals for working the fields, you are looking at a lot of human labor to grow the foods and fibers needed by a (by then) hungry world population. And producing meat on the farm condenses grain calories to make transport of those calories more economical. Will the old West trail drive return? I don't know - but I cannot drive a field of soybeans to market.

Show me an non-animal agricultural community not depending on oil, electricity or other cheap energy, and not depending on materials provided by oil, electricity or other cheap energy, including transport. Then I might be willing to listen to "everyone vegetarian".

@ John,

I see a corollary issue here. That is - the world is fairly small today, in terms of interconnections, and closeness of bindings. As peak oil interferes with that, I expect regional differences to spill over into aggression, including international hegemony disputes (i.e., UN and third world nations, the "tail wagging the dog" kind of thing). If we know there is oil on our shores, and in the Gulf, and we don't drill - are we ready to repulse others from drilling that oil? At gunpoint? Suppose the UN were to declare all unexploited oil "confiscated" or "internationalized for the good of mankind" and deemed to be the property of the son in law of whoever happens to be the sitting Secretary General at the time, as happens so often amidst the ongoing corruption of the UN and various international entities.

Unilateral actions will always be an invitation for others to exploit, whether unilaterally choosing fewer children (i.e., sacrifice our nation and culture in the next two or three generations), or failing to drill oil that we know is there. True or false, it has been said that the US entered Iraq partly to remove Saddam Hussein, but also because of Iraqi oil. That was even before Peak Oil. And other nations agreed that the oil was important enough to move into Iraq. Are we now ready for Saudi Arabia to move into the gulf and drill, without regard for American interests or markets? Or Venezuela, Brazil, or Iran? And why should they not? Great Britain is apparently present in the Gulf of Mexico, or has been. I believe US companies are present in many of the world's oil fields.

The US Navy hasn't had a serious mechanical failure onboard a serving vessel in many years. But the size of the fleet is smaller than projected needs, and older than is desirable. It takes time and a lot of energy to produce the steel and systems to assemble any ocean going vessel, and a lot of electronics and weapons systems to make an effective warship. Are our resources adequate, today, to unilaterally leave Gulf of Mexico oil untapped?

Corria o ano de 1977, numa grande feira de artes grÃ¡ficas, na F.I.L. - Feira Internacional de Lisboa, nessa altura sediada na Junqueira.
A feira era dedicada a profissionais do ramo, como eu o era.
Como interesado tambÃ©m em coleccionar de tudo quanto fosse papel impresso, descobri a colecÃ§Ã£o de Ex-Libris, porquanto era de bom tom os livros de uma livraria, serem arrumados com aquela marca pessoalizada.
Comecei a dedicar-me a fazer uma colecÃ§Ã£o daquelas marcas. De imediato tratei de mandar executar a minha pessoal. PorÃ©m, o tempo nÃ£o me deu para tratar da impressÃ£o, fiquei apenas com as provas de artista.
Apresento uma que foi de Moreira Rato, que conhecera na F.I.L. presente como animador daquele passatempo.
E uma outra de Mealha Costa, com quem contactei depois, um verdadeiro entusiasta.
Estes homens, pela idade, nÃ£o deverÃ£o jÃ¡ fazer parte do nosso mundo e deixei sequer de ouvir falar em Ex-Libris.

Brad K. - There's a difference between "largely vegetarian" or "plant-based" and "totally vegan," and nobody commenting before you suggested we should choose the latter. Veganism is not a natural diet for humans; neither is the Western diet laden with grain-fed fatty meat, which seems to be clearly related to heart disease and cancer.

@ Risa B,

I maintain a small flock of chickens and ducks on my homestead. I feed them a high-quality organic commercially prepared diet, supplemented by treats from the garden and some free-range grazing. I am going to try to grow their feed (corn, oats & sunflower seeds) in next summerâs garden. I am trying to answer the question of whether it is better to devote the space, water, labor, etc., to growing food for them and then harvesting their eggs and fertilizer versus just using the same space to just grow crops for my own direct consumption. I think Sharon referred to this issue in Depletion and Abundance and cited a study. I wish that I had marked the page . . . I canât find it today. Everything else that I have read suggests that growing grains to feed to animals for human consumption is an inefficient way to use available resources.

@ Brad K,

I agree that leather is an excellent choice for work shoes and work gloves. An ample supply of work gloves is part of my preparedness stockpile. I still question how efficient it will be to feed animals used for food when we donât have the massive amount of carbon-based fertilizers and the commercial grain harvesting methods that are so popular today. I am still experimenting, trying to find what will work for me on a small scale in my location (the mountains of Northern California).

Uhh, yeah, I think Brad and I are in about 98% agreement -- over the last 61 years, I've done most of the things recommended in the post. And I was thinking of serving local ham for Thanksgiving, as well as our own chicken and goose.

Still feel strongly that CAFOs are a major no-no. We can handle chicken, duck, goose, sheep, rabbit and humanure profitably at our place ... but where there are millions of gallons of the stuff in any one spot, due to debt-capitalized food industrialization, the temptation to let it just slide into the river is often too much for the CAFO "farmer."

Small-acreage and yard foodies of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but that coming bleak moment of realization, staring at the empty shelves at Safeway.

I canât find it today. Everything else that I have read suggests that growing grains to feed to animals for human consumption is an inefficient way to use available resources.

Yes, We Won But Now What...

sastyk — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 10:20:08 +0000

Yes, We Won But Now What...

John reporting from the ASPO conference.

I may have been trained as scientist, but when it came down to choosing among three competing and valuable breakout sessions in the same time slot, I choose "Peak Oil: Scenario Planning: Preparing for the Days Ahead" with John Michael Greer, AndrÃ© Angelantoni and Dick Vodra instead of the far more techie "The Outlook for Net Exports of Oil, Natural Gas and Coal". Similar choices had to be made with the next two sets of breakout sessions with "Message, Media and Outreach" winning out over "Analysis from The Oil Drum" and "Peak Oil: Investing Beyond Oil and Gas" in the second round. "Post-Carbon Responses to the Sustainability Quandary" won the third round.

These breakout sessions consisted of each of the speakers making a short presentation and then questions from the audience fill the last part of the session.

The choices I made were because I fully understand the issues of Peak Oil. I am more interested in what we are going to do to respond to it.

AndrÃ©'s presentation dealt with the concept of cultural conversations as something that has an existence of its own, an idea that is a version of the concept of a meme. Major cultural conversations are discourses ("Who will win the World Series this Year?") and sets of related discourses are epistemes ("Growth and progress must be continual and on-going"). So when you are have a frustrating talk with someone like that brother-in-law ("New technology will fix these problems!"), you are not only talking with them, you are talking to a discourse. The major point is that discourses defend themselves, which you have already discovered by talking to that brother-in-law of yours.

With peak oil, coming straight at us will be an episteme rupture. What will replace the existing episteme is anyone's guess, although we all can work to help put in place one that more usefully and beneficial then the one we have.

Just remember, when you ready to slug that brother-in-law, it is really not totally his fault that he is a jerk - he just needs a new discourse to find him.

John Michael Greer's presentation was entitled "The End of Investments". This is a topic that he has covered in one of his Archdruid Reports. Looking back at history, especially the decline of the Roman Empire, he predicts that the concept of investments will not be one that long survives in the world of long decline. Going beyond the concept that what we call economic growth will not be possible in a post peak world, so that much of we consider wealth will turn out be illusions, there is also possibility that the nice yellowish metal that is so popular right now ($1329.60/oz right now!) may not turn out be as useful as one may think. A pile of loot attracts looters as he put it. A historical example is the stockpiles of Roman gold coins that are found on a regular basis in England. Nearby is almost always the ruin of a post-Roman villa that was certainly sacked in search of those coins. Investment in things that can't be looted or are not so alluring like tools, friendships and ties to one's community might be a better bet.

Leave it to the Archdruid to propose an idea that makes even hard-core Peak Oilers uncomfortable. Later in the day I was speaking to a financial blogger who has done wonderful work on the implications of peak oil. I asked him what he thought of Greer's talk. There was an awkward silence. Then he asked "What do you think...?"

The next breakout session was an attempt to explore the question of how we can create a new episteme. My co-blogger Molly Davis has already written a great post on this session that captures the challenges and contradictions that are part and parcel of this task. After listening to this session, I think that many may think that there is a comparison to making sausage here; one may not want to look too closely to the process if one is squeamish about things. Yet, an important point is that if we don't starting constructing new discourses, eventually others will and their goals may not to be of our likening. An example that is already happening is a far-right nationalist party in Great Britain that has already adopted peak oil in their rhetoric. They wore Nazi Swastikas before they clean up their act and started channeling Churchill.

The third session was organized by the Post Carbon Institute and includes chapter authors from PCI's new book "The Post Carbon Reader - Managing the 21st Century's Sustainability Crises". PCI fellows Chris Martenson, Cindy Parker and Tom Whipple all spoke. While Chris Martenson spoke about personal preparation and education and Tom Whipple talked about economic issues, Cindy Parker's discussion on public health and medicine as we move forward highlights a critical issue that is not receiving the attention that it deserves. It has been well documented that our current health care system is a massive resource hog that generates results inferior to ones costing half as much. What happens when the resources are not there anymore?

sastyk Fri, 10/08/2010 - 06:20

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With peak oil, coming straight at us will be an episteme rupture.

Foucault's Ã©pistÃ©mÃ¨! Shades of Alan Sokal: We must deconstruct the herniated episteme before the transgressive peak oil hermeneutic can sex the narrative!!! "Mrs. Jane, I didn't understand a word you said." But that's okay, since it's all about 'truthiness' rather than data. :)

John, how do you know my brother-in-law???

:-)

About investing in non-lootables (or, to put it more nicely, investing in more practical and productive stuff), this has been a question of considerable importance to me. As I invest in my homestead and start trying to create systems of energy creation, water and food security, etc, I find myself wondering what percentage of my "traditional" assets I should convert into these more practical assets. It's perfectly possible that by the time my kids are adults, money in the bank will be worth diddley squat, and if so then I'll really be wishing we put in that cistern and purification system. On the other hand, what good is it to build a homestead and not have the resources to maintain it or pay the taxes on it (I foresee it will be a long time before society collapses to thew point we can forget about property taxes.)? And even if I decide to convert most of my assets, the timing is of extreme importance. Sometimes I find myself paralyzed by these types of thoughts.

Aimee

I share your thoughts. My garden and pantry would hardly be considered lootable today. But I certainly foresee the day that they will be much more valuable than money in the bank. It's probably a good time to think about investing in a homestead security system. For myself, I like the Smith & Wesson system.

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

sastyk — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 06:15:00 +0000

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Like how classily your blogiste introduced her co-bloggers before they put up their first posts? How gracefully I've managed to make everything work? Yeah, me neither.

I must plead sleep deprivation and exhaustion - since I arrived in Washington at 3am on Thursday morning, I've not had time to touch my computer - I've been going at a dead run. Or I was running until I started drinking wine on an empty stomach in the early evening, after which it probably wouldn't have been a great idea to either run or type. I'm sorry. Bad blogiste!

Anyway, let me belatedly both thank and welcome my three co-bloggers who are way more together and awesome than I am. You've already met John Bell and Molly Davis, and there's a third, Niepolski, who will be joining us as we go along.

So please be welcoming, and I promise there will be good stuff coming from me later. I had a whole 3 hours sleep last night, and as of 8:21am, am 100% wine-free ;-), so I'm cheerfully optimistic for greater coherence and maybe even time to write.

Sharon

sastyk Fri, 10/08/2010 - 02:15

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In vino veritas, Sharon!

:-)

Party ON, girlfriend!

dollar yÃ¼kseliyormu ne oluyor onu sÃ¶yle

Let the Blogging Begin - ASPO Conference

sastyk — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:50:00 +0000

Let the Blogging Begin - ASPO Conference

Greetings, I'm John Bell, one of the people helping Sharon live-blog the ASPO conference in Washington D.C. Sharon has asked us to introduce ourselves and tell her readers why we are attending the conference. I am writing this as I travel to Washington D.C. on the train.

First, I have help start Transition Westchester, a currently unofficial Transition hub for Westchester County, NY. Westchester County comprises the immediate northern suburbs of New York City. Currently, Transition Westchester is trying to inform the people of the region of the issues of peak oil, climate change and the resulting economic issues that facing us. As many of you know, raising public awareness about such issues is difficult in our media-saturated society. I can tell you that doing this is especially difficult in a place that also functions as a bedroom community for Wall Street, since delusional thinking is the bedrock of our economic system. But most of the people in this county are not the wealthy elite. Many are what we like to call middle class, their higher than national average incomes more than eaten up by absurd housing costs and high cost of living. There are plenty of people who are poor here, some who have fallen in poverty in the past year or so. I live in a village along the Hudson River in the northern end of the county. The village long predates the auto age, so it is a hilly, but walkable community. It has a long gone early industrial past and now has many recent immigrants from southern Europe and Latin America. The immigrants enable village to have a downtown with many functioning small businesses. There is a great Farmers Market there also.

I worked in the chemical and petroleum industries for two decades as a scientist. During my graduate studies in chemistry, I remember a discussion I had with my brother-in law at the time. The discussion occurred, I think, in Anchorage, Alaska. If not there, then it was in Midland Texas. As you might guess my former brother-in-law was a production executive in the oil and gas industry. His skill and talent certainly contributed significantly to the efficiency with which we drained the North Slope oil fields. He was the first to introduce me to the idea we had no other energy sources that are the functional equivalent to (cheap) oil in terms of net energy production. It was haunting statement, since he had seen and actively worked to reverse the decline that was occurring in oil production in the lower 48.

During my time in the chemical industry, I worked for companies produced oil field chemical, pesticides and lastly surfactants (surface active agents) that went into such end-use products. I think I was very lucky to have had a career that had me going to both oil refineries and farms, as it has helped me intimately understand the immense challenges that face us in both energy and food

As I left the chemical industry about five years ago, I began re-examining that question that my former brother-in-law had left me, what are energy sources that we are going to use to replace oil as it runs low? After examining the answer that was being touted at the time - pour our food supply into our gas tanks - I began to get concerned. Then I found "The Long Emergency". My first reaction was, "Why is this guy getting royalties for my thoughts?" Seriously, it was my first confirmation that others were thinking along the same lines as I.

I had decided earlier in the decade to stop playing the role of the corporate transplant waiting for his next assignment, and get more involved in my community by joining the local Lions Club. Starting the Transition hub was natural outgrowth of that decision.

I am on the final leg to Washington at this point. This is my first ASPO conference. I look forward to meeting many of people whose work I come to respect so highly. I have already met Sharon, although she doesn't remember that ; ^ ). This meeting might be historic, since the Association is trying to raise the awareness of these issues among government circles (the reality being that most in the higher circles already know) and as Sharon has indicated the group appears to be shifting its focus from proving that peak oil exists to how we as a society are going to deal with it. The last stop on this train is about to be called, so I will let you what happens in later posts.

sastyk Thu, 10/07/2010 - 09:50

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Would You Like to Attend the ASPO-USA Conference...Free?!?!

sastyk — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:04:07 +0000

Would You Like to Attend the ASPO-USA Conference...Free?!?!

I know there has been a lot of ASPO posting right now - what can I say except it is consuming my entire existence, so it creeps into your blog posts too ;-). The fun part will come when the conference liveblogging begins and all that great information starts flowing!

But this is pretty awesome. A kind and wonderful donor has offered to subsidize three spots for people who would otherwise be unable to attend the conference. She'll pay for registration for three people - you do have to handle your own transport and find someplace to crash, but that seems achievable! You can hear all these amazing talks for free! THANK YOU, OH WONDERFUL DONOR!!!!

So if you aren't too far from DC and would like a chance to attend, please email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com. First come, first served!

In return, we'd be grateful if you'd use your resources to help us spread the word about the conference. If you'd be interested in joining my team of livebloggers (in addition to blogging at your own site, if any, you can write about the conference and have it posted here under your own name!) and tweeters, that would be great too!

Hope to see you there!

Sharon

sastyk Thu, 09/30/2010 - 07:04

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Very cool!

Sundry

sastyk — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:31:34 +0000

Sundry

Various Updates:

First of all, Aaron Newton and I will be offering the Adapting-in-Place class again for the very last time for at least six months, and maybe longer. So if you've ever thought of taking the class, now is the time!

Adapting in Place is my favorite class - it covers everything from what's inside the walls of your home to appropriate technologies to family issues to money to security. It is the whole picture of how we are going to go forward into a lower-energy, warmer, less wealthy future. The idea is for you to come out with a plan that is uniquely suited to your realities. The class begins on October 5 and runs for six weeks.

The class is offered online and asynchronously - you don't have to be online at any particular time. Here's a link to a previous syllabus - I'll put the current one up in a few days. We have had participants from all over the world in all kinds of circumstances - from renters to owners, from elderly to college students, in cities and the country and everything in between, and everyone has said that the class helped them find their way forward.

The cost of the class is $180 but we do have five scholarship spots for low income participants who couldn't otherwise afford the class, and we're open to equivalent barter. We also accept donations for additional scholarship spots - 100% of all donations goes to open more spots for low income families. Email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com for more information or to register.

Second, ASPO-USA realizes that their conference is costly - too costly for many people to be able to afford to attend. Ideally, we'd offer it for free, but that's just not possible - it is expensive to bring these kinds of speakers together. Still, because ASPO is so strongly committed to making the conference accessible and diversifying its participation as much as it can, for a short time ASPO-USA is offering a less expensive registration for low income participants, younger folk, and anyone who couldn't otherwise afford to attend.

This is *below our cost to produce the conference* so we would ask that if you can afford the full price, you do so. And yes, we realize it is still expensive at $175, although this includes all meals, all receptions and 24 hour free wireless at the conference - and for next year we'll work on even greater accessibility. But this is what we can do now, and we invite you to join us if you can. Here's a great summary of just some of the conference events!

To get the discount, please go to the website:http://www.regonline.com/register/checkin.aspx?EventId=876889 and use the promotional code: peakoil2010.

Also, a reminder that I'll be speaking on "Adapting in Place" on Friday night, October 22, and be part of a community-wide conference on the same subject on Saturday October 23 in New Haven, CT. I'll be at the Center Church on the Green at 7:30 pm on Friday night, and participating all day at the Common Ground High School on Saturday. I hope I'll see you there!

Cheers,

Sharon

sastyk Tue, 09/28/2010 - 08:31

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$175 isn't really expensive at all for a conference like that. Good move!

Sharon, if you have any scholarship spots available still in the Adapting-In-Place series, I would like to try to participate. If not, no worries! Please email me to let me know. Thanks!