Post Carbon Newsletter #28 June 2007

1. Summer Fund Drive
2. Post Carbon Cities
3. Global Public Media
4. Relocalization Network
5. Energy Farms Network
6. Energy Garden Report
7. Featured Post Carbon Group
8. Richard Heinberg Wins Another Award
9. Forthcoming Events
10. July Preview

1. Celebrate the Solstice with Post Carbon's Summer Fund Drive

We're launching our summer 2007 donor solicitation fund drive. An anonymous patron has generously offered to match each donation from June 28th - July 19th...

During the drive your contribution will be worth double!

We need your help, and urge you to donate. Your contributions fuel work on key Post Carbon programs:

• The Relocalization Network's new Relocalization Manager Janet Beazlie is making great strides forging vital alliances among the 150 member Groups;
• Post Carbon Cities is our exciting new program for local government officials and citizen activists working on climate change, and local food and energy;
• This year on Global Public Media, you've gotten more than 60 interviews and lectures with cutting edge thinkers on energy depletion and local sustainability, like James Howard Kunstler's presentation to the San Francisco Commonwealth Club in March.

So, please donate now. Thank you for your support.

2. Post Carbon Cities

Our long-awaited guidebook for local governments, Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty, will be available for pre-order in just a few weeks! James Howard Kunstler of The Long Emergency and The Geography of Nowhere, said:

"Post Carbon Cities is an exceptionally clear and comprehensive
call-to-action to those who actually work in the trenches of city governance. We don't have any more time to waste getting ready for an energy-scarcer future, and for those who remain dazed and confused, this book is an excellent place to start."

Visit postcarboncities.net/guidebook for summary information and to read or download the Executive Summary. Watch postcarboncities.net for pre-ordering information, coming soon. Don't forget to subscribe to our monthly Post Carbon Cities newsletter, which will keep you informed of the most important developments on energy and climate uncertainty for local governments. Our first issue is coming out next week!

3. Global Public Media

You can now catch GlobalPublicMedia teasers and "shorts" at YouTube.com! Our homepage is www.youtube.com/globalpublicmedia. Rate your favorite GPM features early and often so that our viewership can grow and our talks with the world's top energy experts can be seen by all.

Want to make your dollar go several times further in your local economy (meaning it's literally worth more to you and your town)? Economist and small business expert Michael Shuman gives a great explanation how buying from and supporting local businesses is the best way to create local jobs and build a strong local economy.

Congress is considering bills to spend billions on the biofuels industry. But in an interview, Lawrence-Berkeley National Lab scientist David Fridley tells us that biofuels are not a responsible option for replacing all of the oil and natural gas the U.S. consumes.

But there will be a role for energy from crops at a smaller scale. Post Carbon fellow Jason Bradford has been working on local biofuels. Check out the video from our friends at Peak Moment TV and take a tour with Jason to see the work he's been doing with energy crops in a garden outside his sons' elementary school in Willits, CA.

We're always looking for new people and new ideas to feature on GPM. Send us your ideas for features, interviewees, or important events going on, and we'll do our best to cover them or get our Fellows to share their reactions.

4. Relocalization Network

This month we welcome to the Relocalization Network two new local groups, Transition Town Asheville in North Carolina, and Post Carbon Montreal in Quebec, Canada. Evan Bedford, Coordinator of Post Carbon Red Deer is preparing to run as a mayoral candidate in Red Deer, Alberta, and is working together with Post Carbon groups in neighboring Lacombe and Ponoka to raise awareness about local issues and bring attention to the natural gas situation. Meanwhile across North America, the North Country Peak Oil Action/Study Group in upstate New York has been circulating a large Peak Oil display this summer entitled "Think Outside the Barrel!" to their local libraries complete with a peak oil/energy reading and DVD list.

Summer is often a time to relax and get together for some picnic feasting on delicious local food. Our recommended summer reading list includes Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, A Year of Food Life, her entertaining account of a year her family spent gardening and eating locally – listen to her talk about the experience and the book on Global Public Media.

Journalist and photographer David Strongman recaps his trip visiting relocalization groups along the Northwest Coast from Washington to California with the release of his first story from Ashland Oregon, A Proper Connection to Food: An Interview with Slow Food Chef David Voeller.

Subscribe to the monthly Relocalize Newsletter. You can read the June issue of our monthly report about other activities around the network by clicking here. And visit relocalize.net to stay current with all the Relocalization Network's activities!

5. Energy Farms Network

Chris Hansen reports on what's happening at the Willits Energy Farm:

May and June has found the Energy Farm program in full swing. Energy crops of Dale Sorghum (high-calorie syrup, ethanol, solvents, antiseptic) and Peredovik Sunflower (cooking oil, bioplastics, biodiesel, lubricants) have been planted at Energy Farm Test plots in Oregon and California.

Big issues that the Energy Farm program has been addressing include post-harvest storage of energy crops, sourcing and acquiring tools for small-scale processing of energy crops, the best uses for sugar and oilseed crops, questions of scale utilizing manual and mechanical toolsets to grow these crops, and how to move toward educating new farmers interested in pursuing sustainable agriculture.

The farm has become a distributor of produce from other growers and has made connections with local restaurants, the Willits School District, community members, and a local organic food market.

In the last month, Brookside Energy Farm has been garnering media coverage and visibility within Mendocino County. Take a 28 minute video-tour of the Brookside Energy Farm with Jason Bradford and Christoffer Hansen. You can also view various blogcasts from the farm and listen to Jason and Christoffer on the Reality Report (June 18, 2007) as they discuss the challenges and opportunities for creating local biofuel systems.

6. Energy Garden Report from Sebastopol

Open House at Energy Garden

More than 60 people showed up for Saturday’s (June 23rd) open house for Post Carbon’s new Energy Garden in Sebastopol. During the course of a very warm day, we made lots of new friends. Post Carbon staff showed our visitors the many different types of energy crops that we are growing, and shared much-welcomed cool drinks in the shade of the trees. There was a lot of interest in our chickens, which you can legally keep in your back yard in Sebastopol, and our chicken tractor. We especially enjoyed being able to talk in depth with people about how local farms could produce both food and sustainable sources of food, fuels, fiber, fertilizer and feedstock with the crops growing right there in front of us, not thousands of miles away.

The purpose of the demonstration Energy Garden is to show that that a range of fuels can be grown or produced locally, including solar and wind. But as we emphasized to everyone on Saturday, those of us in rich nations like the United States must significantly reduce our consumption of goods, and of energy in all forms. By reducing demand overall, we will have a much easier task meeting the remaining demand with energy from locally renewable sources.

7. Featured Post Carbon Group

This month’s featured group is Post Carbon Red Deer in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. Here is an update from group member, Evan Bedford:

“Our Red Deer group got going in January of this year. I happened to notice on relocalize.net that there was a Ponoka group already in existence (50 km's north of Red Deer), so I contacted them and then thought, "What the heck. If they can do it, why don’t we". Now, there's also a Lacombe group (25 km's north of us). So far, we've been collaborating on everything and working together to raise awareness in the region.

In April, we held a screening of End of Suburbia at the local library. The local newspaper gave it quite extensive free advertising. A couple of months later, a different group (Public Interest Alberta) held a screening of Escape from Suburbia. The organizers allowed me to let the audience know about our group and we got a few more people signed up.

Our two best resources so far have been 1) the concern and knowledge of a local MLA (Victor Doerksen) and 2) the page on Post Carbon Cities entitled "Local Government Responses to Peak Oil." Victor Doerksen has given us good advice and has pledged his public support on the issues.

The Local Government Responses page has provided us with great examples from other jurisdictions which we can use to persuade our local politicians to initiate realistic policies for a fossil fuel challenged future. I'll shortly be applying to get on a city council meeting agenda to see if that persuasion works.

8. Richard Heinberg Wins Another Award

Post Carbon Fellow, Richard Heinberg has won his second major award in two months for his latest book, The Oil Depletion Protocol. ForeWord Magazine announced that Richard was the winner of a Gold award for The Oil Depletion Protocol at its 2006 Book of the Year Awards ceremony at "BookExpo" America in New York City. ForeWord Magazine serves the independent publishing community,

In May, The Oil Depletion Protocol won a Bronze 2007 IPPY Award in the current events category. The IPPY awards are granted by the trade group Independent Publisher.

Post Carbon Institute congratulates Richard on his well earned recognition for The Oil Depletion Protocol!

9. Forthcoming Events

Southern California Sustainable Living Intensive Workshop

July 9-15, Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies, California State Polytechnic University, California

The Solar Living Institute has partnered with the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies to offer a comprehensive series of workshops in sustainable and regenerative living.

Earth Works Exposition

July 27-29, Denver Merchandise Mart, 451 East 58th Avenue, Denver, Colorado

Richard Heinberg, recent recipient of a Gold award from Foreword Magazine for The Oil Depletion Protocol, offers the Exposition a keynote address titled, “Peak Oil: Challenges and Opportunities at the End of Cheap Petroleum."

10. July Preview

Summer report from the Relocalization Network.