After many months of hard work, I'm extremely proud and delighted to announce the completion of our major new project — The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century's Sustainability Crises. I believe it's the single most complete resource for those who want to understand both the sources and responses to our interrelated economic, energy, and environmental crises.
In 2009, Post Carbon Institute recruited 29 of the world's leading sustainability thinkers to answer one fundamental question: How do we manage the transition to a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable world? The first step, as we saw it, was to aggregate the most current, systems-oriented thinking about these interconnected threats, as well as the most promising responses. The Post Carbon Reader — will hit bookstores and classrooms in October 2010.
Over the coming weeks and months, we'll be posting free pdf downloads of many of the articles included in The Post Carbon Reader. The first two, by Fellows Sandra Postel and Warren Karlenzig, have just been released.
Asher Miller
(above excerpted from Introducing the Post Carbon Reader)
the post carbon reader
June saw the release of the first articles from our brand new book The Post Carbon Reader. The book will be released in October 2010. Find out more.
 |
CITIES: The Death of Sprawl
Report by Warren Karlenzig • June 23, 2010
In April 2009—just when people thought things couldn't get worse in San Bernardino County, California—bulldozers demolished four perfectly good new houses and a dozen others still under construction in Victorville, 100 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles... Read more |
| |
|
 |
WATER: Adapting to a New Normal
Report by Sandra Postel • June 22, 2010
Water, like energy, is essential to virtually every human endeavor. It is needed to grow food and fiber, to make clothes and computers, and, of course, to drink. The growing number of water shortages around the world... Read more |
post carbon on the oil spill
As events continued to unfold in the Gulf of Mexico this month, Post Carbon Fellows have been reflecting on the implications of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
 |
Deepwater Horizon: The Best-Case and Most-Likely Scenarios
Post by Richard Heinberg • June 23, 2010
Even in the best possible case, the consequences of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will be severe and ongoing. What would make the difference between the worst and best cases?... Read more |
| |
|
 |
Deepwater Horizon: The Worst-Case Scenario
Post by Richard Heinberg • June 20, 2010
Reports from the Gulf of Mexico just keep getting worse. Estimates of the rate of oil spillage from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead just keep gushing (the latest official number: up to 60,000 barrels per day)... Read more |
| |
|
 |
Obama's $20B Oil Fund, Energy Policy and his "Lost" Year
Post by Warren Karlenzig • June 18, 2010
President Obama's announcement of a $20 billion escrow fund to help pay for Gulf economic damages from the oil spill likely won't be enough to cover projected damages to the economy, environment and livelihoods in the region.... Read more |
| |
|
 |
What's it Going to Take to Beat BIG OIL? 537 Spines.
Post by Asher Miller • June 16, 2010
The horrific Gulf oil spill disaster has clearly shown that our nation's leaders need us to show them what it means to have a backbone. So let's do just that, let's send one directly to President Obama, Vice President Biden, and each and every member of the Senate and the House of Representatives.... Read more |
| |
|
 |
A Tepid Plea for Unspecified Change
Article by Richard Heinberg • June 16, 2010
Last night's presidential speech on the Gulf oil spill had been pre-billed by the Washington Post as Barack Obama's "Jimmy Carter moment." But reading any of Carter's speeches side by side with last night's bromide is an invitation to nostalgia and bitter disappointment... Read more |
| |
|
 |
The Peak Oil Crisis: A Speech to the Nation
Article by Tom Whipple • June 16, 2010
This was not the speech we were waiting for. The one in which the President goes on national television and says "My fellow citizens — Our nation and indeed the whole industrialized world is about to face one of the greatest challenges to befall mankind for many centuries... Read more |
| |
|
 |
What the name of America's most tragic oil rig reveals
Post by Anthony Perl • June 4, 2010
The name of what will almost certainly become America's most infamous oil rig can help us understand what is really happening in the Gulf of Mexico. The Deepwater Horizon... Read more |
| |
|
 |
Museletter #217: Deepwater Horizon and the Technology, Economics, and Environmental Impacts of Resource Depletion
Article by Richard Heinberg • June 1, 2010
Following the failure of the latest efforts to plug the gushing leak from BP's Deepwater Horizon oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, and amid warnings that oil could continue to flow for another two months or more, perhaps it's a good time to step back a moment mentally and look at the bigger picture... Read more |
latest publications
Read, watch or listen to the latest content by our Fellows, Board and Staff anytime on our website. Here are some selections from the last month:
 |
Solarize the White House
Post by Richard Heinberg • June 29, 2010
Post Carbon Institute is a partner in the Globama campaign. If you think it's a good idea to put solar panels back on the White House, please sign the petition... Read more |
| |
|
 |
Coming soon to a screen near you: the world's first climate war!
Post by Asher Miller • June 15, 2010
It's estimated that only a small fraction of the oil that's being hemorrhaged into the Gulf of Mexico is visible to us, either washing up as tar balls on beaches... Read more |
| |
|
 |
David kicks Goliath's ass: proof we can beat big oil
Post by Tod Brilliant • June 9, 2010
NOBODY LIKES NAKED OLD MEN: I can hear the protesting howls of naked old women, so let me amend this to, "most people don't like naked old men"... Read more |
| |
|
 |
Rethinking Transition as a Pattern Language: an introduction
Post by Rob Hopkins • June 9, 2010
Yesterday I posted a document which contained the first rough attempt at sketching out a new way of communicating Transition, using Christopher Alexander's 'pattern language' approach... Read more |
| |
|
 |
What I Learned in the Charleston Jail
Post by Ken White • June 2, 2010
US public education has been retreating into an ever-narrower curriculum for several decades, and the early casualties have been programs that involve kinesthetic experiences and the manipulation of materials... Read more |
| |
|
 |
From Growth to Decline: Vehicle Miles Traveled in Kentucky and the USA
Post by Michael Bomford • June 2, 2010
In a previous post I contrasted Kentucky's energy plan with Ireland's. Both plan to grow biomass to offset some of their fossil fuel use... Read more |
| |
|
 |
Population
KQED Radio interview with Bill Ryerson • June 1, 2010
There's a consensus that Earth doesn't have enough resources to support the world's growing population -- but there's disagreement about the root of the problem... Read more |
Back to top
your stories
Read our favorite story of resilience for this month, submitted by readers like you. Read more stories on our website. Submit your story.
The Perennial Garden project
 The Perennial Garden Project grew out of a series of conversations between Dr. Kathleen Forgey, a Physical Anthropologist on the faculty of Indiana University Northwest, and myself that stretched from the spring of 2008 until the actual creation of the garden in the autumn of 2009...We are growing annual and perennial grasses (including Eastern Gamagrass and a few strains of Teosinte, both possible ancestors of corn, as well as Intermediate Wheatgrass) to compare seed production in an effort to answer some of our questions about domestication.. We are also working with perennial tubers. This season we are growing Red Nordland potatoes, Chinese Yams, and Jerusalem Artichokes trying to establish a rotation of tubers that will produce a supply of staples throughout a growing season... Read more |
Back to top
fellows and staff in the press
energy bulletin highlights
Below is a selection of recent articles and media appearing on Energy Bulletin.
energy bulletin featured articles
 |
Reflections on the 2010 Transition Network conference
by Rob Hopkins, Transition Culture
The Transition Network conference 2010, held at Seale Hayne Agricultural College, was an extraordinary few days. It is a mark of how far the organisation and the concept has come in its 4 year life that it can bring 300 people together for such a deep, challenging and nourishing 3 days... Read more |
| |
|
 |
Creating a game plan for the transition to a sustainable U.S. economy
Solutions Journal
The Obama administration should take advantage of the economic crisis to redefine the country's social goals to prioritize sustainable human well-being... Read more |
| |
|
 |
Wine, local food, and local resilience: part 1
by Don Plummer, The Trillium Patch
A few weeks ago, the sustainability media outlet treehugger ran an article titled "Is Biodynamic and Organic Wine Still Green If It Is Shipped Halfway Around The World?" Author Lloyd Alter discusses the carbon footprint of wine...Read more |
energy bulletin featured media
 |
Peak Moment 173: Transitioning to the Elm Street Economy
by Yuba Gals Independent Media, Peak Moment Television
How can you contribute your skills towards meeting real needs now and in the future? Paul and Sarah Edwards, the authors of Home-Based Business for Dummies, focus on the "Elm Street Economy" of locally-owned businesses... View media |
| |
|
 |
Deconstructing Dinner: Margaret Atwood joins prison farms campaign/Vancouver's backyard chickens I
by Jon Steinman, Deconstructing Dinner
As part of our ongoing coverage on the future of Canada's prison farms, we check in on the campaign where well-known Canadian author Margaret Atwood has now joined the fight... Listen |
| |
|
 |
Pursuing happiness in hard times
by Carl Etnier, Relocalizing Vermont Productions
Is there something in new research that gives clues as to how we can maintain happiness at a time of industrial contraction? There's good information out there on how to contract sustainably--some of it surprising... Listen |
Back to top
transition US update
A monthly update from the US regional hub of the international Transition movement.
The big highlight is of course the Transition Network 2010 Conference held in the UK. Join us for a conversation on Thursday, July 1st -- Pat Benson (Transition US Board member) and Zaida Amaral (Transition US Trainer) will report back on the highlights of this year's conference. They will also be leading us in a guided conversation on how the Movement is evolving. Sign up here. In the meantime, read, watch, listen to more ideas and insights from the conference.
 This month, we welcome five new official Transition Initiatives, bringing the total to 72 in the US (313 worldwide)!
Browse the June Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition and, as always, the monthly Transition US Newsletter for more on Transition Initiatives, projects and resources. |
Back to top
events
View our events calendar
 2010 Aspen Environment Forum
July 25—28, 2010, Aspen, CO
Post Carbon Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg will be one of the speakers on this year's programme...
Further event information. |
| |
 On The Money - A Vision Quest to the Heart of Local Money
August 14-18, 2010, Findhorn, Scotland
Post Carbon Fellow Richard Douthwaite, presenting via videolink, will be one of the guest speakers. Richard is helping to develop the Liquidity Network, a debt-free electronic currency system, in Ireland.
Further event information. |
| |
 Southwest Michigan Community Harvest Fest
September 19, 2010, Scotts, MI
Post Carbon Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg will be making the featured presentation at this event on the subject of 'Sustainability: How to Make the Transition'.
Further event information. |
| |
 Green Collar Jobs
September 21, 2010, Syracuse, NY
While the term "green-collar jobs" gains more press and pundits daily, very few people have actually marshaled the resources to get unemployed Americans trained and placed on pathways out of poverty in this growing economic sector. Post Carbon Fellow Majora Carter has.
Further event information. |
| |
 UDEI Energy & Sustainability Conference 2010
September 23, 2010, Newark, DE
Post Carbon Program Director Daniel Lerch will be one of the keynote speakers at the University of Delaware's 2010 Energy & Sustainability Conference. The conference will cover a variety of topics including eco-villages, green entrepreneurship, local foods, sustainable building and community design, permaculture and energy policy.
Further event information. |
| |
 2010: Prairie Festival
September 24, 2010, Salina, KS
Post Carbon Fellow Joshua Farley will be one of the speaker's at this year's Prairie Festival, held by the Land Institute.
Further event information. |
Image credit: Uncle Sam cartoon — The Economist
Image credit: Ocean horizon colemama/flickr
Image credit: (Climate war) Maldives army — Lance Corporal Jesse Leger
Image credit: Yellow crowd twose/flickr
Image credit: America map — Marc Fader/Solutions
Image credit: Bunch of grapes RaeA/flickr
Image credit: Happy Hand dotbenjamin/flickr
Image credit: Transition New Haven's Health & Wellbeing Open Space Event Maria Tupper/flickr
|
issues
support pci
Becoming Native to This Place
