Happy New Year everyone,

Here is the announcement of the next Redesigning Ottawa Workshop.  

peak-oil-climate-change-workshop-ii-announcement 

Hope you can all participate.  We have a couple of interesting presentations and then will get down to work in the roundtables.  I’ll have more information to send you in the next week or so of useful reports to read and websites to visit that will help inform all of us in our discussions.

The location is the same as for the first workshop except we have a bigger room this time which will be welcome!

Please be sure to let me know if you will be attending the workshop.  As well, spread the word if you can.

Thanks,  Heather

After the presentations the group debated problems in each area of Food, Energy, Biodiversity, the Built Environment, and Water. We created tree posters with each idea occupying a leaf. These will be used at future workshops.

Participants are asked to reply to this post with comments about this first workshop. A brief introduction (Name, profession, etc) would be a great start.

Thanks!

From the organizer:

This workshop is the first of four that are planned to take place between now and June 2009. The emphasis will be on a positive and creative approach. Results from the workshop process will be given to the City for consideration in their own future planning process that is taking place right now called Choosing Our Future. We will also be using the outcomes of the workshop process in other ways as well.

In the morning we will hear about oil issues and their potential impact on our society, and then about what some countries in Europe have done and are doing to meet the future in a positive way. After lunch, we will have a session together to look at the “big picture” ramifications and systemic connections of these issues as they affect our city. Then everyone will split into separate groups dealing with different aspects of basic human needs – Energy, Food, Water, Shelter, Biodiversity – for 20 minute rotations, so that each participant will have a chance to brainstorm on every one of these areas within the context of climate change, oil insecurity, food and water security. We will not be reaching final conclusions, but making a start at a complicated and in-depth look at finding positive solutions to the very overwhelming influences that will impact our lives over the next decades.

I’m Ron Rancourt, Software Developer for the Federal Government.  I’ve been involved with local activist groups like www.greenspace-alliance.ca, www.evco.ca and www.friendsoftheotrain.org.  I’ve been following Peak Oil since I saw The End of Suburbia in 2005 and since have read several books and seen a few DVDs on the subject.

I’m interested in becoming more energy and food independent.  This was my first conference of this kind and I had a great time.  I would like to learn more about Passive House construction, renewables and eco-villages.

byline: Addressing our energy challenged future.

Over 300 people convened on the Oakland University campus in Rochester Michigan this past Halloween weekend for the 5th annual Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions.

The event was centered around Pat Murphy’s ground-breaking new book entitled Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change.

Keynote speakers engaged participants on the current economic downturn, energy constraints and possible solutions like efficient home design, eco-villages, local food generation, shared transportation and renewable energy.

Perhaps validating the conference, the International Energy Agency is expected to announce this week that the world’s major oilfields are declining faster than originally anticipated.

The event was sponsored by Community Solutions Inc., and Upland Hills Ecological Center.

The Long Emergency

The term Peak Oil was first used by geologist M. King Hubbert who successfully predicted the peak of US oil production in 1975. It refers to the point at which the rate of production of oil reaches its all-time peak and begins to decline forever thereafter. World peak oil, the conference was told, occurred in July of this year, based on monthly production figures gathered from around the world.

The issues of global warming, peak oil and economic turmoil combine into a perfect storm, increasingly being referred to as The Long Emergency after the name of a book of the same title by James Howard
Kunstler: http://www.kunstler.com.

Impact on Globalization

Reliance on cheap energy for transporting goods and food over vast distances was cited as one of the problems facing society today. As prices for fuel rise, so does the cost of everything. Local food production, driving less, reducing individual energy consumption were suggested as essential responses to address this problem.

Two thirds of all energy use is attributed to individuals in the areas of housing, food and transportation. By finding efficiencies in these areas we can greatly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

Cuba as an example

Cuba was featured in the conference as a role model for America, as they survived being cut off from Russian oil supply with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Communities had to quickly
find less energy dependant ways of farming, transportation and living sustainably. The Cuban experience is a model for what may have to happen in America.

For more information on Peak Oil and Community Solutions, see http://plancconference.org.

Ron Rancourt

Participant – 5th Annual Peak Oil and Community Solutions Conference,
Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2008, Oakland University, Michigan