Petrocollapse: Social Isolation or Solidarity?

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 5, 2005
The Community Church of New York Unitarian Universalist

40 East 35th Street, New York, NY 10016

Event co-sponsored by The Graduate Center, City of New York (CUNY),
and Jan Lundberg at www.CultureChange.org

see www.petrocollapse.org
contact person; Jenna Orkin at jennakilt@aol.com or (1-212)
215-243-3144

As stated by Jan Lundberg, a principal conference organizer who ran the
oil
statistics firm Lundberg Survey: “As oil prices rise and crude oil
supplies
and refined products strain to keep up with demand, the peaking of
global
oil extraction is finally becoming acknowledged in the mainstream news.
As hurricanes Katrina and Rita have hampered petroleum production in
addition to devastating a large population and ecosystem, people are
asking
if this is a foretaste of the future of a nation that has failed to
conserve
energy … yet the complete story on peak oil is still suppressed, and
the
public remains in the dark about the vast array of consequences of this
looming crisis. Dishonest reporting by OPEC and major oil companies,
have
contributed to the illusion that there is sufficient time before we
‘run out
of oil’ to transition to a ’solution’ , whether it be hydrogen,
renewables,
an attempt to increase the use of nuclear power, or some combination of
the
above.”

AT THE PETROCOLLAPSE CONFERENCE THE PARTICIPANTS WILL BE ASKING:

• What are we facing now as the economy prepares to hit the wall known
  as
  resource limits? Will growth suddenly implode?
• What will be the effects of Peak Oil (a geological phenomenon) and
  Petrocollapse (an economic and social phenomenon) on the food supply
  and
  other services we depend on?
• What humane and ethical means are available to reduce the population
  (over
  the course of several generations) to a sustainable number?
• What other mitigation strategies are possible?
• What is the role of the market in determining how severe the effect
  of
  shortages stemming from geological depletion will be?
• Will we choose to create a sustainable culture and a new localized
  economy
  after Peak Oil has happened?
• Is there a “Plan B” to ease the transition to sustainable living in a
  world without plentiful energy and oil products?

THE PETROCOLLAPSE CONFERENCE AGENDA:

• 8:30 am - Registration begins.
• 9:00 am - Introduction by Jenna Orkin, Co-founder, World Trade Center
  Environmental Organization.
• 9:30 am - Jan Lundberg, Founder Culture Change; Publisher Auto Free
  Times.
• 10:10 am - David Pimentel, Professor of Ecology and Agricultural
  Sciences,
  Cornell University.
• 10:30 am questions/comments from the floor
• 10:45 am break
• 11:20 am - John Darnell, Energy and Environment Projects Coordinator
  for
  Congressman Roscoe Bartlett.
• 11:55 am - James Howard Kunstler, author, “The Long Emergency;
  Who We Are; Who We Will Become”.
• 12:15 pm questions/comments from the floorfollowing are three presentations booked as a Panel on Government
  Response
  to Peak Oil: How They’ve Responded to Disasters in the Past; How They
  Should
  Respond in the Future; How They Actually Will Respond -
• 12:30 pm - Jenna Orkin, “How They Get Away With It: The Devil’s in the
  Details”.
• 12:45 pm - Jason Meggs, Co-founder, The Plan B Project. “Policy
  Barriers to
  Sustainability”.
• 1:00 pm - Michael Ruppert, author: Crossing the Rubicon; Founder:
  Fromthewilderness.com, “Government/Financial Awareness
  of
  and Response to Peak Oil”.
• 2:00 pm lunchfollowing lunch are two presentations booked as a Panel on Renewables -
• 2:15 pm - Michel Kane, Investigative reporter: Fromthewilderness.com;
  “Renewable Energy: Too Little Too Late?”.
• 2:30 pm - Pincas Jawetz, author - “Promptbook on Sustainability”;
  founder www.SustainabiliTank.info
  and U.N. Correspondent for Culture Change.
• 2:50 pm - Michael Rupprt, “Government/Finacial Awareness of and
  Response
  to Peak Oil: Part Two”.
• 3:15 pm questions/comments from the floor
• 3:30 pm break
• 4:30 pm - Panel chaired by Jan Lundberg dealing with Local Solutions:
  • Albert Bates, President, Global Ecovillage Network,
    “Transitioning to Ecovillages;
  • Aresh Javadi, Co-Founder; More Gardens!
  • Dan Miner, Senior Vice President, Long Island City
    Business
    Development Corporation;
  • David Room, Director of North American Operations,
    Post
    Carbon Institute.
• 4:55 pm questions/comments from the floor.
• 5:00 pm Conclusions

————————————————–

A personal comment: We hope that the meeting will conclude that
Petrocollapse will occur even sooner then indicated by the continuation
of
the present supply and demand indications.

In effect we will have to decrease our use of fossil fuels even sooner
-
this because nature will push us to understand that hurricanes, melting
glaciers, draughts, floods, perhaps even earthquakes and tsunamis, have
their source in the greenhouse gas effect that we cause.

Hopefully, it can be accepted that we must embark on a route of
changing
lifestyles in order to be less energy dependent and opening up a real
possibility that we supply the remaining needs without emitting
offensive
gases to the atmosphere. A concept of Gross National Happiness is
needed as
a replacement to the golden calf we worship now - the ubiquitous GNP.
Quantifying our losses will eventually cause the needed awakening.
www.SustainabiliTank.info will report on the meeting’s conclusions.
(Pincas Jawetz)