Randy White

The Sharing economy is quickly becoming a diluted term, just like ‘sustainable” and ‘all natural”. If “sharing” means “make some side cash”, let’s call it what it really is. It is a way to raise cash using owned assets (a room, a car, a wheelbarrow, etc.) that boomerang back to the rightful owner at some point.

Randy White, Founder of Bright Neighbor and Co-Author of the Portland Peak Oil Task Force Report ““Descending the Oil Peak: Navigating the Transition from Oil and Natural Gas”, presents “The Sharing Economy: A Plan B For Moving America Forward” at TEDxSoMa in San Francisco. The presentation outlines community response plans in case of economic collapse.

Recently, we have had amazing breakthroughs in human communications. We have broken the four-minute mile, and the real-time web of living in the moment has arrived. You can now be instantly witnessed around the world by anyone with a modern communications device. There are useful applications for this technology that can be immediately applied to community-building.

Regarding whether I am more or less optimistic over this past year over the local and global response to peak oil, my response is what President Bush just said in his recent speech… “We are not winning, but we are not losing”.

For readers interested in what can be done on a local level, please consider taking the following suggestions and recommendations to your local government leaders. (Report and recommendations from a member of the Portland Peak Oil Task Force.)