YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – August 1, 2007 – This October several hundred activists, educators, and community leaders pioneering a low-energy way of life will gather here at a three-day conference on curtailing energy consumption and greenhouse gases to lessen the impact on the global climate and dependence on fossil fuels.
Among the nationally known speakers at the Fourth U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions will be keynoters David Korten, author of The Great Turning and When Corporations Rule the World, and Thomas Princen, author of The Logic of Sufficiency. The conference will be at Antioch College’s Kelly Hall from Friday, Oct. 26 through Sunday, Oct. 28.
“The peak and decline of oil production and accelerating climate change threaten our lives and communities like never before,” said Pat Murphy, executive director of The Community Solution. “Because the proposed solutions based upon technology and quick-fixes will be inadequate, more and more people are realizing that they must take responsibility for their lives and communities . With practical strategies and inspirational stories, this conference will show people how to dramatically reduce their energy use, while increasing their well-being.”
Other conference speakers include Richard Heinberg, author of The Oil Depletion Protocol and Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World; Judy Wicks, co-founder and chair of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE); Linda Wigington, founder of the Affordable Comfort Institute, an organization promoting residential home performance; Sharon Astyk, author of the forthcoming Depletion and Abundance: The New Home Front, Families and the Coming Ecological Crises and A Nation of Farmers.; Murphy, from The Community Solution and author of the forthcoming Curtailment and Community: Strategies for Surviving the End of Fossil Fuels; and Megan Quinn Bachman, outreach director of The Community Solution and conference Master of Ceremonies.
Conference participants will learn how peak oil and climate change will affect their lives, discuss ways to help their communities plan for hard times, and hear about viable economic alternatives like sufficiency and localization. The conference may be available via webcast this year to those who are unable to attend in person.
Princen will speak Friday and Korten on Saturday, both at 7 p.m. The cost for each is $10 for adults and $8 for students. The cost to attend the conference ranges from $80 to $155 depending on the number of days attended. To register, go to www.communitysolution.org call The Community Solution at 937-767-2161 or email us at [email protected] for more information.
The Community Solution, founded in 1940 by former Antioch President Arthur Morgan, is a national resource for knowledge and practices supporting low energy lifestyles in cooperative communities and neighborhoods. Its goal is to the strengthening of communities of relationship and place through low energy living.
