Post Carbon Newsletter #29 July 2007

1. Extra Chance to Double Your Donation
2. Post Carbon Cities
3. Global Public Media
4. Relocalization Network
5. Energy Farms Network: Electric Tractors
6. Energy Garden Report
7. Featured Post Carbon Group
8. Forthcoming Events
9. August Preview

1. Extra Chance to Match Your Donation!

Our summer fund drive was scheduled to end on July 19th.

But a very generous donor has now offered to DOUBLE your contributions to Post Carbon through the end of July.

So please take advantage of this great opportunity to increase the funds we need at Post Carbon to keep expanding our great programs, like the Relocalization Network, Global Public Media, and Post Carbon Cities.

During the drive your contribution will be worth double!

For everyone who's already given to this fund drive, thanks. Your response has been fantastic.

As a friend of Post Carbon Institute, you know about the Institute's dynamic and innovative programs to educate communities on creating local responses to peak oil and climate change. But every day we get new requests for more information and more services. We need and appreciate your support.

So, please donate now. Thank you for your help.

2. Post Carbon Cities

Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty is our new guidebook on peak oil and global warming for local governments in the United States and Canada. The guidebook describes how these two phenomena are quickly creating new uncertainties and vulnerabilities for cities of all sizes, and explains what local decision-makers can do in response.

Post Carbon Cities fills an important gap in the resources currently available to local government decision-makers on planning for the changing global energy and climate context of the 21st century. Visit www.postcarboncities.net/guidebook for an Executive Summary.

"How will we cope with a future of energy scarcity? As a policy maker I look to other communities for inspiration and ideas, but there’s been a lack of information on what local governments are doing to adapt to Peak Oil. Post Carbon Cities fills this gap: herein lies the roadmap plotted by the cities that are leading the way. Enthusiastically recommended!"
- Dave Rollo, City Council President, Bloomington, Indiana

July's Feature Article on the Post Carbon Cities website is a guest piece from Christa Koehler (Clean Air Cool Planet) and Steve Whitman (Jeffrey H. Taylor and Associates) on their new Community Toolkit that helps cities reduce greenhouse gas emissions while saving money. Read this and other feature articles written by and for Post Carbon Cities on our Features page.

We sent out our first newsletter in early July. Have you subscribed? Stay up to date on the the most important peak oil and global warming developments of interest to for local governments. Our next issue goes out the first week of August.

3. Global Public Media

Rob Hopkins of TransitionCulture.org explained to GPM's Andi Hazelwood about the UK's Transition Movement towards relocalization. Sheri Liao talked about Global Village Beijing - the foremost non-governmental organization (NGO) working towards a greener China. Deconstructing Dinner covered the British Columbia Agricultural Land Reserve in Canada. Farmers, business people and government employees talked about "doing it hard" through the Australian drought.

Also this month: is overpopulation the root cause of all the world's ills? GPM provided a comprehensive look at the work of Professor Albert Bartlett, whose Arithmetic, Population and Energy presentation is the most popular piece on the Global Public Media website. Michael Brownlee of Boulder Valley Relocalization talked of his experiences with community organization and action with GPM's Julian Darley, and Chris Hansen and Dr. Jason Bradford from Willits Energy Farm made a case for the electric tractor (see #5 below for more). Jason Bradford also asked author Sharyn Astyk how many farmers it will take to feed America as oil and natural gas supplies decline on The Reality Report.

4. Relocalization Network

This month we welcome to the Relocalization Network two new local groups, Post-Petrol Italy / Post Carbon Collective Italia in Milano, Italy, and SustainaBundy in Bundaberg, Australia. In Queensland, Australia, Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast (CASSC) is approaching local council about adopting the Oil Depletion Protocol. On July 28, two relocalisation group coordinators (who are both permaculturists) on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland will be starting a new permaculture course titled "Time for an Oil Change". The course is based on the work of one of the founders of the permaculture concept, David Holmgren.

On relocalize.net, check out the new Google map of groups and read the recent blog post of Timebroker for Project Port Lyttelton’s Time Bank, Chris Twemlow, about empowering the community through the gift of giving.

Subscribe to the monthly Relocalize Newsletter and visit www.relocalize.net to stay current with all the Relocalization Network activities!

5. Energy Farms Network: Electric Tractors

Chris Hansen reports on what's happening at the Willits Energy Farm:

The Willits Energy Farm is gaining notoriety within Mendocino County and provides inspiration to those who visit. In six months the entire site has been converted from an abandoned baseball field to an operating CSA project. Vegetables and dryland grains are joined with energy crops of sunflower and sorghum to bring the site into full development. The small parcel was transformed using hand tools and has begun to raise natural questions of scale. While our toolset seems appropriate for the small scale, will it be possible to cultivate 3+ acres with such devices? If not, what tools will we use?

In response to these questions we have made contact with activist and inventor Stephen Heckeroth to test his “scratch-built” electric tractor. We are looking to make a couple of repairs to the tractor and are eager to put it to the test in the Willits area this fall. Our goal is to demonstrate a form of agriculture that can operate with continually fewer fossil fuel inputs, reduced GHG emissions, and will not require extra crop land to grow biofuel. Post Carbon Institute has an opportunity to test this revolutionary tool and provide data for other farmers who are seeking to scale post-petroleum agricultural practices to 25+ acres.

To initiate this research we need to raise $7,000 for replacement parts and labor. Please visit Global Public Media and read The Case for the Electric Tractor where you will be informed about the inflated hope biofuel and can watch a video of Heckeroth’s electric tractor.

6. Tools for Making Ethanol

We're getting ready to start producing our first "crop" of ethanol from the Energy Garden in Sebastopol, California. Our crops for ethanol include Jeruslam Artichokes, Apples and Sorghum. Our Energy Gardener Josh Puckett has been making and gathering the tools and equipment we need. As Josh explains in detail on this Energy Garden's page, we start the process by grinding up the plants and producing a wort, which is then fermented to produce ethanol. We are in the process of getting a still with which, we can produce ethanol as pure as 95%. Here is some of the equipment which Josh will be using: to see the full report, click here.

7. Featured Post Carbon Group: SustainaBundy

Andi Hazelwood isn't moving from Queensland's Burnett Inland to coastal Bundaberg until September, but she's already working on making her hometown-to-be more sustainable. Andi has formed a new relocalization group for "Bundy", as locals refer to Bundaberg, and she calls the group SustainaBundy.

SustainaBundy's initial project will be a guide on how to live a "greener" life in Bundaberg. The guide will include a directory of relocalization-friendly businesses in Bundy, how-to articles on everything from recycling to keeping chickens in town, and interviews with local decision makers about environmental initiatives in the region.

Andi said, "As a new resident, creating this guide is a great way for me personally to find the places I want to do business with in town, it'll be a useful resource for people who want to be more environmentally friendly but maybe don't know where or how, and it's also a good way to develop a membership for SustainaBundy. We've already been featured in the Bundaberg NewsMail newspaper, so I think we're on the right track."

Andi is documenting the development of both the guide and the group at the SustainaBundy website.

8. Forthcoming Events

Earth Works Exposition
July 27-29, Denver Merchandise Mart, 451 East 58th Avenue, Denver, Colorado

Richard Heinberg, recent recipient of a Gold award from Foreword Magazine for The Oil Depletion Protocol, offers the keynote address titled, “Peak Oil: Challenges and Opportunities at the End of Cheap Petroleum."

Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre Grand Opening
August 4

Australia’s Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre hosts their grand opening. The Centre showcases guest speakers, local sustainability experts, practical workshops, films, and much, much more.

New York Green Festival
August 10-12, Ithaca, New York

Workshops, music, and panel discussions on the politics of sustainability.

SolFest XII
Solar Living Center, Hopland, California
August 18-19, 2007

SolFest is a two-day celebration of renewable energy and sustainable living. There will be a main stage, family stage, and six workshop tents filled with world-renowned speakers, musicians and artists, offering keynotes, panels, performances, and over fifty one-hour workshops. Julian Darley, Richard Heinberg and Celine Rich will giving a presentation and workshop on Relocalization on Sunday August 19th.

9. August Preview

More on the pitfalls of industrial biofuels.