US: Peak Oil Mini Summit at the Green Festival

October 27, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO- October 28, 2004. The Green Festival, a two-day party intended to accelerate the emergence of a new economic paradigm that values life, will be host to an unofficial peak oil mini summit. The official program for Saturday November 6th features Peter Camejo, Richard Heinberg, and Julian Darley speaking about oil depletion and the implications. A number of speakers on Saturday and Sunday will address key aspects of relocalization including local food, energy, and money.

In addition, a number of authors, publishers, and nonprofits active in the peak oil movement are planning on attending and will be unofficially congregating at Post Carbon Institute’s booth #465 including:

  • Jan Lundberg, publisher of Culture Change and Auto-Free Times
  • Julian Darley, author of High Noon for Natural Gas
  • Kirstin Miller, Eco-City Builders
  • Matt Savinar, author of The Oil Age is Over and lifeaftertheoilcrash.net
  • Richard Heinberg, author of Powerdown and The Party’s Over
  • Ron Cooke, author of Oil, Jihad, and Destiny

Post Carbon Institute commends Global Exchange and Co-op America (organizers of The Green Festival) for having the foresight to schedule speakers that address oil depletion in a serious and realistic fashion. Unlike the Green Festival (and Solfest by the Solar Living Institute), most progressive and sustainability oriented festivals either ignore energy or highlight “techno-fixers” – well known environmentalists pushing a particular technology or technology in general as The Solution to our energy predicament.* The message that technology and The Market (or market-based solutions) will save the day and we do not need to change is popular with audiences; however, such messages are misleading at best. As Kevin Danaher, co-founder of Global Exchange, says tweaking the existing global economic system is akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We need to usher in a new paradigm that is both life-affirming and life-restoring; the Green Festival is the kickoff party.

Post Carbon Picks

Saturday
Kavita Ramdas: Women and the Earth: A Sustainable Partnership (12pm)
Julian Darley: Global Relocalization: From Here to Sustainability (1pm)
Katherine Steele: Urban Permaculture Strategies: What do I do if I live in a city? (1pm)
Van Jones esq. Green Jobs Not Jails (2pm)
Peter Camejo: The Coming Radicalization and the End of Oil (3pm)
Richard Heinberg: Energy and World Events (4pm)
Richard Heinberg: Energy and World Events (5pm)
Dame Anita Roddick: Take It Personally: The Global Water Crisis (6pm)
Kevin Danaher: Building the Green Economy (7pm)
Julia Butterfly Hill: STIRRING THE POT: Making the difference in challenging times (8pm)

Sunday
Howard Lyman: Factory Farming is Brown at Best (12pm)
Annette Riggs: Complementary Currencies for Sustainable Local Economies (2pm)
Dr. David C Korten: Renewing the American Experiment (3pm)
Derrick Jensen: Older Than Words (4pm)
Greg Palast: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (6pm)

Organized by Global Exchange and Co-op America, the Green Festival is a two-day party with a serious purpose: to accelerate the emergence of a new economic paradigm that is life-affirming and life-restoring. Together we are cultivating a culture of sustainability and social equity that honors our interdependence with all life. Green Festival unites green businesses, social and environmental groups, visionary thinkers and thousands of community members in a lively exchange of ideas, commerce and movement building fun. For more information, see http://sf.greenfestivals.org.

Post Carbon Institute is an initiative and operating unit of MetaFoundation, a non-profit organization chartered in Portland, Oregon, United States. Post Carbon Institute is an educational institution and think tank that explores in theory and practice what cultures, civilisation, governance & economies might look like without the use of (non-renewable) hydrocarbons as energy and chemical feedstocks. For more information, visit http://www.postcarbon.org. For news on oil depletion, visit Global Public Media at http://www.globalpublicmedia.com.