Fifth U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions
October 31 – Nov 2, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan
Plan C: Individual and Community Survival Strategies for the Energy Crisis
This year’s conference is being held in the beautiful Oakland Center on the campus of Oakland University, in Rochester, Michigan, located in southeastern Michigan between Flint and Detroit, near conference sponsor, Upland Hills Ecological Awareness Center (UHEAC).
Why Attend This Conference?
Skyrocketing oil prices, mounting geopolitical tensions, grave economic realities, and dangerous climate changes are threatening our lives and communities like never before.
The age of cheap, abundant fossil fuels is coming to an end, and urgent action is required to transform our over-consumptive society into one that uses far less energy.
By acting now to reduce household energy use and re-localize economic production, we can create resilient, sustainable communities that will be able to weather the coming economic and ecological storms.
At this groundbreaking conference participants will explore sound strategies for curtailing energy use in the areas of housing and food – including both theory and practice. We’ll examine the long energy decline of the 21st century, the psychological barriers to rapid change, and the challenge of persuading our communities to embrace local, low-energy living.
You’ll learn from lifestyle leaders about growing more of your own food, creating local food security in your community, retrofitting your home to stay warm without fossil fuels, dramatically cutting your household energy use, and educating your community to prepare for the hard times ahead.
Tentative Schedule of Presentations and Workshops:
Keynote speaker is Dmitry Orlov, author of Reinventing Collapse: Soviet Example and American Prospects
Other speakers include:
- John Michael Greer, author of the forthcoming The Long Descent: A User’s Guide to the End of the Industrial Age
- Richard Heinberg, author of The Party’s Over and Powerdown (via webcast)
- Robert Waldrop, founder of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative
- Katrin Klingenberg, director of the Passive House Institute US
- Peter Bane, editor of Permaculture Activist
- Pat Murphy, author of Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change
- Megan Quinn Bachman, Outreach Director of Community Solutions; co-producer of The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
