Central VT SLN

Here are the minutes of the last meeting of the Greater East Montpelier Peak Oil Group/Central Vermont Sustainable Living Network. There's a lot exciting happening now, so please read them and the information below, and participate how you can.

If you're not already signed up for the February 3 statewide conference of the Vermont Peak Oil Network (VPON), this is the last chance. Registration is filling up, and the deadline is January 20. Cost is only $10 for excellent workshops by Phil Rice and Beth Sawin of the Sustainability Institute in Hartwell and Dona Bate and Erin Russell-Story on communicating the peak oil message. Plus, there will be a meeting of the newly formed Vermont Peak Oil Political Action Group. Contact newsletter@vtpeakoil.net to register.

There's a lot going on politically in Vermont with regard to peak oil now; to join that discussion, sign up for the Vermont Peak Oil Political Action Group email list at http://vtpeakoil.net/mailman/listinfo/action_vtpeakoil.net

Also, I'd like to call your attention to a blog post I wrote, contrasting the testimony we gave on peak oil to the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee on Wednesday with testimony on funding buildings efficiency that the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee heard Thursday. John Kaufmann of the Portland Peak Oil Task Force testified Wednesday that Portland set a goal of cutting oil and natural gas use by 1/2 in 25 years. The funding program for building efficiency proposed cutting heating oil and gas use by 10% in 17 years, which would work out to about 14% in 25 years. You can read the post at http://www.vtcommons.org/node/1061

Our parent organization the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) continues to reach out to more people of diverse interests with a new course on FOOD. A large enthusiastic local group of farmers, food retailers, and localvores are piloting the course as are other farmers, cooks, and loyal earth institute volunteers around the country. The course will be available in late spring.

NWEI is also working to obtain publishers' permissions to allow their courses to be offered as part of "for credit" courses for colleges and high schools. We'd love your help in bringing these courses to students.

We hope you will bring the Global Warming course or another course (Voluntary Simplicity, Choices for Sustainable Living, Discovering a Sense of Place, Globalization and Its Critics, Deep Ecology and Healthy Children - Healthy Planet) to your workplace, library, faith community or group of friends this winter.

VEI can use experienced course participants to facilitate the first and last sessions of these courses. We'd also like volunteers to contribute to our quarterly newsletter (see vtearthinstitute.org/news.html for past newsletters).

Please contact VEI's new central Vermont course coordinator Nicole DiDomenico at 802-279-2371 or ndidomen@yahoo.com to arrange a course, join a group that's forming, or to volunteer.

The 12th Annual Vermont Grazing Conference will feature Missouri grazier Greg Judy as keynote speaker. Judy will also lead additional workshops on high density stocking, and leased land opportunities. Judy is an innovative leader managing rented and leased land to raise beef cattle, sheep, swine, and goats with low overhead costs to maximize his business income. 24 workshops! Lunch time discussion sessions! Cheese table! Seasonal farm lunch! Terrific vendors and displays! Cost: $55 members, $60 nonmembers. Contact: Jenn Colby

This inaugurates the 2008 Clark lecture series at the church. Cider will be served at 6:00 pm, dinner ($10) begins at 6:30 pm, and the talk (free) begins at 7:30 pm. The talk will be an introduction to peak oil.

Film: Hemp and the Rule of Law, followed by discussion with North Dakota farmer and representative David Monson and North Dakota's Agriculture Commissioner, Roger Johnson. Sponsored by Rural Vermont. $10 donation to Rural Vermont.

Lecture and discussion, "No Sustainability, No Peace" with Carl Etnier and Joseph Gainza.

Veterans of the peace and environmental movements discuss connections among everyday choices in our lives, sustainability, peace, and US empire.

Sponsored by the Greater East Montpelier Peak Oil Group/Central Vermont Sustainable Living Network.

Joanna and Fran Macy's "Taking Heart in Tough Times" equips us to perceive and take part in the Great Turning, the epochal shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining society. The workshop will start on Friday at 7:30pm with an evening event for workshop participants and the public that will include a shadow puppet show on climate change by Jay Mead, Beth Sawin and Joanna Macy. Saturday and Sunday are for workshop participants only.

Friday evening: Joanna and Fran Macy with shadow puppet show by Jay Mead, 7-9:30pm. $15*

Saturday 9:00am-5:00pm and Sunday 9:00-4:00pm, $200* (cost includes Friday evening)

Participants are responsible for their own lodging, breakfast, dinner and travel to and from the workshop. Rooms are available at Sumner Mansion and in the surrounding area. For more information contact: Daniella Malin (daniella@sustainer.org) or Edie Farwell (efarwell@sustainer.org). (802) 436-1277 *Scholarships and work exchange available.

January 28 8:30 - 10:00 am Relocalizing Vermont, WGDR 91.1 FM or online www.wgdr.org

January 28 6 pm, Potluck dinner; 7 pm, Panel and discussion Unitarian Church, Montpelier

From Al Gore to Jiim Douglas, politicians and economists are proposing a 'cap-and-trade' system to help reduce carbon dioxide and prevent catastrophic global warming. But experiences with this approach around the world have raised far more questions than they have answered.

Two of the world's leading experts on carbon trading and climate justice will present their thoughts. Larry Lohmann, of the UK's CornerHouse research group is the author of Carbon Trading: A critical conversation on climate change, privatization and power

Jutta Kill, of the Forests and the European Union Resource Network works globally in defense of forests and the rights of forest dwelling peoples.

Sponsored by the Institute for Social Ecology and the Greater East Montpelier Peak Oil Group/Central Vermont Sustainable Living Network.

Introduction to Holistic Management, at AllTogetherNow Community Arts Center, 170A Cherry Tree Hill Road

Taught by Abe Collins of the Vermont Grass Farmer's Association and Carbon Farmers of America.Two Saturdays: February 2nd & 9th, 9 am - 5 pm. $150-250 sliding scale Potluck Lunch

Holistic Management has given farmers, natural resource managers and everyday people on four continents the tools they need to create satisfied people, healthy profits and healthy land for over thirty years.

For more information, or to register, call (802) 223-1242, or contact briant@pshift.com.

On Sunday, February 3rd, peak oil activists from around the state will gather to spend the day engaged in reflection, training, networking and discussion. The main event will be a workshop by Phil Rice and colleagues from the Sustainability Institute in Hartland on "Four Capacities for Effective Leadership on Peak Oil." Although the day is geared to address the interests of Vermont Peak Oil Network members, we welcome ALL Vermonters interested in promoting peak oil education and preparation at community and state levels to join us. For more information, contact Annie at newsletter@vtpeakoil.net. -- Please put "VPON Retreat" in the subject line. Or see the attached registration form.

NOFA-VT is pleased and proud to announce we will be offering, for the first time ever, a 2-day Winter Conference, February 16th and 17th, at the Vermont Technical College in Randolph, Vermont. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more information! If you'd like to be added to our mailing list to receive a copy of the Winter Conference brochure, please contact the office, 434-4122, or info@nofavt.org.

Greater East Montpelier Peak Oil Group/Central Vermont Sustainable Living Network

6:30 Program: Steve Miracle of East Montpelier on his experience since 1990 in building electric cars.

Dave Grundy facilitated the meeting and Nancy Bruce took notes. (Carl Etnier edited them for the minutes.)

Feb 3rd Vermont Peak Oil Network (VPON) gathering: It will be at Vermont Technical College Randolph, for all members of the statewide network. Exciting event! Registration deadline: January 20. Email newsletter@vtpeakoil.net to register.

The Good News Garage is converting a Saturn to an electric car as a prototype for low-income families.

Robert Jensen, political analyst, will be speaking about the future, Jan. 13th at Green Mountain Global Forum in Waitsfield.

Name of the group: we are waiting with great expectation what Jim and Richard come up with.

Lecture series: Posters have been made and distributed to the group for up-coming Jan. lecture:

The Vermont Peak Oil Political Action Group (VPO-PAG) is working on a peak oil report. Next Wednesday, they will testify at the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee.

Brian Tokar of the Institute for Social Ecology and the Durban Group for Climate Justice offers us a chance to co-sponsor an event on carbon trading. Larry Lohmann, an international expert on the limits of carbon trading, will be here January 28th, Monday. Do we want to co-sponsor a presentation? Yes. Dave Grundy and Carl Etnier will make contacts and arrangements for this possible afternoon presentation.

Future meetings:
They will continue to be held on the second Wednesday of each month, 6:00 – 8:30 pm, beginning with a potluck. We have the Unitarian Church Vestry reserved through June, except for February.

Our February meeting, February 13, will be held at Trinity United Methodist Church (next to the library) in Montpelier. Carl Etnier will invite Scott Sawyer to be the guest lecturer. If he’s not available, the Murphys will talk about their homestead.

Other possible topics for future lecturers are: Solar hot water, Jim Grundy; co-housing; urine for fertilizing, Carl; food shortages; gleaning, Theresa Snow of Salvation Farms; permaculture

22 Mar 2008

Hi folks,

At our last meeting, we came to unanimous agreement on a short name that we felt represents what we do! The organization formerly known as the Greater East Montpelier Peak Oil Group / Central Vermont Sustainable Living Network is now the Post Carbon Sustainability Network.

The Post Carbon Sustainability Network is sponsoring a talk going to the heart of what we stand for this Thursday, March 27: Sustainable Homes, by Jim Grundy and Richard Czaplinski. It's at the Unitarian Church in Montpelier at 7 pm. Details below, in the calendar.

Minutes of last meeting, March 12, are also included, below.
Hope to see you March 27!

Cheers,

Carl

Meeting of the Greater East Montpelier Peak Oil Group/Central Vermont Sustainability Network

March 12, 2008
Unitarian Church, Montpelier

Dave Grundy, facilitator

Carl Etnier, note taker

The meeting began with a potluck supper at 6 pm.

At 6:30 pm, Scott Sawyer presented his dissertation, on the state of Vermont's preparedness for peak oil and climate change. Summary: There is no coordinated, reliable effort to prepare for peak oil or climate change in state government. The people Scott interviewed, including top people at most agencies, all agree that climate change is a problem requiring state government intervention. There was no such agreement for peak oil.

At 7:15, the business meeting began.

Thomas Weiss gave a report of the Committee bringing Richard Heinberg to Montpelier:

Heinberg is tentatively scheduled to be in the legislature on the morning of April 24, at NRG Systems in the afternoon, and lecturing in Montpelier in the evening. The committee working on his visit includes Thomas, Nancy Bruce, David Murphy, Judy Murphy, and Carl Etnier. The committee could use more help! It meets every Monday at Rhapsody in Montpelier at 4:30 pm.

George Plumb reported that he has distributed his report, Disappearing Vermont, to quite a few people, and it has been in the media a fair amount. He is braced for controversy. He distributed copies, and it can be downloaded at http://www.vspop.org/

George also volunteered to coordinate publicity for our meetings; his suggestion was approved by acclamation.

Jim Grundy and Richard Czaplinski have discussed names for the group with Nancy Bruce. There was widespread agreement that "Greater East Montpelier Peak Oil Group/Central Vermont Sustainability Network" is too unwieldy. After some discussion, it was unanimously decided to re-christen the group "Post Carbon Sustainability Network."

Dave Grundy was impressed by the high school students involved in the Vermont Sustainable Heating Initiative, whom Carl Etnier interviewed on Relocalizing Vermont on WGDR recently. (The program is Thursdays 8:30 - 10:00 am, 91.1 FM and streaming at www.wgdr.org) He suggested that they be invited to present at our next monthly meeting. The suggestion was approved, and Carl agreed to contact them.

Dave Grundy reported that Theresa Snow of Salvation Farms is now working for the Vermont Foodbank to coordinate statewide gleaning efforts. See

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080316/NEWS02/803160423

Dave is working with Noah Weinstein of Maple Hill Community Farm to create a steering committee of 7-9 people in this region for the gleaning efforts. Talk to Dave if you're interested in being part of this. dgrundy@pshift.com, 476-4300

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Calendar

March 24, Monday: Spiritual Dowsing Hunger Mountain Co-op, 6:00 to 7:15 pm Annie McCleary. Dowsing is an ancient art of inner knowing. Information gained through dowsing can help guide our personal decisions regarding food and herbs, enhance our communication with Nature beings and much more. Bring a pendulum if you have one - Annie will bring extra. Hunger Mountain Coop, Montpelier, VT. Free. Pre-register by calling the Coop, 802-223-8000.

March 24, Monday and March 25 & 29 King Corn, film in the Green Mountain Film Festival, City Hall Arts Center, Montpelier. March 24, Monday, 4pm; March 25, Tuesday, 8:30pm; March 29, Saturday, 6:30pm.

America's fast-food empire is fueled by a secret ingredient: corn. High fructose corn syrup makes the sodas sweet, corn-fed beef makes the burgers fat, and corn oil crisps the fries. As college buddies Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis find out, their junk food generation has grown up eating so much corn that if you test their hair it's actually made of the stuff. In a tiny town in the middle of Iowa, Ian and Curt plant and grow an acre of America's most powerful crop, and attempt to follow its fate as food. What they find is alternately hilarious and horrifying: genetically modified seeds and home-brewed corn syrup, a bumper crop of obesity and diabetes, and a government paying farmers to grow what's making us sick. Sponsored by Hunger Mountain Coop. Community Partners: Rural Vermont, Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT), Vermont Public Interest Research Group, Mad River Localvore. Post-film event: Co-director Aaron Woolf will appear at the Saturday, March 29 show. Phone: 802-229-0509, www.savoytheater.com.

Also, Rural Vermont is hosting Aaron Wolf at a dinner/fundraiser before the March 29 show, starting at 5 pm at That's Life Soup in Montpelier. Tickets $40 for dinner and movie; $35 for dinner only. Order at 223 - 7222.

March 27, Thursday "Sustainable Homes", a slide lecture on living a green vision Unitarian Church, Montpelier. 7 pm

"Sustainable Homes", a slide lecture on living a green vision and creating a place to call home will take place on Thursday, March 27, 2008 beginning at 7:00 p. m. in the Unitarian Church on Main Street in Montpelier. "Sustainable Homes" will be the third in a lecture series exploring issues of living sustainably in an energy-constrained world resulting from declining production of oil at increased prices. This lecture will look at aspects of green living using the personal homes and experience of the presenters, Richard Czaplinski and Jim Grundy, as examples. The lecture series is sponsored by the Post Carbon Sustainability Network.

Richard Czaplinski will discuss how he has tried to live simply and sustainably for the last 30 years at his place in Adamant, where he built a small passive solar house with wood heating and active micro solar for lighting. He will discuss how he has been pretty much a localvore without having a refrigerator in Vermont.

Jim Grundy will discuss aspects of his off-grid home in East Montpelier, and green strategies used in building it, including; super insulation, local, recycled and non-toxic materials, solar electricity, passive solar heating and more!

Richard Czaplinski was born and raised on a small dairy farm in central Wisconsin. After receiving a degree in engineering and six years in the nuclear navy, he went back to graduate school and redirected his efforts to environmental protection. In 1972, he moved to Vermont for a job with the Water Resources Department. After leaving state service in 1987, he worked part time as an environmental consultant in various capacities while he continued homesteading in Adamant.

Jim Grundy lives in East Montpelier with his wife Nancy Bruce, where together they operate Elemental Energy, Inc., a small solar energy company. Jim has been working in the renewable energy industry for seventeen years and is a founding member and currently sits on the Board of Directors of Renewable Energy Vermont (REV). Having studied architecture, Jim has always had an interest in green building and applied that interest to the design and building process he will share in this lecture.

March 27-29, Thurs - Sat. Everything's Cool, a film in the Green Mountain Film Festival, City Hall Arts Center, Montpelier. Thursday, March 27 12:00 pm; Friday, March 28 6:15 pm; Saturday, March 29 8:45 pm.

For the past two decades researchers, activists, scientists and progressive politicians have struggled to rouse the public and the federal government to take action on global warming. Concurrently, naysayers, industry-funded think tanks and lobbyists have worked tirelessly to challenge, convolute and dismiss the issue as hysterical. This film, directed by Daniel B. Gold (who narrates) and Judith Helfand (BLUE VINYL), tells the harrowing story of what it takes to talk about global warming - the art of duking it out with collective denial, the struggle to communicate the urgency of the crisis to an indifferent public and a laggard United States government. We follow a cadre of messengers who are passionate, exasperated, driven by fear, hope and a deep appreciation for the ever shrinking window of time we have to stop global warming. Post-film event: directors Daniel Gold and Judith Helfand will appear after the Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29 shows. Sponsored by Washington Electric Coop. Community Partners: Vermont Public Interest Research Group, Peace and Justice Center. No rating, 89 minutes. Opening film: An 8-minute film on the Twinfield students are working to develop community hydro for their school.

April 1, Tuesday: Second Annual Vermont Organics Recycling Summit, Randolph "Compost, Community, and the Carbon Cycle." Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center

The keynote speaker is Malcolm Beck, author, lecturer, successful business entrepreneur, and long-time composter.

Learn about composting and organics recovery. Explore whole system, nutrient management.

Create real world solutions for sustainable communities. Network with composters and others interested in organics diversion. Recovering and composting organics, creating local food systems, and developing renewable energy are hot topics across Vermont. At VORS '08 we will look at whole system, community-level approaches to the challenges and opportunities for improving soil fertility and watershed health; and for increasing local food systems and renewable energy.

INFO: Phone: 802-241-3448. Website. -- For carpool information contact Erica.Spiegel@uvm.edu.

April 1, Tuesday. Cooling the Planet with Zero Waste, T.W. Wood Gallery at Vermont College, Montpelier. 6:30PM

A Community Meeting with Gary Liss and Richard Anthony; RSVP to specialprograms@cvswmd.org if possible. But join in, either way! Come to this community meeting to learn about Zero Waste and offer your energy and ideas toward moving the central VT region along this critical path! Want to learn more about Zero Waste now? See www.cvswmd.org/zero_waste/ . Gary Liss and Richard Anthony are leading Zero Waste consultants with more than 70 years of combined experience in solid waste and recycling, and have worked on more Zero Waste plans for communities than anyone else in the nation. They are currently working with the CVSWMD to help develop new Zero Waste initiatives. Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District 802-229-9383

April 8, Tuesday Climate War: the Violent Geography of Global Warming. Davis Center, Sugar Maple Ballroom, University of Vermont. 7 pm Fourth Floor, Room 400

Will drought, flood, and famine eventually lead a new dark age? Or will the crisis of climate change be met with rational and progressive economic policies?

Christian Parenti will draw on his experience as a reporter in Latin America, Africa, China, and his recent experience as an unembedded reporter in Iraq and Afghanistan. He will explore these questions, combining his on-the-ground reporting from war zones and environmental hot spots with deep historical knowledge of international political economy, merging environmental and political debates to find useful responses to the gathering crisis.

April 24, Thursday Richard Heinberg on Preparing for Life after Peak Oil, Montpelier 7 pm. Details TBA.

Carl Etnier

Peak Oil Awareness

carl @ etnier.net

225 Sparrow Farm Road

Montpelier, Vermont 05602 USA

Tel +1 802-498-4443

Relocalizing Vermont radio show: http://www.wgdr.org/relocalizingvermont.html

Archived radio segments: http://www.vtpeakoil.net/community/folder.php?id=29

Relocalizing Vermont blog: http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/carl-etnier

Archived Energy Matters columns: http://vtpeakoil.net/community/folder.php?id=33