Preparing for the Peak

Jennifer Flynn

The International Conference on Peak Oil and Climate Change, to be held this weekend, May 30 to June 1 in Grand Rapids, MI, brings together many well known thinkers in the fields of sustainability and peak oil. Speakers include peak oil expert Richard Heinberg, Megan Quinn Bachman, author of How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, permaculturist Albert Bates, who is also the author of Climate in Crisis and environmentalist and author of Epicurean Simplicity Stephanie Mills. The conference was organized by Local Future, an organization promoting "relocalization" and awareness of peak oil concerns in general.

Goals for the conference include imparting an understanding of what peak oil and sustainability really are, how our current economical and cultural structures are globally unsustainable, and ways in which individuals and groups can work together to live more sustainably. Organizer Aaron Wissner states, "The main thing is that participants gain a comprehensive understanding of the current global situation our global culture is in, and ways in which individuals, and communities, can move in the direction of sustainability."