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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Editorial contact:
John Batdorf,
Conference Manager
Office 248-693-1021
Cell 810-908-9976
john@uheac.org
www.plancconference.org
National Energy &
Sustainability Conference to be Held
October 31st thru November 2nd at
Oakland University
The Fifth Annual
U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and
Community Solutions
ROCHESTER,
Michigan -
September 18, 2008 - On Halloween
weekend several hundred community
activists, educators, lifestyle change
agents and others interested in
sustainability will come from around the
country to participate in a three-day
conference entitled "Plan C: Individual
and Community Survival Strategies for
the Energy Crisis". They will learn
about ways to cut their energy use and
create resilient communities that will
be able to weather the coming economic
and ecological storms. The Fifth U.S.
Conference on Peak Oil and Community
Solutions will be held at the Oakland
Center on the campus of Oakland
University in Rochester, Michigan,
located on University Drive near I-75,
from Friday Oct. 31 through Sunday, Nov.
2.
Among the leading
speakers at the conference, this year
co-presented by Upland Hills Ecological
Awareness Center, will be keynoters John
Michael Greer, author of the forthcoming
The Long Descent: A User's Guide to
the End of the Industrial Age and
Dmitry Orlov, author of Reinventing
Collapse: Soviet Example and American
Prospects. Richard Heinberg, Senior
Fellow, Post Carbon Institute, the
world's foremost oil depletion educator
and author of several best-selling books
including The Party's Over,
Powerdown and Peak Everything:
Waking Up to the Century of Declines,
will speak via webcast. The conference
will cover the topics of energy,
housing, food, transportation and
community through in-depth workshops and
panels, Connection Café
roundtables with area experts, an
eco-tour slide show, screenings of
award-winning films, and tours of local
sustainably-designed buildings. The
conference will offer many networking
opportunities as well as entertainment,
and healthy, shared meals. Green product
and service exhibits as well as
exhibitor presentations will be offered
free of charge on Saturday from noon to
6 p.m.
"This conference comes at a time when
the whole world is beginning to
experience the limitations of a high
energy way of living," said Pat Murphy,
executive director of Community
Solutions. "The title reflects the
recent release of my book Plan C:
Community Survival Strategies for Peak
Oil and Climate Change which is
staking out a position of societal
transformation as an option to belief in
technological breakthroughs. Throughout
the world more and more people are
beginning to see this as the middle path
between more industrialization and the
collapse of civilization," he said.
"Although
hard-hitting, the message of Community
Solutions and this conference is
ultimately inspiring - that in
transforming our relationship with
energy resources and reducing our
dependence on fossil fuels, we can
transform our communities and lives in
ways that are more satisfying", said
John Batdorf, executive director of the
Upland Hills Ecological Awareness
Center, an educational and demonstration
center in northern Oakland County
showcasing ecological design, energy
conservation and the latest innovations
in alternative energy. "We are fortunate
to have this unique opportunity to bring
to the local area so many leading
sustainability experts and hundreds of
committed participants from around the
country."
Other conference speakers include Katrin
Klingenberg, director of the Passive
House Institute US, an organization
promoting super-efficient,
carbon-neutral, cost-effective building;
Peter Bane, editor of Permaculture
Activist magazine; Murphy, author
of Plan C: Community Survival
Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate
Change; Christopher Bedford,
President of the Center for Economic
Security and the Sweetwater Local Foods
Market; John Richter, co-founder of the
Institute for Sustainable Energy
Education and former president of the
Great Lakes Renewable Energy
Association; and Megan Quinn Bachman,
Outreach Director of Community Solutions
and co-producer of the award-winning
film The Power of Community: How
Cuba Survived Peak Oil.
Conference
participants will learn survival
strategies for growing food and creating
local food security, retrofitting their
homes to reduce reliance on fossil
fuels, promoting and using alternative
transportation, and educating their
communities to prepare for the difficult
times ahead.
Greer will open the
conference on Friday night at 7 p. m.
and Orlov will speak on Saturday at 2
p.m. Heinberg will present at 11 a.m.
on Sunday. The cost for each evening
session is $15 and to attend for a
half-day to the full-weekend ranges from
$50 to $200, depending upon membership
in the presenting organizations.
Student, member and early registration
discounts (through September 30) are
available. To register or for more
information, go to
www.plancconference.org,
call Upland Hills Ecological Awareness
Center at 248-693-1021 or email
info@plancconference.org.
Community Solutions is a non-profit
organization providing knowledge and
practices to support low-energy
lifestyles, with a primary focus on
reducing energy consumption in the
household sectors of food, personal
transportation, and housing. Its goal is
to the strengthening of communities of
relationship and place through low
energy living. Upland Hills Ecological
Awareness Center is a designated
Michigan Energy Demonstration Center, in
northern Oakland County, whose mission
is to provide experiences and resources
that promote a sustainable relationship
with the natural world and each other.
It offers a wide variety of workshops,
gatherings, tours, seminars and events
on energy, ecology, wellness and wisdom,
including the annual Earth Day Expo at
Oakland University.
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