Peak Moment 51: Tour Scott McGuire's "White Sage Gardens" in the back yard of his rental home -- a demonstration site for suburban sustainability. He ponders, "How might a household produce and preserve a significant portion of its own food supply?" Composting, a water-conserving greenhouse, and seed-saving are all facets of this beautiful work in progress. [www.whitesagegarden s.com]
Peak Moment #27: Megan Quinn of The Community Solution discusses her visit to Cuba, and the movie "The Power of Community". This young woman sees Peak Oil as an opportunity to create the communities we want, but notes that we must reduce our consumption despite environmentalists' assurances that biofuels will save us.
Peak Moment 40: Catch Sally Lovell's enthusiasm for her electric-assist bicycle. Her comprehensive primer covers bicycle types, battery recharging, practices and products for security, inclement weather, and road safety. Gotta love that trailer for hauling stuff!
Peak Moment 87: In summer 2006 Judy Alexander embarked on an experiment to see how much food she could grow, and how many neighbors could benefit, from the garden around her house. Check out her homegrown rainwater collection and irrigation system - watering her 60+ edible crops. Meet the bees, the chickens and the worms. And catch her joy in producing so much food for so little effort.
Peak Moment 28: Michael Ruppert, publisher of FromTheWilderness.co m, has made connections between money, Peak Oil, and geopolitics for years. He discusses his move to Ashland and offers specific to-do's around money and investment "in light of the imminent collapse of the U.S. economy": invest locally.
Peak Moment 58: Watch a worm birth from a cocoon. See compost produced from food scraps, horse manure, and lots of worms. See the machine that separates castings (worm poop)from compost. The Worm Guy, Mark Yelken, says that worms are "the intestines of the Earth", fertilizing and activating microbial activity. Stick around to learn about the "Worm Wigwam" and "Worm Tea". [www.thewormguy.org]
Peak Moment 6: Small acreages can produce a lot! Janet Brisson shows the home-canned and dried vegetables, fruit, and beans she cultivates along with chickens and bees. Renee Wade talks about practices that suit the land: her drier property is better suited to raising goats.
Peak Moment 68: Take a tour with Joe, Doug and Sam Bullock on their Orcas Island homestead, site of a yearly Permaculture design course. Using nature as their model, they create edges and wildlife habitat, move water through the landscape, promote diversity, and raise an astonishing variety of plants from sub-arctic to tropical -- a wise investment in these climate-changing times.
Peak Moment 63: Hot topics from Richard Heinberg: record-high U.S. fuel prices; the ethanol big-business boondoggle; coal projected to peak about a hundred years early (around 2020); what the climate change discussion is missing; and the benefits of "going local." [www.richardheinberg .com]
Peak Moment 37: Jan Spencer shows his quarter-acre permaculture project transforming a typical suburban lot. Lawn and driveway were replaced with fruit and nut trees, vegetables, brambles, and native habitat, plus a 3500 gallon rainwater catchment system, a sunroom heating the house, and a small detached bungalow to increase residential density.
Peak Moment 36: Inspired by the book Natural Capital, developer Joe Van Belleghem transforms a toxic site into a green development that's totally backed by the city and community in Victoria, B.C. Conserves energy, water, heat, materials, and shares some with the neighbors.
Peak Moment 26: Author Guy Dauncey's lively, optimistic solutions for Peak Oil and climate crisis are do-able here and now. Conservation, efficiency, proven technologies, and emerging innovations will take us through this critical planetary energy transition.
Peak Moment 69: How will rising oil prices affect low- and middle-class lives? Sociologist and professor Rowan Wolf sees at-risk populations growing while government services and class divides are increasingly strained. A member of the Portland Peak Oil Task Force, she discusses relocalizing our economies, to counter globalization based on an unsupportable grow-or-die economic model.
Peak Moment 38: Tour an urban ecovillage on less than two acres only five minutes by bicycle from the center of Eugene, Oregon. Builder Robert Bolman uses natural materials like sensitively-harveste d wood, earth and straw in the several beautiful, well-insulated, non-toxic structures surrounding the central shared gardens.