On Saturday, my husband and I trekked up to Canton, NY (in our Prius) for our third annual trip to the North Country Sustainable Energy Fair. This conference, hosted at SUNY Canton, has been going on for 14 years. It offers great exhibits and wonderful workshops and presentations in lots of topics including renewable energy, alternative transportation, homesteading, peak oil, bio-diesel, transition towns, alternative housing, climate change, etc.
Last year we were pleased to be able to meet keynote speaker Richard Heinberg. Heinberg is the author of 8 books including Powerdown and Peak Everything and is senior fellow of the Post Carbon Institute.
This year the conference included a presentation by noted peak oil blogger and author Sharon Astyk. Sharon conducted a presentation about the need for 100 million farmers based on her recent book with Aaron Newton called A Nation of Farmers: Defeating the Food Crisis on American Soil. I’m in the process of reading her book now. I find it informational and I enjoy the somewhat sarcastic tone. Sharon and her family live in the northern Catskills and are homesteading as much as possible.
Interestingly, at all sessions I attended this year, each presenter early in their presentation had a graphic or slide about Peak Oil. And each time they arrived at the slide asked if anyone in the audience didn’t understand Peak Oil. Each time, everyone – yes EVERYONE indicated they had a pretty good understanding. This is a significant change from even 2 years ago. Word does seem to be getting out, and many people are at different stages of working toward solutions to a post carbon world.
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Hello Friends,
ReplyDeleteThought we'd mention that we're still around and doing a new, expanded event to include food, ag, and traditional rural skills on equal footing with renewable energy and "green" building. Check us out! www.SustainableLivingProject.net -- click on the Local Living Festival page. There's not a lot of content on it yet while we coordinate the upcoming event (Sept 24 & 25) but you can click through to last years workshops schedule, etc. for a taste. This years event will be a full 2 days with 75+ workshops. Bryan Welch of Mother Earth News and Mat Stein of When Technology Fails are confirmed speakers.
Hope you make the trek again! (Free onsite semi-rough camping.)
Yours Truly,
Living La Vida "Local!",
Chelle Lindahl
SustLivingProject@gmail.com