Hi Everybody,

I'm more of a lurker than anything due to my family and volunteer responsibilities, however I am wanting to move towards living sustainably. I have have started to do some smallish things on my own via the Sustainability on a Budget class recommendations (www.sustainablebudget.com). I *really* appreciate the hard work, innovative thought, and smart use of technology by those who have formed this group.

I also really appreciate WCPO's focus on educating and "creating awareness" in the general population, and I sense that in particular that this is Peter's heartfelt mission. He is so skilled at it! I note that Donna has taken additional steps in utilizing her skills to facilitate discussion through the book group. It is clear that Peter and Donna have really stepped up to the plate to educate themselves, organize themselves and perform outreach to others -- to share what they know and hopefully inspire the rest of us. There are doubtless others in this group who are doing a lot and I have not had the chance to know them.

So it appears to me that the group has been primarily engaged in educating others at individual, governmental and societal levels. Perhaps it has been less involved in actively organizing others to build a community of people living in a certain way, as the Seattle group seems to want to do. Yet, there is only so much that a handful of people can do!

So towards clarifying a mission statment, for what it's worth, it seems to me that WCPO currently does two main things:
1. Learn
2. Attempt to create widespread awareness through education, connecting people, and facilitating discussion.

I think that if there were enough people with the inclination *and this would take at least several committed folks* there could also be a third something along the lines of Seattle's mission statement:
#3. Create a neighborhood, village, or community of people actively working to apply life skills and knowledge, to live as sustainably and free of energy inputs as possible, and to share best practices with others.

Peter has really begun to put this third thing in motion by detailing for us his biontensive gardening experiment. We are really lucky that he is doing this: biontensive gardening is truly cutting edge (though individuals in France have been doing it for years calling it something else, it is not widely known and practiced). In my view, biontensive gardening, which yields much more food per area -- and this is key -- yields it sustainably -- along with permaculture design -- may be an key factor in transitioning towards an energy scarce future. There are not many folk actually doing it and helping others do it.

Peter's garden is near my house; I am hoping to find a way to go help Peter and learn from him since he said it would be ok. I have no interest in getting any of his food -- just in learning!!! Perhaps others interested in the #3 goal might be also be interested in helping and learning, if Peter would welcome the help, or be interested in having company while he does his thing.

If this outsider perspective helps in any way I'll be glad it did!

Ivy,

Thanks so very much for starting this discussion on our Forum page. I hope multiple members participate actively.

You asked two questions and I'll try to share my two-cents on them both (and invite all members to chime in their corrections, dissent, or other relevant comments here).

We started the group in 2007, initially to get people together to talk about the problem of peak oil. At the time, it was a barely heard-of issue and only a few people were actually aware of it, or its' implications. So we wanted to get those people together to hold intelligent discussions on peak oil, and to support each other. (Once one has assimilated that peak oil is very real, and imminent, they see the whole world in a different way -- everything is different, and they need others to talk to who understand what they are even talking about.)

We quickly decided to organize the group and had several meetings to discuss essentially these same two questions you have raised -- What is the purpose of WCPO and What will WCPO do?

We defined and adopted the mission statement and a vision statement in June of 2007 (I can't seem to find a copy of the Vision statement at the moment but will keep looking) and publicly launched the organization in July of 2007. Overall we essentially decided to become an educational outreach organization with a focus on raising awareness about peak oil across the County, and influencing both citizens and local governments to take realistic actions to deal with the consequences of imminent energy depletion.

As I stated earlier, very few people knew anything about it and the problem was urgent. So, what we've done to date is:
General Public

• 15 public meetings
• 7 film screening events
• 15 book club meetings and discussions (7 books read)
• Booths at 2 public fairs
• 8 civic group presentations (e.g. Rotary, Wash. County Public Affairs Forum, Home Owners Association's, Citizen Participant Organizations through the County Extension Service, etc.)
• 2 “town hall style” panels
• Film screenings, presentations and formal discussions at both Pacific University and PCC
• Underwriter of “Peak Moment TV” (broadcast 8 times weekly on TVCTV)
• 2 extensive newspaper interviews
• Guests on 2 “roundtable” discussion television programs

Government Education (Washington County)

• To every City manager: Provided more than 1,000+ pages of government and educational documents about peak oil and its implications, formal group presentation, and an “Oil Age” Poster
• To all County Commissioners: Provided a detailed "awareness document" about peak oil and its implications, and a specific "Plan of Action" to start mitigation strategies across the County
• To every City Mayor and County Commissioner: Provided 25 peak oil depletion updates and 25 risk reducing recommendations

Today, probably 80% or more of County residents now know there is a problem...that something is amiss with oil and energy (obviously, high gas prices are a big clue), but they don't yet understand the real causes behind it, or the implications, or relevant approaches to protect themselves from the risks presented by the problem.

Fortunately, the Presidential election has brought much of the energy problem to the forefront of national dialog, but it is still mostly couched in terms of being a "terrorist" threat -- by sending our money overseas to people who don't like us very much. People, in general, simply don't grasp that the real cause of the problem is that the planet has peaked on oil production and the consequence is that we will have less and less each month going forward...., and that's going to affect everything we depend upon for our current lifestyles very quickly, including our food supplies.

So our focus to date has been on educating various groups on the real problem, many of its consequences, and providing multiple steps citizens can take individually to reduce the future impact to their lives. (This website is an example of that -- there are numerous ideas on these pages.) So now that people know there is an energy problem, regardless of its cause, it seems to make sense to me to focus our efforts more on solutions than on educating the public about the real causes of the problem. It is also fundamentally important for those of us who know each other to become a mutual support group, a "community", to help each other out as things get tough in the future.

Comments?