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Report on Environmental Activities Colleen Blacklock December 6, 2006 I gave a talk to the Oneonta City Council on June 20th, 2006 entitled Energy Preparedness. The talk was a fifteen minute slide show presentation that addressed Peak Oil and Climate Change and described these in terms of budget and preparedness. I was coached by David Room, a cofounder of Post Carbon Institute and founder of Energy Preparedness. In April of this year I attended a 3 day symposium on Peak Oil. David Room was one of the many featured speakers and his approach made the most sense to me as far as taking real steps toward awareness and change. He has framed the problem in terms that local government can understand. He was kind enough to let use his slide show as a template. I used some of his slides, added my own and researched and wrote the text of the talk taking most of the information from the mainstream media reporting on statements made by various government agencies and petroleum experts. The talk was given 3 times to local government: on May 3 to the Otsego County Board of Representatives, on June 1st to the Otsego County Planning Board, and to the Oneonta City Council on June 20th. It was well received by all groups. If you read the talk notes you will see that at the end I say that a local group will be drawing up and presenting a resolution to have an Energy Preparedness commission for the City of Oneonta. I would like to invite the CfD environmental workgroup to support and work on this effort to bring forth a citizen's commission here in Oneonta and/or Otsego County. Also, please note the following list of activities that have taken place in the area: 1) GO LOCAL - a group of citizens has formed to promote bike and foot paths in the greater Oneonta area. The founder Karl Seeley is an economics professor at Hartwick College and has been aware of Peak Oil since working on his doctorate. 2) Course at Hartwick - Mark Davies will be teaching a course on Peak Oil at Hartwick College and may be going to the meeting tonight. 3) Intentional Community addressing Peak Oil - a group of 3 families met for several months to discuss the formation of an intentional community that would address Peak Oil issues. 4) Just Around the Corner - a documentary recently completed by local film maker John Miglietta addresses Peak Oil and Global Warming from the perspective of teenagers who interview various experts about the problems and solutions - interviewees include Sheri Boehlert, local farmer Rebecca Morgan, and many others. 5) local food production activities of all kinds. 6) meeting in Franklin with the Tompkins County Go Local group. 7) Solar Energy Collective - Ellen Sokolow has initiated a collective that would help people learn about photo voltaic installation and have systems installed at a reduced price. 8) 6th Extinction - Cynthia Marsh, local artist has a multimedia art exhibit up at SUNY Cobleskill addressing Peak Oil and Global Warming - the exhibit includes beautiful large-scale satellite images of the earth's surface. Also, here is a link to the proposed Vermont H.654 bill, a bill addressing local food production in answer to future decreased availability of petroleum: http://www.vtpeakoil.net/docs/BILL_H-654.pdf I would love to see us start to think about land use in this area in terms of local food production. Maybe there is some effort we could engage in with CADE and other groups and farmers who are working to increase local food production.
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