Developing A Leader

Hello Stephen,

I would be interested to speak at the series. I have a background in Appropriate Technology and Sustainable Development. I have special interests in Biofuels and renewable energy. [My company] is a renewable energy cooperative which focuses on providing renewable energy products and services to members and then taking members equity and investing it into community scale community owed renewable energy projects. I would be happy to speak about renewable energies or biofuels or the Co-op. I think the workshop series sounds great let me know how I may fit into your vision for it.

Thank You, Jon


Jon,

Thanks for writing. We here do not know what that world may look like, and to help us envision that sustainable world, we are looking for visions of that world, that make the connections between the many ways we must seek sustainability.

Have you seen the blog I use as a workspace? (http://sfworkshop.blogspot.com/) In the posting "Thematic Structure", you will find guidance for workshop leaders in this workshop series. Specifically, "Leaders are asked to explore the vision of the world toward which they are reaching." Does this sound interesting to you? Would you like to try to project your solution into other realms of a future sustainable world? For example, will this fuel source be in competition with food supplies? Is it an appropriate technology for developing countries? What are its health effects? Are its production facilities robust and likely to remain in operation under adverse conditions of weather or poor quality of supplies?

Even if the immediate answers to my questions do not obviously lean toward long term sustainability, we want to know both the pros and the cons of any particular solution. This is the point of this workshop series: to make the connections, to find the strengths and the problems, and to make our solutions even more truly sustainable.

Please lets talk more, I'd like to hear your answers to my questions. Are you up for the challenge of envisioning a sustainable world?

Thanks!
Stephen Alrich Marshall



Stephen,

I would be delighted to project my solutions into the realms of the possible future sustainable world. I think the issue I would especially like to speak about is how all systems in the future will need to be examined as complete systems. By this I mean that right now most systems are designed to produce something but all of the necessary inputs to the system and all of the outputs for the system are often overlooked. I believe systems in the future will have to produce the inputs sustainably and reuse or recycle the outputs. "Closed Loop Design" is what this is often called. I have experience with creating a closed loop bio-diesel facility in North Carolina at Appalachian State University. I believe that all solutions for our future sustainable world will include this sort of thinking and designing. Jon


Jon,

I am delighted to hear from you again. Your enthusiasm is infectious and you are also obviously articulate and focused. I would like to have you on the roster somewhere. Have you perused the workshop topic list and found one you are drawn to? If you don't have the list of topics, you can find it at http://sfworkshop.blogspot.com/, where I have put my thoughts on the workshop series.

I find in your notes the rubric "Closed Loop Design". This seems to me to be a topic of great importance that I have at best alluded to in my topic list. We may need to break up topic 1 (The Full Monte), because your topic would logically address its "Resource Depletion" sub-topic, and I doubt we could pack it all into an hour and a quarter.

Would you like to briefly develop your topic in the general outline for these workshops:
1) Describe the problem (ie., petroleum depletion, CO2 emissions, resource depletion)
2) Describe the solution (ie, bio-diesel, closed loop design)
3)Speculate on the impact of the solution on other sustainability solutions, especially those covered in other workshops.

As we have this conversation, My thinking is developing detail and clarity. Thanks for connecting and I look forward to hearing from you again.


Stephen Alrich Marshall

Email Pitch

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Personal note ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Following is my email pitch to folks who might like to do a workshop with us. The list of workshop ideas below shows what I am aiming for. Anyone thinking of leading a workshop is, of course, welcome to suggest a new topic, or propose re-formation of an existing topic. Thanks, Steve Marshall cluely@gmail.com

~~~~~~~~ Please cut "pitch" below from your reply ~~~~~~~~~~

Solarfest is a music, arts and education event that happens each year in Tinmouth Vermont (this year on July 14 & 15), which promotes sustainable living. (http://www.solarfest.org/) Workshop Series include Renewable Energy Technologies , Green Building Practices, Thriving Locally and Building Community, and "Sustainability Awakening". This last group of workshops is asking "What does a sustainable world look like?".

Our immediate response to global climate chaos is to reduce our production of CO2 emissions, in effect to seek "sustainable energy production and use.". The vision is of a world not much different from the one we know, managed sustainably. But this awakening to the need for energy sustainability coincides with several other, intimately connected needs of equal or greater consequence. With the melting of polar ice, rising of sea levels, loss of habitat, increased pressure on limited global resources, climate chaos making food production unpredictable, and the danger that humanity will quickly resort to war in competition for resources, sustainability is found not only in the technology we choose, and in the economies by which we live, but also in the cultural values we practice, and in the social and political structures we create. The ethic of Sustainability, a pattern of human behavior that does not exhaust the capacity of the Earth to support life, must be infused throughout everything we do, and in our social and political arrangements.

Solarfest has spearheaded alternative energy consciousness raising in Vermont since 1995, keeping the spirit of caring for the Earth alive whether in fashion or out. At SolarFest 2007, the workshop series "Sustainability Awakening", has been named after the awakening across American society (late in the wake of other nations) that the global climate and human activity are intimately connected, and that our energy use must be made "sustainable". At Solarfest, we are asking the next big question: What does "sustainable" mean? What does a sustainable world look like?

We begin to answer this question by asking workshop leaders to first describe a challenge that requires a sustainable solution, to then describe the sustainable solution proposed for this challenge, and then to reflect on the dependencies and impacts of this strategy on other sustainability challenges. With the final workshop of the series, "Congress of Visions", we will attempt to envision a sustainable world.

These are proposed topics. Not all of them will get on the workshop schedule. Areas can be combined. Please see the blog for more detail, or write to me.

1. Easter Island, A True Myth Of Self - Destruction
2. The Full Monte: The Whole Story About Global Climate Chaos,
3. Climate And Habitat Destruction, Natural Disasters
4. Energy Slaves And Cheap Carbon Fuels
5. Resource Depletion, Closed Loop Design
6. Law, Police Power, Criminality, And War.
7. Responsibilities Of International Corporations
8. Roles Of Business, Non-Profits, Churches, And State Governments
9. Social, Political And Economic Development In Non-Industrial Countries
10. Interpersonal, Family And Community Relations
11. Food Production And Distribution After Cheap Oil And The Inception Of Climate Change
12. Protecting Soils, Fresh Water, And Clean Air
13. Bio-Diversity And The Destruction Of Wild-Form Habitat
14. Built Environments:
15. Disaster Readiness
16. Grieving Loss In The Transformation Of Gaian Life.
17. Congress Of Visions For All Workshop Leaders. Sunday Afternoon.

Besides the Workshop Series, I am hoping to find people who want to tell the story of Easter Island (topic 1). Any form of telling will be considered and welcome. These are some links to help anyone who needs detail:

Jared Diamond ~ www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/042.html ....(Discover Magazine 1995)
Sacred Sites Newsletter ~ www.sacredsites.com/americas/chile/easter_island.html
Wikipedia Citation ~ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island
Mysterious Places ~ mysteriousplaces.com/Easter_Island/index.html
Blog Posting ~ sfworkshop.blogspot.com/2007/03/easter-island

These links will take you to the blog where the purpose of this workshop group, and specific topics areas, are discussed and named.
http://sfworkshop.blogspot.com/2007/04/thematic-structure.html
http://sfworkshop.blogspot.com/2007/04/workshops-and-program.html

Please consider leading one of these workshops, or recommend someone who might be able to. Your participation will be eagerly welcomed.

Stephen Alrich Marshall

Workshops and Program

Workshop Series Plan for Sustainability Awakening

Final plan, Titles and Descriptions subject to change

Saturday

• Gaian Fever
• Cheap Carbon, & Energy Slaves, & Life after Peak Oil
• Climate Switches
• Community & Energy
• Congress of Visions

Sunday

• Peace Pole Ceremony
  
• Health and Habitat Security
• War
• Food Production and Distribution
• Congress of Visions

This series aims to ask the question "What does a sustainable world look like?".

I'd like leaders to define a problem (such as food production and distribution without fossil fuels in an era of climate chaos), propose solutions to the problem (fill in the blank ) and then extend that solution to other problems and solutions in sustainability. I hope that by asking for a concrete problem in sustainability, leaders will have the freedom to explore their particular interest, and then, with the tactile and visual aspects of a real problem, have the ease to join their solutions into a web of sustainability solutions. Workshop leaders who feel constrained by this plan are welcome to follow their own leading in presenting their topic.

During the final session of each day, Congress of Visions, participants will have a chance to make connections and imagine a sustainable world. Workshops leaders who can are asked to be part of the Congress of Visions on their day, and Sunday too, if possible.

Workshops

Title	Workshop Format	Presenter	Clock	Description
Easter Island, A True Myth Of Self - Destruction	Performance	Janice	Arranged with Stage Productions	In a dramatic example of ecological self-destruction, the people who built the iconic sculptured heads of Easter Island also destroyed the forests of the island, thus destroying the foundation of their way of life. It is a warning that civilizations do die if they neglect sustainability.
Gaian Fever	Name the challenge: Global Climate chaos and economic meltdown co-occur as Carbon fuels decline in abundance and use Describe a Solution:	Jeff Wolfe, groSolar, Ceritified leader of "An Inconvenient Truth"	Saturday, 9:00 - 10:30	CO2, green house effect, rising oceans, climate chaos. The Age of Carbon has fueled industry, food production, research and commerce, supporting higher standards and expectations of nutrition, health care, education, comfort and recreation. The age of carbon has also induced human populations far beyond those the Earth could sustain without the surfeit of energy, and has nearly doubled the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, since it began. So as more people demand more stuff at a higher quality of life, requiring more energy and more raw materials, the Earth heats up, Climates become unstable and unreliable, and human material needs reach their greatest at just that point that the Earth may lose its ability to meet even basic needs.
Cheap Carbon, & Energy Slaves, & Life after Peak Oil	Name the challenge: Love affair with Carbon Describe a Solution:	Carl Etnier, Peak Oil Awareness Of East Montpelier Vermont	Saturday, 11:00 - 12:00	Cheap carbon produces energy, which we like, and CO2 which we do not like: The first and dirtiest source of fossil carbon, coal, may also be the last to be exhausted, but in the meantime the liquid and gaseous forms of carbon are destined for exhaustion. The loss of these convenient fuels will wreak havoc in the world economy, putting political and security systems under severe strain, and impelling desperate measures to meet human needs.
Climate Switches	Name the challenge: Radical and rapid changes in climate and weather	Beth Sawin, Vermont Sustainability Institute	Saturday, 1:00 - 2:00	Climate is a chaotic system that can change dramatically in short time.
Community & Energy	Name the challenge: Describe a Solution: Community Resourced Energy	Greg Pahl Chelsea Green author	Saturday, 2:30 - 3:30
Congress of Visions	Web the Solutions:	Moderator TBA	Saturday, 4:00 - 5:00	Collect our wits, visualize a sustainable world, and then work to make it happen! Leaders from our workshops, and others, with workshop participants, attempt to answer the question, "What does a sustainable world look like?".
Peace Pole Ceremony	Name the challenge: Why Bother? Describe a Solution:	Carol Tashie and Melissa Chesnut- Tangerman, Solarfest and community leaders.	Sunday, 9:00 - 10:30
	Name the Challenge: Over loaded lifeboatDescribe a Solution:	Laura Peer, Graduate Student in Public Health Policy.	Sunday, 11:00 - 12:00	Compassionate, sustainable development and sharing of Earth's resources. Health, food, water, and physical security, embedded in secure communities. Health Security, as with physical security, food security, energy security and ecological sustainability, is essential for a sustainable world.
War	Name the challenge: War is unsustainable. Describe a Solution:	Stephen Alrich Marshall, SolarFest, essayist.	Sunday, 12:30 - 1:30	Insecure and Desperate People Resort to Violence and War Against Each Other. War destroys people and habitat, consumes resources, produces only the dominance of one group over another and is antithetical to sustainable human communities and a sustainable world. Alternatives to violence and war do exist, in the real world.
Food Security Health and Habitat Security	Name the challenge:What are you going to do when the crops fail and the trucks stop running? Describe a Solution:	Alan LePage , farmer- philosopher, community foods activist	Sunday, 2:00 - 3:00	Food Production and Distribution After Cheap Oil and the Inception of Climate Chaos Climate Chaos will wreak havoc on production and distribution of food, End of Cheap Carbon will drive costs of production and distribution too high.
Congress of Visions	Web the Solutions:	Moderator TBA	Sunday, 3:30 - 5:00	Collect our wits, visualize a sustainable world, and then work to make a sustainable world happen! Leaders from our workshops, and others, with workshop participants, attempt to answer the question, "What does a sustainable world look like?".

Thematic Structure:

Questions of Sustainability.

The purpose of this posting is to help prospective workshop leaders understand the goals of the "Sustainability Awakening" workshop track.

Those who note use of the word "sustainable" might be confused by its many applications and wonder if those who are using the word are talking to each other. Are these many uses actually in sympathy with each other? Is your "sustainable" my "sustainable"? Further, looking out beyond energy conservation and putting the brakes on CO2 emissions, where are we going? What will the world look like out there?

In the "Sustainability Awakening" workshop track, our goal is to educate ourselves and to seek answers to the question "What does a sustainable world look like?". To this end, leaders of each workshop are asked first to portray the problem, as understood by him or her, and the solution they propose. Finally, leaders are asked to explore the vision of the world toward which they are reaching, as workshop participants are invited to raise questions about this leader's vision of "sustainability", and discuss its intersection with other visions of sustainability. Hopefully everyone will leave with a better appreciation of their own role in helping to create a sustainable world of the future.

The range of human activities in which sustainable solutions are needed is vast. The range in which sustainable solutions are proposed is large. They are found at every level of ecological and social complexity.

Human And Natural Systems In Degrees Of Complexity

Gaia
International	Examples: United Nations, NATO, Super large Corporations, Al-Quieda, Stock Exchanges,	Eco-sphere
National	Examples: United States, European Union, Crime syndicates, Private militias, Corporations, Catholic Church, Sahara Desert,	Climatic Regions
Super-community	Examples, Vermont, France, Sudan, gangs, criminals, private militias, large businesses, Amazon Rain Forest,	Bio-region
Community	Examples: County and local government, small business, churches, gangs, criminals,	Habitat
Family	Examples: Everyone we know.	Species
The Self

The range of human activities in which environmentally sustainable solutions are needed can be described in terms of natural resources and processes, which can be further defined in terms of the human-driven effects that operate on them, and their consequences for people and the environment.

Natural Resources and Processes

	Operator	Consequences for people	Consequences for natural systems
Air and atmosphere	Pollution, CO2	Global climate chaos, disease	Global climate chaos, damaged habitats
Fresh Water	Diversion, over use, pollution	Desication (loss of water to drink), famine, disease, war due to resource competition.	Altered distribution, changing climates, desertification, rising sea levels
Soils	Erosion, nutrient depletion, contamination	Loss of arable or habitable land, disease	Destroys base for return of natural habitats
Non-human habitats	Expropriation and destruction of for human use	Short term survival, long term climate alteration.	Extinctions, legacy destruction, loss of diversity, decay of ecological fabric.
Forests	Logging, burning	Not available for ecological processes, habitat, use by future generations	Desertification, erosion of soils, loss of water and mineral reservoirs, habitat destruction, LOSS OF SINK FOR CO2.
Oceans	Pollution, over fishing, warming of, changing ocean currents, rising levels of	Loss of food supplies, more dangerous storms, loss of land area.	destruction of aquatic climates, habitats, and species, changing chemistry results in LOSS OF SINK FOR CO2.
Minerals	extraction	Lost for use of future generations; pollution of air, water, and soils; destruction of landscape	Habitat destruction

Finally, the range of human activities in which sustainable solutions are needed, because they have direct environmental impacts, can be identified in every area of social life.

Human Relations

Governance, Law And Police Power
Defense, Security, Cooperation And Peacemaking
Economic Systems and Economic Development
Resource Allocation And Distribution
Energy Production And Distribution
Environment, impacts and repair
Community, membership in and development of
Housing
Transportation
Technology
Disasters and Preparing for Survival

For each of these many ways of thinking about human activities, we can ask "What is sustainable?" Hence, each work shop leader is invited to think outside of the conventions in his/her own field, and try to answer the question "What does a sustainable world look like?", and "How does my interest in sustainability intersect with any other?". If answers to these questions are not easily found, then we know for sure that we are asking these questions is important.