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?".