Speakers

Richard Heinberg is the author of eight books including The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies (New Society, 2003, 2005), Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World (New Society, 2004), The Oil Depletion Protocol (New Society, 2006), and Peak Everything (New Society, in press). He is an educator, editor, lecturer, a Core Faculty member of New College of California where he teaches a program on “Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Community,” and a Research Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost Peak Oil educators. His monthly MuseLetter has been included in Utne Magazine’s annual list of Best Alternative Newsletters. He has authored scores of essays and articles, which have appeared in such journals as The Ecologist, The American Prospect, Z Magazine, Resurgence, The Futurist, European Business Review, Earth Island Journal, Yes!, Wild Matters, The Proceedings of the Canadian Association of the Club of Rome, Canadian Dimension, Alternative Press Review, and The Sun. Since 2002, he has given more than three hundred lectures on oil depletion (“Peak Oil”) to a wide variety of audiences – from insurance executives to peace activists, from local and national elected officials to Jesuit volunteers.

Thomas Princen explores issues of social and ecological sustainability at the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan (USA). His primary focus is on the drivers of overconsumption and the conditions for restrained use of resources. He is the author of The Logic of Sufficiency (2005) and lead editor of Confronting Consumption (2002), both published by MIT Press and both awarded the International Studies Association’s Harold and Margaret Sprout Award for the “best book in the study of international environmental problems.” Princen is co-author of Environmental NGOs in World Politics: Linking the Local and the Global (Routledge, 1994) and author of Intermediaries in International Conflict (Princeton, 1992/1995). He was named an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow, sponsored by the Packard Foundation, and before that was a Pew Faculty Fellow for International Affairs. Princen received his Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University in 1988 and a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Pomona College in 1975. He now serves as an Associate Professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at the University of Michigan.

Dr. David C. Korten is the author of The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, When Corporations Rule the World, and The Post-Corporate World: Life after Capitalism. Korten is co-founder and board chair of the Positive Futures Network, which publishes YES! A Journal of Positive Futures, and is founder and president of the People-Centered Development Forum, a board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), a member of the Social Ventures Network, and a member of the Club of Rome. He is also a founding associate of the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) and a major contributor to its report on Alternatives to Economic Globalization. Dr. Korten holds MBA and Ph.D. degrees from the Stanford Business School, has thirty years experience as a development professional in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and has served as a Harvard Business School professor, a captain in the US Air Force, a Ford Foundation Project Specialist, and a regional advisor to the US Agency for International Development. He is known internationally through his writing and lectures as a leading critic of corporate globalization and a visionary proponent of a planetary system of local living economies based on the organizing principles of healthy eco-systems and properly regulated market economies.

Linda Wigington is the founder of and has been associated with the Affordable Comfort Conference since its inception in 1986 and serves as manager, program design and development for ACI, Inc. She has been a technical consultant for residential utility programs throughout the country. In the past Linda served on the Editorial Board of Home Energy magazine and as an advisor for Habitat for Humanity International's Green Team. She received the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy's 2002 Champion of Energy Efficiency Award. Her current interest is demonstrating the feasibility of achieving deep energy reductions in existing dwellings. She spearheaded the ACI Summit: Moving Existing Homes Toward Carbon Neutrality in San Francisco, CA, July 11-13, 2007. She received her Masters Degree at West Virginia University’s Program for the Study of Technology with a focus on residential energy conservation and community energy education.

Judy Wicks started the White Dog Cafe on the first floor of her Philadelphia home in 1983. As the restaurant grew into a nationally recognized 200-seat restaurant, so did her notion that the strength of her business relied upon locally grown ingredients, and the quality of relationships with suppliers, customers, employees, and the natural world. Envisioning how strengthening ties between independent, community-rooted enterprises could provide an alternative to the corporate-controlled global economy, in 2001, she co-founded the national Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). Back home, she started the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, and White Dog Community Enterprises, a non-profit dedicated to building a local living economy in the Philadelphia region, to which she donates a percentage of the Cafe’s profits. Judy has won numerous awards, including the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year, the Living Economy Award from Business Ethics Magazine, and the Philadelphia Sustainability Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Sharon Astyk is author of the forthcoming Depletion and Abundance: The New Home Front, Families and the Coming Ecological Crises and A Nation of Farmers. Sharon has an M.A. and most of a Ph.D. in English literature, where her research centered upon literary, philosophical and historical responses to disaster and demographic crises in 16th and 17th century Britain. Final completion of the Ph.D. is presently on hold while she responds to the forthcoming disasters and demographic crisis of the 21st century. Five years ago, Sharon and her family moved to rural upstate New York to begin a life attempting to consume only a fair share of human resources. She and her husband, a physicist, run a small Community Supported Agriculture farm (CSA), and in their copious spare time, they are raising four sons and assorted critters and livestock. Some of her work can be seen at her blog www.casaubonsbook.blogspot.com, and at her website on peak oil preparation for families, www.ourvictoryathome.com.

Bob Steinbach is the Director of Regional Initiatives with the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission. Two of his current projects are attempts to address social issues caused primarily by the dependence on the private automobile as the major means of transportation in the Greater Dayton Region. He was introduced to the "Smart Jitney" concept while he was already researching the idea of using the existing fleet of private automobiles coupled with modern communication technologies as a way to address the transportation needs of people who don't drive or who can't afford to own and maintain a car. He helped to found and staff the Senior Transportation Expansion Project in Montgomery County and is the staff member in charge of developing the FTA-mandated Public Transit-Human Services Transportation Coordination plan for the Greater Dayton Region. The Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission is also involved with several other efforts to promote alternative transportation, including: RideShare, Bike on Bus, Pedal Pals, and the Comprehensive Local-Regional Bikeway Plan. For 20 years prior to coming to MVRPC, Bob was a facilitator and consultant in private practice. Bob is the author of Successful Lifelong Learning (2000) and On the Job Training, (2005). Mr. Steinbach has a Bachelor of Science and Master of Education, both from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Larry Halpern became interested in sustainable living after attending a Community Solutions presentation in 2004. Living on a large city lot in Springfield, Ohio, he began turning his lawn into a garden, doing away with electric appliances, insulating his house, and setting up compost and rainwater systems. Using less than a fourth of the water, gas, and electricity he once used, he continues to try to conserve more and use less. Recently, he began giving workshops on composting and electricity conservation, offering practical advice to people trying to reduce their consumption. A professional pianist, he has performed with jazz bands, directed an Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble, and composed works for choirs, instruments, and jazz groups. He now serves as organist for Knob Prairie United Church of Christ in Enon, Ohio and recently presented a concert of music by jazz composer Thelonious Monk. Larry will be sharing his techniques and practices for dramatically reducing household energy use.

Pat Murphy is the Executive Director of Community Solutions, writer of its New Solutions reports and author of the forthcoming book Plan C – Community Solutions to Peak Oil and Climate Change. Pat lectures widely across the country on peak oil, geopolitics, and community-based solutions. He was also a co-writer and co-producer of his organization's award-winning documentary film, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (2006). Prior to working for Community Service, Pat was the founder of a software company that developed a "design for manufacturing" program for residential building, which greatly reduced waste in the construction process. He also designed and built active solar homes. In addition Pat had a long career in computer applications in transportation, construction and energy industries. His main interest is on the techniques and strategies for a steady reduction in the per capital use of fossil fuels in years to come. He has been involved in community much of his life and sees community as the context within which "powerdown" can be viewed as a blessing rather than a curse.

Megan Quinn Bachman is the Outreach Director of Community Solutions. She has been writing and speaking on Peak Oil and community-based solutions for more than four years. She helped to organize and served as master of ceremonies for the First, Second, and Third U.S. Conferences on Peak Oil and Community Solutions, which brought more than 900 participants to Yellow Springs. She also was the Master of Ceremonies at the "Peak Oil and the Environment" Conference held in Washington D.C. in May 2006. Her articles on peak oil have appeared in various newspapers and magazines, including Communities, Permaculture Activist, Vermont Commons, Kindred and WellBeing. Megan co-wrote and co-produced her organization's award-winning documentary, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (2006). Megan graduated with a degree in Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she studied Peak Oil and its implications for U.S. Foreign Policy. She has also studied in Europe at Miami's campus in Luxembourg and at the University of Havana in Cuba.

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