If the U.S. government is like a juvenile delinquent in its dereliction of duty at a time of climate destruction and imminent peaking of global oil extraction, we must do what is necessary at all levels: How many tools of sustainability are in your training? Where is your tribe? These questions will be prime concerns, at the present rate of changes around us.

We have held the first and only petrocollapse conference (see Newsflash on this website's homepage), and it's time for another that will strike harder, in Washington, DC. This presents the nation a forum for all kinds of people to come together, putting differences aside, to address concerns neglected by the corporate media and our culture's shortcomings of community.

Rather than bringing academics and researchers together to concentrate on when the peak of oil extraction might precisely be hitting, and rather than catering to industry apologists touting their favored "solutions" to the end of cheap petroleum, we cut through it all with one word: petrocollapse. The longer historical context is of course culture change.

It is time to face the demise of the growth economy that depends on destroying the climate, waging war over oil, and creating food insecurity -- all via petroleum dependence. Those are the most obvious list-items, but we can add to those the insidious killing of sea life and spread of cancer in humans from the plastic plague. We mostly hear complaints in the political realm, as our liberties are taken away. The deadly pretend-game that die-hard leaders of consumption are playing -- right to the end -- only goes on as long as we participate.

Modern societies and the global ecosystem face total collapse just ahead. This is what scientific studies indicate, and what my analysis and my gut tell me. Petrocollapse, as leveling as it will be in shattering the global economy into myriad local economies, may not be as devastating as climate change promises to be according to known trends.

Interestingly, what we must do to fight global warming is mostly what a "petroleum fast" would entail: getting off our poisonous, greenhouse-gas generating diets. The implications involve land-use issues crucial to survival, as a paving moratorium was never adopted. A new ethic to respect air, land and water are mainstays of culture change that we will have to adopt if our species and many others are to make it.

The DC Petrocollapse Conference should succeed in shaking up and waking up many in government. Other major players in DC are national news bureaus and the huge nonprofit sector -- but even the environmental movement is silent on petrocollapse, due to funding-influence regarding allegiance to the technofix. To learn more about our conferences, and see our latest hard-copy newsletter in PDF form, featuring Andy Singer cartoons and unique photos, see http://www.culturechange.org/cms/images/stories//jan-newsletter.pdf

L.A.’s “Havana Experiment” Farm Threatened by Industry and Government

A Model for Adaptation to Peak Oil
350 Poor Families Fed From Farm in So. Central LA

by Jan Lundberg, Special to From the Wilderness

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/020806_havana_experiment.shtml
The above link takes you to a summary and other links. One must be a subscriber to From the Wilderness to read the article. Use the above link; the option to subscribe presents itself.

An Indymedia article by Jennifer Murphy:
Petrocollapse and Food Security at the South Central Farm - posted Feb. 04, 2006

"Jan Lundberg, oil industry analyst, founder of Auto-Free Times and www.culturechange.org came to Los Angeles last weekend to speak on the issues surrounding peak oil. I attended the Sunday afternoon talk on “Petrocollapse and Food Security”, an appropriate title for the location, the South Central Farm.

"The Farm may be receiving an eviction notice any day now, and in the light of Jan’s talk, this makes no sense at all. The average distance food travels between farm and dinner table in this country is 1,500 miles. Our city’s food supply lines are dangerously dependent on petroleum-powered transportation and petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides. Rather than destroy existing vibrant, community-operated agricultural production we should be supporting and expanding it to every neighborhood in town.

"Despite his gloomy message of petrocollapse, Jan opened with an upbeat song called “Get up and change the world”. He accompanied himself with his guitar and encouraged the audience to sing along. The sound system for this event was bicycle-powered. A simple generator and battery was hooked up to a bike on a trainer..." For remainder of article and a picture, go to
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/146380.php

Permaculture meets Peak Oil

See the latest Permaculture Activist magazine about peak oil. Inside this issue are two articles from the culturechange.org website. The P-A mag's website is http://www.permacultureactivist.net/index.html

Climate thought for your global warming day: "If we wanted to really change things to avoid the bulk of the impacts of climate change, we would have to totally change our way of life tomorrow," said Louis Fortier, a researcher with Universite Laval in Quebec City who led the recently concluded Arctic climate study involving 120 scientists from 11 countries. According to an article dated Feb. 14 by Michelle Macafee of The Canadian Press, the study "produced Startling Findings."

Jan Lundberg is on tour in Oregon, mostly by Amtrak and buses. Audiences in southern Oregon are, he has found, "more aware and already involved in sustainability issues, compared to most of the rest of the United Paved Precincts of America." Available at Jan's talks and concerts are, besides the new newsletter, the DCD of the NYC Petrocollapse Conference ($22; go to PayPal in our Donations section of our website), The Depavers CD ($20), and copies of the Permaculture Activist magazine ($6).

If you want Jan to appear in your town to discuss peak oil, petrocollapse, climate change and culture change, call him at 1-215-243-3144 or email him at jan "at" culturechange.org.

To hear Jan's speech in Los Angeles on January 28, "End of Oil" evening with Ed Begley, Jr., Assemblyman Paul Koretz and poet-journalist Jerry Quickley of KPFK, go to L.A. Sound Posse website:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=16328

Jan spoke at the Hollywood rally for the national World Can't Wait/Bush Step Down protests, remarking on the need to eliminate petroleum dependence and replace the present system. He sang his reggae tune "Peace Now". To see pictures and footage of the protest, visit http://www.worldcantwait-la.com/reports.htm

Take the Pledge for Climate Protection, and maybe survive peak oil: http://www.culturechange.org/global_warming_pledge.html

Check out the new Culture Change hard copy newsletter, Feb. 2006 edition, with photos of our NYC conference and new cartoons: http://www.culturechange.org/cms/images/stories//jan-newsletter.pdf

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