Keynoter: Dmitry Orlov is the author of Reinventing Collapse: Soviet Example and American Prospects. He was born in Leningrad and immigrated to the United States at the age of 12. He was an eyewitness to the Soviet collapse over several extended visits to his Russian homeland between the late eighties and mid-nineties. He is an engineer who has contributed to fields as diverse as high-energy Physics and Internet security, as well as a leading Peak Oil theorist whose writing is featured on such sites as www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net and www.powerswitch.org.uk.

Keynoter: John Michael Greer, is author of the forthcoming The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age. He is a certified Master Conserver, organic gardener and scholar of ecological history. His widely-cited blog, The Archdruid Report, deals with Peak Oil, among other issues. He lives in Ashland, Oregon.

Richard Heinberg (via webcast), Senior Fellow, the Post Carbon Institute, 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, 2007). 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.” 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.

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.

Katrin Klingenberg is the founder and executive director of e-co lab and the co-founder and principal of the Passive House Institute US. She designs and builds Passive Houses and consults on implementing the standard for various climate zones in North America. Katrin has taught building science at the University of Illinois, Chicago and is a licensed architect in Germany.

Peter Bane,editor of Permaculture Activist magazine is a native Illinoisan who grew up in the university city of Champaign-Urbana. He has lived in various regions of the U.S., taught permaculture extensively from Canada to Chile for 15 years, and was recognized in 2005 with the Diploma of Permaculture Design for his publishing, teaching, and community work.

Christopher Bedford, President of the Center for Economic Security and the Sweetwater Local Foods Market, has worked for more than fifteen years to bring ecological intelligence to the work of business, labor, public health and environmental groups. In 2001, he created the award-winning film, The Next Industrial Revolution that has become a core document in the worldwide green revolution in business. He has organized campaigns to build ecological sustainability in five states. His work has won more than three dozen awards for excellence. He is a graduate of Princeton University.

John Richter is a co-founder of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Education (ISEE) and former president of the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association. He has presented to the U.S. Congressional Staff on wind energy policy issues. He has presented renewable energy policy recommendations to Michigan Legislators and staff. Mr. Richter has been a regular speaker at regional renewable energy conferences for more than a decade and a guest lecturer at Michigan colleges and Universities. John was featured on the PBS Special: Michigan at Risk: Michigan's Green Energy Economy. He is currently a student at Murdoch University, where he is completing his thesis for a Master of Science in Renewable Energy.

Shane Snell is Sustainable Communities Coordinator at Whole Village, a sustainable farm community and aspiring ecovillage in Ontario, Canada. Shane has initiated a multi-phase educational plan for ecovillage promotion that began in 2005 with two years of research, as he journeyed across the continent in a veggie oil-powered camper and created the internet Blog "Eco-tour of North America." He will present photos and share stories from his travels to show how ordinary people are responding to the challenges of energy depletion and climate change.

Michael Brownlee is co-founder of Transition Boulder County, a non-profit social venture committed to increasing public awareness of the challenges and opportunities of "The Long Emergency," converging global crises of Peak Oil, global warming and economic chaos. A catalyst for Transition/Relocalization, Michael spearheads the organization's campaign to rebuild community and strengthen the local economy, beginning the transition to an energy-constrained future. Transition Boulder County recently became the first Transition Initiative in North America, and is a Chapter of the Relocalization Network organized by Post Carbon Institute. Michael is a founding member of the Boulder County Food and Agricultural Policy Council, a recent graduate of the Authentic Leadership Program at Naropa University's Marpa Center for Business and Economics, and recently served as Board President of the Boulder Independent Business Alliance. He is a frequent speaker on sustainability issues, and a trainer for the Transition Network.

Megan Quinn Bachman is the Outreach Director of the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions, and has been writing and speaking on Peak Oil and community-based solutions for more than six years. She helped to organize and served as master of ceremonies for five U.S. Conferences on Peak Oil and Community Solutions. Her articles on Peak Oil have appeared in Communities magazine, Permaculture Activist, Vermont Commons, Kindred, WellBeing and Friends Journal. 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.

Steve Raney, Avego Product Marketing Director, holds three master's degrees: business, software, and transportation from Columbia, RPI, and Berkeley. He has conducted technology product research at Microsoft, Citigroup, and Silicon Valley start-ups. He was project manager for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system's Group Rapid Transit study. He was the Principal Investigator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Transforming Office Parks into Transit Villages" study. He is the author of five Transportation Research Board (TRB) papers. His "wireless carpool assistant," TrakRide, is patented. His recent conference presentations include TRB, Association for Commuter Transportation, Intelligent Transportation Systems World Congress, Rail~Volution, Greenbuild Expo, Engineers for a Sustainable World, Housing California, and American Planning Association (California Chapter).

Rob Content began an effort to educate his friends, family, and colleagues about the implications of Peak Oil and climate change in 2005. He has given presentations on these issues to more than a dozen professional, academic, and community-based audiences. He and his wife are currently developing a four-acre permaculture demonstration garden which they will use as the base for community-oriented education about self-sufficient agriculture and food security. Rob earned graduate degrees in philosophy at the University of California, creative writing at Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland, and Renaissance Studies at Duke University. He has worked as a humanities professor, filmmaker, and film critic prior to joining Community Solutions as Program Manager, responsible for the development and documentation of the Smart Jitney and Agraria projects, as well as the development of an energy-based core curriculum in collaboration with Antioch University McGregor.

Click here for the summary of the Fourth U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community.

Top of Page

For more information, email info@plancconference.org.

Download the conference brochure and registration form.