January 4 & 5: #144 Local Living Economies - Protecting What We Love

Judy Wicks’ love of place, and of animals, has made widening ripples on a global scale. After she moved onto a quaint street in Philadelphia, she learned it was slated to be torn down. Organizing her community, she saved the block as a walkable community. She opened White Dog Cafe coffee shop on the first floor of her home, which grew to a large restaurant proudly serving food from local farmers. Reading John Robbins’ Diet for a New America about the cruel treatment of factory farm animals, she located small family farmers and created a cruelty-free menu. Rather than hoard this proprietary information, she founded a local sustainable business network based on cooperation. She went on to found BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), a national network of sustainable, small businesses that promote going local. www.livingeconomies.org

www.whitedog.com

January 11 & 12: #146 Permaculture for Humanity

The future is abundant, asserts permaculture designer Larry Santoyo. His vision of living in the present provides a wonderful antidote to fear about uncertain futures. People need to rediscover that we’re part of the ecosystem, and apply permaculture design principles to the many problems we face. Larry teaches sustainable permaculture design as a discovery of the world around us. He notes that trying to be self-sufficient is really anti-permaculture. Instead, we need to develop self-reliance skills. Then as we find others in our communities to interact with, everybody gets to play! www.earthflow.com

January 18 & 19: #132 Peak Oil and Its Effect on Climate Change

The peak oil message is slow to gain acceptance, says energy analyst Randy Udall, because it's at odds with our optimistic It's-Morning-in-America mentality. Politicians "Don't Do Depletion." Randy describes challenges, mitigations, and exciting opportunities to create a prosperous path to a lower-energy future. In an excerpt from his presentation at the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO-USA) conference in September 2008, the co-founder of ASPO-USA points out cornucopian myths about energy that are being shattered by reality. His concern is that the peak oil crisis, while less known than the climate crisis, will impact us sooner, and is not being factored into climate policy decisions. Peak Oil may in fact help moderate the climate crisis.

January 25 & 26: #131 Making Financial Sense of the Coming Energy Crisis

"We are living in historic times", says financial consultant Jim Puplava. As reflected in his weekly Financial Sense Newshour, actually several hour-long podcasts, Jim has been factoring peak oil into his financial picture for several years. In this interview plus excerpts from his presentation at the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO-USA) conference in September 2008, Jim talks about the "crisis window" opened by the current 2008 global credit crunch, and deepening over the next several years as oil supply begins its permanent decline. He provides some basic investment guidance for navigating the coming "perfect financial storm," noting that our society will move of necessity from consumption to conservation.

PEAK TV is sponsored locally by the Center for Excellence in Communication at Clarkson University and the Seymour Family of Potsdam.