Peak Moment
An Inside Look at an Emergency Survival Kit
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
Peak Moment 122: If an emergency forced you to evacuate your home, would you be prepared? Matthew Stein, author of When Technology Fails, shows what to pack in your 72-hour emergency survival kit — and why. Check out the first aid kits, sleeping bag and space blanket, LED flashlight, hand-crank disaster radio, portable stove and cook set, freeze-dried food, multi-tool, compass, water holder, and essential water treatment items; plus sewing, repair, and health items. The packing list is on his website, http://www.whentechfails.com
Author: peakmoment
Keywords: emergency preparedness survival
Added: August 10, 2008
Helping Local Food Businesses Thrive
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008
Peak Moment 121: Wendy Siporen coordinates The Rogue Initiative for a Vital Economy (THRIVE), which helps small locally-owned businesses not just to thrive, but be more sustainable as well. A “Food Connection” directory enables local businesses to buy from one another. Their “Rogue Flavor” campaign helps consumers find locally produced food at farm stands, restaurants, and markets. Tasty ideas from the one-week “Eat Local Challenge: cooking classes, films, and cooking a meal made from all-local products from the growers market. Yum!
Author: peakmoment
Keywords: local food business Ashland
Added: August 3, 2008
Go-Getter Gets Governments Going on Sustainability
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Peak Moment 120: Energetic Kris Holstrom is the first Sustainability Coordinator for Telluride and a smart Colorado county. The action plan she developed encompasses energy efficiency and renewables, green building, food and water security, economy, and recycling/resource recovery. She enlightens us about green codes, incentives and rebates, a household energy audit program, public education speakers and conferences, even farm tours for schoolkids. For Kris, what’s at the heart of sustainability is building relationships within the community and with the land, wherever we live.
Author: peakmoment
Keywords: government sustainability education
Added: July 28, 2008
Little House on a Small Planet
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Peak Moment 119: Builder and author Shay Salomon finds that the happiest home builders are often the ones with the smallest houses. They’re less costly to build and maintain, more likely to be finished, use fewer resources and help people simplify their lives. One version of “smaller” is to share a house, which can ease our loneliness while building our social network. Co-founder of the Small House Society, Shay notes that scaling down can enable a ratcheting up of our whole lifestyle, as we revalue quality over quantity. Declaring “Enough”, she says, is the most ecological thing one can do.
Author: peakmoment
Keywords: housing small houses sustainability enough
Added: July 19, 2008
Calm Before the Storm
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
Peak Moment 115: [Revised version with improved audio] Richard Heinberg, author of “Peak Everything”, reviews the accelerating events since mid-2007, including the credit crunch and fossil fuel price volatility, noting that we’ve missed most of the best opportunities to manage collapse. He asks, “how far down the staircase of complexity will our global civilization have to go until we’re sustainable?” His answer: when managed properly, with deliberate simplification, not as far as we might otherwise. In addition to long term efforts to relocalize our economies, he advocates developing community “resilience” to withstand short-term catastrophic events like food shortages or extreme weather. Noting that healthy fear can move us into action, he encourages an attitude of clarity, concern and informed action in this “calm before the storm” that he feels is soon coming to an end. For a DVD of Richard’s presentation that evening for “Kiss Your Gas Goodbye”, go to peakmoment.tv. Click here for Janaia’s blog about this Conversation. [www.richardheinberg.com]
Author: peakmoment
Keywords: collapse sustainability civilization overshoot resilience
Added: July 12, 2008
Protecting Your Money in a Declining Economy
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
Peak Moment 118: Marc Cuniberti is a market analyst and host of a popular “Money Matters” program on our local community radio station KVMR. Marc talks about the causes of inflation (rising prices are just a symptom) and strategies to protect and even make money in a down market. Like getting out of debt, saving, and investing in tangible things people actually need (like agriculture products and energy), and stocks that pay you to hold them by paying a dividend. He stresses the importance of using compounding of interest in your favor: $100 saved today with an 8% return will grow to $200 in 9 years.
Author: peakmoment
Keywords: investment economy money
Added: July 9, 2008
The Bicycling Horticulturalist
Monday, July 7th, 2008
Peak Moment 117: Ryan Nassichuk builds food gardens for people. His bicycle and trailer are the sole transport for himself, tools, and materials - including soil and plants! This horticulturist also builds container gardens and composters. Tour a backyard garden in which a 6-week class of students filled raised beds with soil, compost and fertilizer, did succession planting, and built a low-cost composter. Recently Ryan has added free seed-sharing to his wisdom-sharing, while continuing to propagate food gardens throughout Vancouver. This man has a low ecological footprint — or should we say bike tire tread? [www.ryansgarden.com]
Author: peakmoment
Keywords: gardening bicycle horticulture composting
Added: July 7, 2008
Looking at The Big Moral Question
Monday, June 30th, 2008
Peak Moment 116: “What’s going to happen to our kids?” When Bruce Anderson read “The Limits to Growth” in the 1970s, he learned that nothing in nature grows forever — including the human economy. As we rapidly use everything up, we’re now reaching those limits and entering a crisis of adaptation. He raises the moral, ethical and emotional aspects of a challenge humans have never faced before. He feels we’re up against limitations of thought, of the heart, almost at a mythic level. He asks: Can we mature from our childish consumerist narcissism to compassionate adulthood? Will our inbuilt caring for our children propel us to quickly take action so they have a future? While facing what’s before us, how can we keep our spirit and heart alive, not succumbing to denial or despair? [www.forthefuture.org]
Author: peakmoment
Keywords: civilization overshoot next generation big picture collapse
Added: June 30, 2008
Calm Before the Storm
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
Richard Heinberg, author of “Peak Everything”, reviews the accelerating events since mid-2007, including the credit crunch and fossil fuel price volatility, noting that we’ve missed most of the best opportunities to manage collapse. He asks, “how far down the staircase of complexity will our global civilization have to go until we’re sustainable?” His answer: when managed properly, with deliberate simplification, not as far as we might otherwise. In addition to long term efforts to relocalize our economies, he advocates developing community “resilience” to withstand short-term catastrophic events like food shortages or extreme weather. Noting that healthy fear can move us into action, he encourages an attitude of clarity, concern and informed action in this “calm before the storm” that he feels is soon coming to an end. [www.richardheinberg.com]
Author: peakmoment
Keywords: collapse civilization sustainability overshoot resilience
Added: June 22, 2008
“Team Fate” - Under the Hood of a Next-Gen Plug-in Hybrid
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
Peak Moment 114: Take a tour of a plug-in electric hybrid modification of a 1996 Mercury Sable, with UC Davis graduate students Patrick Kaufman and Bryan Jungers (interviewed in episode 113). Under the hood you’ll see modifications and some interesting new components. Unlike commercial hybrids — primarily combustion engines with an electric-motor assist — theirs is primarily an electric vehicle with a small combustion engine to extend its range beyond the all-electric 60-70 miles. Batteries recharge in 6-8 hours with electricity costing about 75 cents per gallon of gas equivalent (2006 prices). Don’t miss Janaia’s first-time drive of an electric vehicle. [www.team-fate.net]
Author: peakmoment
Keywords: plug-in hybrids transportation efficiency technology
Added: June 15, 2008
“Team Fate” - Designing the Next Generation Hybrid
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
Peak Moment 113: Students at UC Davis Hybrid Vehicle Research Center have been creating plug-in hybrids for national competitions for some time. “Team Fate” members Bryan Jungers and Patrick Kaufman describe how they “gut” the drive train of a standard vehicle, replacing it with an electric motor, a bank of batteries, continuously variable transmission, and some clever electronics. The resulting vehicle runs on electricity, assisted by a much smaller flex-fuel internal combustion engine only when needed. Bryan and Patrick also enlighten us on topics ranging from battery technology to hydrogen fuel cells. [www.team-fate.net]
These are two of the students working with Professor Andrew Frank, whom you met in episode 107.
Looking for a specific topic in our Peak Moment library? Visit www.peakmoment.tv. Go to “Conversations” and click a tag, or do a search. Our home page lists “specials” (presentations and conferences) available on DVD. Subscribe to our email newsletter. Or go to “Journal” to join the dialogue on Janaia’s Journal.
Author: peakmoment
Keywords: plug-in hybrid transportation efficiency
Added: June 9, 2008