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Post Carbon Institute

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Post Carbon Institute
Founded2003 (2003)
FounderJulian Darley and Celine Rich
65-1208462
Location
Key people
Asher Miller, Executive Director; Jason Bradford, Board President; Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow
Revenue (2017)
$1,051,861[1]
Expenses (2017)$712,871[1]
Websitewww.postcarbon.org

Post Carbon Institute (PCI) is a think tank which provides information and analysis on climate change, energy scarcity, and other issues related to sustainability and long term community resilience. Its Fellows specialize in various fields related to the organization's mission, such as fossil fuels, renewable energy, food, water, and population. Post Carbon is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and is based in Corvallis, Oregon, United States.

Post Carbon Institute largely publishes and promotes the work of its Fellows and allies. It maintains two major websites, postcarbon.org for material from its staff and Fellows, and resilience.org for material from allies. Since 2009 it has focused on: publishing articles, reports, and books; running issue-oriented promotional campaigns; and serving as a speakers' bureau for some of its Fellows.

History

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2003–2008

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Post Carbon Institute was founded by Julian Darley (President) and Celine Rich (Executive Director) in 2003. (Although not explicitly recognized as a founder, Dave Room helped build the Institute from months of its inception into a funded organization.) Its initial purpose was to implement programs to educate the public on issues surrounding global fossil fuel depletion (see peak oil, peak coal, peak gas) and climate change, as well as on possible responses to these challenges. A key tool for this was a film called "The End of Suburbia", which featured Richard Heinberg and James Howard Kunstler among others. Post Carbon promoted the concept of Relocalization, a strategy to build community resilience based on the local production of food, energy, and goods, and the development of more localized governance, economy, and culture.[2]

Post Carbon Institute was one of the few organizations in this period actively promoting the concept of peak oil, along with groups such as the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, the International Forum on Globalization, and the Transition Towns movement, and websites such as EnergyBulletin.net and The Oil Drum. It ran the predominant online social network focused on community responses to peak oil and climate change, the Relocalization Network. Richard Heinberg[3] joined as a Senior Fellow-in-Residence in 2008. Major activities included:

  • Global Public Media, streaming long format audio and video interviews about the issues surrounding fossil fuel depletion.
  • The Relocalization Network,[4][5] a network of groups and individuals working to educate their local communities and develop programs to re-localize food and energy production, and reduce local consumption.
  • The Energy Farms Network, a demonstration and partnership program to explore production of feedstocks, fuels and electricity by local farmers for local users.
  • The Oil Depletion Protocol (aka the Rimini or Uppsala Protocol), a blueprint for an international agreement to avoid price and supply volatility problems associated with global oil production.

Since 2009

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Asher Miller became Executive Director in 2009, and Post Carbon restructured to concentrate its program activities on research and publishing. It broadened its topical focus to include natural resource depletion, climate change, the limits to economic growth, human overpopulation, food, and other issues - partly in response to the changed U.S. political landscape following the 2008 oil crisis, the financial crisis of 2007–2008, and the election of President Barack Obama (see Post Carbon Institute Manifesto). Most of its earlier programs were consolidated or discontinued. It entered into partnerships with Transition US[6] and Energy Bulletin.net, a clearinghouse website on issues surrounding global energy resource depletion. Its roster of Fellows was significantly expanded to include notable figures such as Bill McKibben, Wes Jackson, David Orr, and Majora Carter.

Activities

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Resilience.org

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Resilience.org is a resource platform for communities building local self-reliance, emphasizing community-based responses to the rapidly emerging fallout from the end of cheap fossil fuels. It was launched in 2012 as the successor to the popular peak oil website EnergyBulletin.net.[7]

Think Resilience

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Think Resilience is an online course on "how to make sense of the complex challenges society now faces" and "how to build community resilience."[8]

Publications

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Since 2012, publications have focused primarily on energy and/or community resilience:

Energy

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Community Resilience

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Other Topics

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Fellows

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Post Carbon Institute" (PDF). Post Carbon Institute. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  2. ^ Vancouver Straight (2009-07-23). Hello local, goodbye global: Relocalization movement gains momentum
  3. ^ San Francisco Chronicle (2008-05-27). Supply-demand imbalance boosts oil prices
  4. ^ Toronto Star (2008-01-03). Is oil supply at its peak?
  5. ^ Boulder Daily Camera (2007-09-28). Lifestyle changes prepare locals for energy changes
  6. ^ New York Times (2009/04/19). The End is Near! Yay!
  7. ^ FinancialPress, Energy Bulletin has Moved to Resilience.org, 3 January 2013.
  8. ^ "Think Resilience". Think Resilience. Retrieved 2018-11-17.
  9. ^ Peter Moskowitz, Sapping the sweet spots: How long will US energy boom last?, Al Jazeera America, November 10, 2014.
  10. ^ Anne Mulkern, Is Calif.'s Monterey Shale a major oil resource or over-hyped?, EnergyWire, 5 December 2013.
  11. ^ Richard Heinberg, Was the Oil and Gas Industry Promoting Peak Oil to Make Maximum Profits?, AlterNet, 19 August 2013.
  12. ^ Wendy Koch, Could fracking boom peter out sooner than DOE expects?, USA Today, 3 November 2013.
  13. ^ Alvin Lee, Shale Oil and Gas: The Contrarian View, Forbes, 6 May 2013.
  14. ^ Tara Lohan, The Coming Crash: Our Addiction to Endless Growth on a Finite Planet, AlterNet, 27 March 2013.
  15. ^ Susan Carpenter, Natural gas: study raises doubts on U.S. supply, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2011.
  16. ^ The Scotsman (2008/10/09). Scottish councils urged to get into peak oil practice
  17. ^ InfrastructureUSA, Resilient Against What?, 21 October 2013.
  18. ^ Publishers Weekly, Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems, 4 February 2013.
  19. ^ Brita Belli, Owning Your Energy, The Environmental Magazine, September/October 2012.
  20. ^ Michael Shuman, 5 Ways to Make Your Dollars Make Sense, Yes! Magazine, 14 February 2013.
  21. ^ Jim Jubelirer, A Primer for the Post-Carbon World, GreenBiz, 10 December 2010.
  22. ^ Candice Bernd, Post Carbon Institute Calls on Environmentalists to Embrace Post-Growth Economics, Truthout, 9 October 2013.
  23. ^ Crawford Kilian, The End of Growth...and Then What?, The Tyee, 11 June 2012.
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