1. Volume 3, Number 3, – March 2008
If you pay a lot of attention to
mainstream media, you might be
forgiven for thinking that the rapid
rise of the price of crude oil to
$111.00 is solely due to speculators
(where were they in 1998 when it
was $10?), that global climate
change is a controversial hypothesis
espoused by a few liberal scientists,
that corn-based ethanol is a green
fuel that’s saving our environment,
that adding a few percent to our
average fuel economy will be
enough to make us energy
independent, that rising food prices
are unrelated to biofuels... You
could be forgiven (I’m not in favor of
laying guilt trips on people anyway),
but you would be wrong.
I’m sure I’ve said it before, but I’m
going to say it again: One way or
another, our entire way of life is
going to be transformed in a
breathtakingly short time. I think the
best way to effect that
transformation would be to
intentionally employ foresight,
intelligent planning and intensive
research in an all-out national effort
to rework our society in ways that
make us efficient enough to live on
renewable resources into the
Crisis? What Crisis? People you should
contact about peak oil:
•Senator Barbara Boxer
http://boxer.senate.gov/cont
act/email/policy.cfm
•Senator Dianne Feinstein
http://www.senate.gov/~fein
stein/email.html
•Congressman Sam Farr
1221 Longworth House
Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2861
FAX (202) 225-6791
http://www.farr.house.gov/
•Governor Arnold Schw…
http://www.govmail.ca.gov
•President George Bush
http://www.whitehouse.gov/
Now you can contribute a
cent to SMC every time you
do a web search—just go to
www.goodsearch.com, enter
“Sustainable Monterey
County” in answer to the
“Who do you GoodSearch
for” question, and search .
Thanks to all those who
have contributed help and
funds to SMC
indefinite future. I think this is still
possible, but just barely.
The alternative is to wait the invisible
hand of the market to force us, one-
by-one into consuming less energy,
whether or not we understand why,
and whether or not our new situation
meets our needs. If we continue with
business as usual, we will be
confronted with intolerable prices
and/or shortages that will force
enough of us to go without that
demand will diminish to match the
insufficient supply.
Of course, the actual way we go will
not be either of the extremes I’ve
described, but something in between.
That means that we won’t avoid
hardship altogether, but we may avoid
a human catastrophe. Of course, for
some other forms of life, climate
change has already spelled
catastrophe—there really isn’t any
prospect that we will avoid causing the
extinction of a significant fraction of
the species now living. But we can
limit the number of those extinctions
by acting quickly and decisively.
In some quarters, we’re accused of
spreading doom and gloom. I do think
inaction will lead to doom and gloom,
but inaction isn’t inevitable, nor are its
results. Europe uses half the per
Mission: To ensure an orderly transition through the fossil fuel decline by
cooperatively developing a sustainable economy for Monterey County.
March 20, Thursday: East Village Café film
showing and Discussion with the
producer, “A Convenient Truth,” 7 pm
April 5, Saturday: Oceans of Change
symposium, CSUMB, University
Center, 6th
Street, Seaside, 8am-3pm.
April 22 (?), Tuesday: Earth Day: MIIS
environmental studies students’ sea
level change in Monterey County
UPCOMING EVENTS
project.

2. C I T I Z E N S f o r a S U S T A I N A B L E M O N T E R E Y C O U N T Y
The price of oil has risen to historic
highs—seemingly due to
nothing in particular—but
people act as if we can go
on forever with business as
usual.
If the price of oil had risen from
$22/barrel (as it was in 2002) to
$110/barrel in a few months,
everyone would regard it as a
serious development, calling for
equally serious action. Instead, the
price has risen unevenly over a few
years, and nearly everyone goes
about her business as if nothing is
happening. When will this become
serious? Will gas prices above $5
per gallon shake us up? How
about $10 or $15 or $20? Will we
need to see widespread shortages
before we pause and consider our
predicament?
And how serious must climate
change be before we stop fiddling?
Will an ice-free Arctic Ocean do it?
When will we see our situation as
the emergency it is?
THIS STAGE IN
THE DEVELOPMENT
OF OUR CULTURE
SEEMS LIKE
SLOWLY BOILING
A FROG
Our Global Environmental Condition
By Megan Tolbert (excerpted from an article for 831-Mag)
Our environmental problems, particularly climate change, stretch
beyond the borders of our property, our cities, counties and states, and
beyond the imaginary lines that encircle our countries of residence.
The primary boundary that unites us in the fight against global climate
change is the atmosphere and the carbon we cumulatively spew into it.
There is one silver bullet solution, the elimination of coal as a fuel
source, but is it feasible? In our 12 month window for action, we must
collaborate to act locally. We are depending on each other for survival
and to maintain our quality of life, health, leisure and property here in
the 831 - this sophisticated meeting of land and sea—this sacred
community with ocean spray, mountain vistas, rich agricultural lands,
gurgling rivers, and enough industry to provide a strong job base…
What should we do? We must change the products we purchase, the
fuels we use, the way we build, how and what type of energies we
consume, and where and how our food is grown…
Old wives tale: carbon dioxide levels and severe weather trends we’re
now seeing are simply business as usual for our planet. These impacts
are substantially elevated due to human contributions to carbon in the
atmosphere. The last nine ice ages have been linked to CO2 levels,
according to Doug Smith, a Geohydrology and Watershed Science
professor at CSUMB. Knowing this, we continue with life as usual,
which keeps using our resources, spoiling our air and waters, and
poisoning our bodies. It’s time to ask: “What is most important for
our survival and happiness?” This global human environmental
catastrophe has a solution, and we have an ethical global choice to
make. The Dalai Lama’s national bestselling book Ethics for the New
Millennium, conveys that to live an ethical life, you must live a
compassionate life; and to live a compassionate life, you must work to
alleviate pain in all that is around you. Are the rising sea levels, toxic
drinking water, famine, and devastation to property an expression of
pain? How much pain are we willing to inflict on our living planet,
Mother Earth; our blue canvas ceiling, Father Sky; our watery lungs,
the oceans of Neptune; our constantly flowing veins, the dynamic
rivers; and our kin born of the earth, fellow man and animal? Human
compassion is profound. Combined with knowledge and action, we
have the necessary foundation and answers to alleviate the pain of our
global environmental condition.
A milestone in the dust by John Michael Greer (http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2008/03/milestone-in-dust.html)
Earlier this month, according to several peak oil bloggers, the world passed a milestone worth noting: the point at which oil, in
constant dollars, became more expensive than ever before in history. Plenty of us in the peak oil community have been expecting that
milestone any time now, and the surge that pushed one widely watched price marker past $112 a barrel last week turned the
expectation into reality.
Profit-taking and a flurry of margin calls driven by the wider economic crisis brought oil prices back down at the beginning of this
week, at least for the moment. Meanwhile, though, the higher cost of oil is already starting to trickle down to the consumer level.
Diesel fuel is up over $4 a gallon in many US markets, while gasoline, heating oil, and other petroleum products are following the
same curve. Speculation, in several senses of the word, has begun to focus on the upcoming summer driving season and the likelihood
of soaring prices at the pump.
Just now, however, it may be worth taking the long view. When Goldman Sachs suggested, not so long ago, that oil prices might rise
above $110 a barrel, their analysts thought that it would take a crisis threatening some significant fraction of world oil production to
drive such a “superspike.” The crisis has so far failed to materialize, but the superspike showed up anyway…

3. C I T I Z E N S f o r a S U S T A I N A B L E M O N T E R E Y C O U N T Y
How much more efficient is a train than a car? CSX claims they
can carry a ton of freight 423 miles on a gallon of fuel
(http://www.csx.com/?fuseaction=media.ads). Maybe we should
use trains for more of our transportation.
Further Reading
The Oil Drum http://www.theoildrum.com/
Association for the Study of Peak Oil--USA http://www.aspo-usa.com/
Energy Bulletin http://www.energybulletin.net
Oil Addiction: The World in Peril, Pierre Chomat
Eating Fossil Fuels, Dale Allen Pfeiffer
Plan B 2.0, Lester R. Brown
Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update, Meadows, Randers & Meadows
Old thick ice is leaving the Arctic leaving only newer thin ice behind.

4. Steering Committee Members
Ruth Smith,
Chair
Virginia Chomat,
Secretary and Co-treasurer
Pierre Chomat,
Resident Expert
Mark Folsom,
Newsletter Editor,
folsomman@redshift.net
George Wilson,
831-372-0659
Denyse Frischmuth,
831-643-0707
Urban Environmental Accords
Coordinator
Robert Frischmuth,
Co-Treasurer
Megan Tolbert
Program Heads:
Linda Parker,
phone # 831-656-0664
surite@sbcglobal.net
Big Sur Powerdown
C O N T A C T
I N F O R M A T I O N
MARK FOLSOM:
Phone: 831 648 1543
E-Mail:
folsomman@redshift.net
We’re on the Web!
See us at:
http://www.postcarbon.org/
groups/monter
ey
Editor’s Note
First I need to apologize for the lapse in newsletters these last few
months. The reasons include a bit of burnout, a shift of personal priorities
in the direction of making a living, a computer crash with too infrequent
backups, a feeling that the newsletters were getting repetitive, etc. But
now I have a new computer and a lot of my old data and documents and
addresses—did you know the $300.00 price some of the data recovery
houses advertise is just a teaser? When I started talking seriously with
them, the real cost looked like it was going to be $1500 and up—I just
can’t go there.
Anyway, there’s really a lot happening in sustainability, both locally and
in the wider world. Our friends in Carmel Valley have now gotten a local
sustainability action group going, and another group has started meeting
in Salinas, both with a little nudge from CSMC. Our name has officially
changed to Citizens for a Sustainable Monterey County because we
incorporated and the Secretary of State wouldn’t allow our original name.
We’ve applied for tax-exempt status, and the state has granted us that
status, but we still await approval from the Fed’s. Hartnell College is
going to have a luncheon and two video showings on sustainability in
April, and we hope that these will serve as our first broad contact with the
Latino community in the county.
Personally, I think community and political action on climate and energy
is more urgent than ever. The acceleration in arctic melting and the price
of oil rocketing past $111/barrel are really just the beginning. If we don’t
act now with intelligence, foresight and determination, these will forever
be the good old days. Are you up for it? Do you care enough about the
future to set aside some immediate concerns and push our local, state
and national leaders to act in the common interest? Do you have the
personal courage and honesty to acknowledge that we are entering very
challenging times and act to secure your future and that of your children?
If so, we need your input and participation. Seven or eight of us can’t do
it by ourselves. Are there some real leaders willing to step up in Seaside
and Marina and Prunedale? Please think about it.
Mark Folsom
An 1870 postcard view of the Rhone glacier in Gletsch, Switzerland, contrasted with the shrinking
21st-century version of it. (Dominic Buettner for The New York Times)