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The Truth About Alcohol Fuel: Our Path Beyond Petroleum,

with David Blume

Tuesday, July 13, 2010, 5:30 pm

Tucson Public Library, 101 N. Stone Ave.  Lower Level Meeting Room:

Co-Sponsored by the Community Information Resource Center and Sustainable Tucson

Permaculturist David Blume will present the history of alcohol fuel, and outline how localized, small-scale alcohol fuel production can contribute to economic vitality and regional energy and food security.

As oil fouls some of the most precious and productive ecosystems in the US, polls show that Americans are ready for a radical shift away from dependence on oil.  Recently President Obama stated from the Oval Office:

The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now. Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash American innovation and seize control of our own destiny.

There IS an alternative to oil that we can embrace NOW!    You are invited to spend an evening with David Blume as he discusses appropriate scale alcohol fuel production – a way forward that creates plentiful green jobs and supports our economy, while improving our environment.  And best of all, alcohol fuel can be used in our current autos and trucks to make any car an eco-car!

• David will discuss how the proud history of alcohol fuel (the original auto fuel) has been conveniently left out of the official history of energy in America; and how Big Oil’s billion dollar “Food vs Fuel” PR campaign buried the best alternative to oil under an avalanche of misinformation and propaganda (until now).

•  David will introduce you to a new paradigm of permaculture-based food AND fuel production, and discuss how to unleash an economic and energy renaissance in Tucson, in the Southwest, and beyond.

A biofuel pioneer for over 30 years, David Blume is the author of Alcohol Can Be A Gas, Executive Director of the International Institute of Ecological Agriculture, Permaculturist, and most recently, founder of Blume Distillation, LLC.  David has devoted his career to exploring how to create abundant food and biofuels, sustainably helping navigate the challenge of our time:  the end of the age of cheap, plentiful oil.

There is no charge to attend this event.

Five theme areas are: Natural Resources, Air Quality, Water, Transportation and Energy, and
Community and Economy, to represent the essence of the community and its influence on
the land and our environment. This report, built on 2006 baseline data, provides trends for key
indicators, and includes a few new indicators. Buffelgrass is featured for the first time and we are monitoring data to track expanding regional progress to control this invasive plant.

The report (large file) is available for download here.

Where: YWCA, 525 N. Bonita Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85745

FREE WORKSHOP

This FREE workshop is your guide to straight forward sustainable business practices.
Obtain Tucson Electric Power’s available incentives which can pay as much as 90% of the installed cost on select efficiency measures

• Become a Certified Green Business through the City of Tucson
• Increase your bottom line through decreasing your utility costs
• Connect with resources to help pay for efficiency upgrades
• Receive technical expertise and free energy, water, waste and pollution prevention audits
• Learn techniques to reduce energy consumption, waste generation and pollution prevention

Register in advance here or call us 520-620-1241

On June 15, 2010 the Tucson City Council will consider formalization
of a Water Service Area Policy for Tucson Water which will define the geographic footprint where Tucson Water will extend water service.
Public comments are requested on the proposed Water Service Area Policy as described in the background materials and Proposed Tucson Water Service Area map which can be viewed on the City of Tucson website at
www.tucsonaz.gov/agdocs/20100413/ssapr13-10-135.pdf.
Comments about the proposed water service area should be submitted by May 20, 2010 to Nicole Ewing Gavin, Assistant to the City Manager:
E-mail: nicole.ewing-gavin@…
Phone: (520) 791-4204
Mail:P.O. Box 27210, Tucson AZ 85726-7210

Tucson Water’s current water service policy of serving only legally-obligated areas was established as an interim policy in 2007 pending the outcome of the City/County Water and Wastewater Study, which is now complete. The Study identified a set of economic and environmental factors to be used to guide water service expansion decisions. These factors have been applied to the current water service area to make water service expansion recommendations. These recommendations seek to 1) protect the interests of Tucson Water ratepayers by managing future water resource obligations, 2) better align water service areas with jurisdictional boundaries and encourage annexation which brings state revenue to the region, 3) dedicate water for future economic development, industry, and jobs, and 4) deliver renewable water supplies to riparian areas where further groundwater pumping would cause environmental damage.

Published at Energy Bulletin and Guy’s blog: Nature Bats Last

(Guy, a former UA professor, has inspired Sustainable Tucson with his writings and appearances at ST General Meetings during the past four years)

As we continue into the decades-old, but only recently acknowledged era of destruction and extinction, it’s apparent the current model is not working. Truth has fallen and taken liberty with it. A vast majority of Americans are aware the industrial economy clings by the barest of threads but, too fearful of individual retribution to disrupt the industrial culture that is making us crazy and killing us, we hang tightly to the only system we’ve every known. Pathetically reluctant to consider what lies beyond the omnicidal industrial machine, we cling to a system that has failed to nurture the living planet, human individuals, or human communities.

At some point, we simply lost track of the importance of communities, human and otherwise. Along the way to becoming a nation of multitasking, Twittering, Facebook “friends” we abandoned the ability to connect meaningfully, viscerally, individually. If we are to thrive during the post-carbon era, we’ll need to create groups of straight-talking, look-’em-in-the-eye, mean-what-you-say, say-what-you-mean, self-reliant, individuals who are not afraid to ask for help from the neighbors and who, when asked, readily offer assistance.

I know you hate those stories that start with, “When I was a kid, ….” But here goes, regardless. I grew up in a tiny, backwoods, red-neck logging town. By the time I was 18 years old, I’d seen more bar fights than first-run movies. I knew that when a man was driving home after getting whipped in a bar fight, and the man who beat him up drove drunkenly into a ditch on the way home, the guy who got pummeled had no choice but to stop and give a hand to the guy who whipped him. If the whippee didn’t stop to help, and anybody in town found out, he’d be better off driving to the next state than hanging around. Helping neighbors in need was not optional. The benighted community of my youth was a worthless pile of crap. But to me and my neighbors, it was our worthless pile of crap, and an outsider who threatened people in our town would have been better off bobbing for apples in a bucket of piranhas. The people who lived in that town, like the ones who still live there, are shoulder-to-the-wheel, down-to-earth folks who care about their community.

For a diametrically opposed perspective, see contemporary suburbia. Our self-proclaimed independence is a bad joke made possible only by cheap energy. As we leave cheap energy in our wake, it becomes increasingly clear the joke’s on us.

As Dmitry Orlov points out with his usual brilliant wit, communities arise organically. Despite the multi-million dollar efforts of countless scientists at Biosphere II, for example, the resulting collection of communities is a pale and pathetic imitation of the naturally occurring ecosystems they are designed to replicate. As with ecological communities, we know little about human communities and what makes them “work.” Nonetheless, we fill tomes about both kinds of communities. Along the way, a few people, including the always-thoughtful Dan Allen, think before they write. How refreshing is that?

Were I still a self-respecting, objective scientist reluctant to express an opinion or make a forecast, I’d stop with those two endorsements wrapped around a nod to ignorance. Actually, I would proceed to write a grant proposal explaining how I would overcome our collective ignorance for a few hundred grand and 50% overhead. Instead of taking either rational route, it’s onward, through the fog.

Although communities are self-organizing, we are able to nurture them and therefore influence species composition. We can plant trees and pull weeds. We can add water and compost. In fact, we do all these things, and we call the result a garden. As I’ve pointed out in prior posts, scale matters: I’m a huge fan of gardens, for reasons that run from healthy food to healthy psyches, but I detest farms. The former characterize Eden, the latter civilization.

As with ecological communities, I think we can and should nurture our human communities, recognizing and encouraging positive elements and weeding out negative ones. We may not be capable of building communities, but we can work with the ones we’ve got to the betterment of individuals who contribute to the common good. And, as with ecological communities, our ability to nurture human communities will vary. Every community is unique, and will require a unique set of approaches.

Too corny? Maybe. But I’m in the fine company of Plato, Aristotle, and Dan Allen, so I’ll run with it.

As I’ve indicated previously, as recently as my latest post, location is everything. Try nurturing community in the suburban wasteland filling most American cities, and you’ll run smack into the horrifically omnivorous maw of culture. If the most visible portion of every house is the garage, good luck organizing the neighbors into building community gardens fed by harvested rainwater and humanure. If it works in the short run, be sure to keep tabs on all the unprepared, self-indulgent free riders you’ll need to feed and water in the longer run.

I was, and am, quite concerned about my late arrival to the region surrounding the mud hut. As I’ve indicated before, I am quite fortunate to have found a like-minded couple of people who were willing to share their property. Financially, my wife and I could not have pulled this off ourselves. In addition, it would have been unwise from an interpersonal perspective. But our partners have lived in this area for nearly a decade, and they’ve worked hard during that time to develop strong relations with the neighbors. At some level, we’re the free riders I warned about in the previous paragraph. At another level, though, we came to the community with a strong endorsement and a built-in set of human ties.

Thus, my first recommendation: Community starts at home. If you can find somebody who is willing to take you in, I propose pooling resources. Given the increasing poverty in a nation addicted to the stock markets, this counter-cultural notion — which goes against the American cultural ideal of “independence” — is starting to make a lot of sense. I suspect we’ll see a lot more collaboration and a lot less ego-laden, look-at-me-and-my-mansion competition in the years ahead.

After establishing a home-based beachhead, the remainder involves common sense and little else. This ain’t rocket surgery, after all. Make yourself valuable by finding a niche. Provide a service, or set of services, integral to the daily lives of your neighbors. What do they do?

They drink water. So find a way to extract, purify, and deliver water when municipal power is no longer available.

They eat. So find a way to produce healthy food at a smaller scale than the big-box grocery store. Grow chickens, ducks, and goats. Make yogurt, butter, and cheese. And then develop a means of preparing the food without fossil fuels. Think drying racks, sun ovens, and firewood.

They wear clothes. So stock up on needles and strong thread, and sell your skills as a tailor, or even a mender.

They sleep. Make ’em blankets. Or, if you have the requisite skills, beds and other furniture.

Can you care for animals, including human animals? They have tender psyches and bodies that were not designed for the rigors to which they’re about to be subjected. They need therapy, just like the rest of us, and they’ll soon need a lot more. Can you provide it, at a finer scale than the current model, and for barter? Are you a medical herbalist? Can you become one?

They need respite from the drudgery of labor. Already, everything is amazing and nobody is happy. Imagine what our lives will be like when we can’t take our annual summer driving vacation, much less the once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe or the Caribbean. Can you spin a yarn or play a tune? I recommend traveling minstrel as an occupation about to make a serious comeback.

They want educated people, and some of them want educated children. If you can write a coherent paragraph and perform long division, you’ll be in constant demand in a world without hand calculators. If you can teach children to perform these miracles, get set to launch your career as a post-carbon teacher.

They have sex. Never mind the world’s oldest profession: The potential for midwives and childcare should be obvious.

I could go on, but the point should be clear by now. As we leave the Age of Entitlement and transition into the Age of Consequences, everybody will need to make a contribution to their community. Those who are unwilling or unable to make a contribution will not be welcome. If you value living in a particular place, think about tight-knit Stone Age communities or contemporary Amish communities. The worst possible fate for an individual is to be shunned, because that means you’ll need to find your own way in a large, unknown world.

So, what about me, and my adopted community? What specific steps have I taken, along with my partners at this property?

We barter, and we’re ratcheting up the barter at every opportunity. These efforts are welcome in a valley filled with self-reliant, life-loving economic doomers. We provide plenty of eggs (chicken and duck) and milk, and in return we have received various kinds of food (fruits, vegetables, and the most wondrous imaginable bread), heirloom seeds and bulbs, a large iron triangle for announcing dinner is ready at the outdoor kitchen, a full clean-and-trim job on our goats’ hooves, and other goods and services too numerous to list (and, in my case, too varied and numerous to remember).

On the personal front, I am working hard to befriend members of my community. I’ve joined an effort to reintroduce river otters into the nearby river, and worked shoulder-to-shoulder on constructing government-mandated otter pods for their release (the pods are large boxes built from plywood and construction lumber). I join a gang of locals at the nearest café for coffee every Tuesday morning (and I don’t drink coffee). I substitute teach at the local K-12 school (“today we’re learning about entropy”). I partake of potlucks and dance parties, as well as more formal annual events such as craft fairs. I’m extremely introverted, so each of these social gatherings is painful. As Nietzsche pointed out, what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. Perhaps it’ll make my community stronger, too.

In the not-so-distant future, we intend to provide a much broader array of services to our community. We can extract water from the ground via solar pump and hand pump. In addition to the daily overload of eggs and milk, we’re making and aging plenty of hard cheeses. We’ve stored some luxurious food and drink that will age well (and I don’t even drink alcohol). We can grind grains. We have the capacity to cook food via sun oven, Earth oven (orno), and wood-fired cook stove. We have solar-powered electricity and an assortment of power tools to aid with minor construction projects. This entire infrastructure is designed not merely for our survival, but also for the survival of others in our community. We thrive when our community thrives. We suffer when our community suffers.

I’m certain I’m missing many things. But any number can play, so please help me out. What can we stock for barter? What’s small, inexpensive, and easy to store, yet useful? What other skills should we learn in anticipation of a contracting economy and therefore an enlarging world? What other services can we provide, within the constraints of a small piece of land and little remaining money?

And what about you? How are you preparing for a life of service in the Age of Consequences?

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This essay is permalinked at Energy Bulletin (with photos and minor editing).
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I’ll be speaking in Sedona, Arizona next week, with an emphasis on water and community. Details are here.

From a March 30 article The Verde Independent:

Most recently, Dr. McPherson served as professor at the UA School of Natural Resources and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. In 2009, he was recognized as Faculty of the Year…. Dr. McPherson recently left academia for other pursuits. As he put it in his popular blog, Nature Bats Last: “I departed university life for many reasons, among them to dedicate more time informing the world’s citizens about the consequences of the way we live. My message centers on the twin sides of the fossil-fuel coin: global climate change and energy decline (commonly known as “peak oil”). …These unprecedented phenomena impact every aspect of life on Earth, notably including our ability to protect the living planet on which we depend for our own survival.”

As Albert Einstein once said, “Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the only means.” While Dr. McPherson might take exception to that thought, he decided to put it into practice. Today, he and his wife live in an off-grid, straw-bale house where they practice sustainable living by organic gardening, raising small animals for eggs and milk, and actively engaging with members of their rural community

The first print edition of the Green Pueblo Map showcasing our community’s favorite “green” places and spaces will be available later this year.  If you haven’t already done so, we encourage you to “make your mark” on the map by nominating your favorite sustainable sites at www.greenpueblomap.org . Please also encourage your friends and colleagues to participate.

Nominations are being accepted in more than 30 categories, including community gardens, solar sites, recycling centers, re-use shops, public parks, scenic vistas, rainwater harvesting locations, and historical sites.  It takes only a minute to nominate a site and you do not have to provide any personal information other than a zip code.  Once a site is nominated, it will typically appear on the website within a month.  A selection of sites will also appear on a printed version of the map.  If you want your site(s) to be considered for the printed map, please submit your nomination(s) by April 1, 2010.

The Green Pueblo Map is a free, community-based mapping effort.  The on-line map is constantly evolving and reflects the community we are all creating together.  Residents are encouraged to visit www.greenpueblomap.org at anytime to help identify and explore the features that promote sustainable living and which makes our region such a special place to live.

Pima County, the City of Tucson, and The Inner Connection are organizing the Green Pueblo mapping effort.  However, the project is part of a much broader, international green mapping initiative that began in New York City in 1995, and has since spread to 55 countries.  For more information, please visit www.greenmap.org .

The WRRC invites you to participate in the 2010 Annual Conference, Creating New Leadership for Arizona’s Water and Environment in a Time of Change, at the University of Arizona Memorial Student Union on June 9-10, 2010. The conference will provide a forum for youth leaders and young professionals to interact with established professionals and together develop strategies for fostering leadership on environmental and water issues. If you see yourself as an emerging leader with a desire to learn how to make a difference; as a mentor able to guide aspiring leaders with your experience; as someone in-between, with experience but more to learn; or just as someone with an interest in seeing water and environmental leadership emerge in Arizona – you should plan to attend this conference.

At the conference, you will hear inspirational stories from people who are making a difference in the environmental field, perspectives on leadership from multiple sectors of society, and open discussion about the challenges facing Arizona. Two Roundtable sessions will allow participants to engage interactively in small groups on specific issues. A dinner and evening program, interconnecting water, environment and art, will wind up the first day. The optional workshops on the second day will provide opportunities for participants to lay out strategic action plans addressing issues of leadership, policy, communication and education.

A Showcase session on the first day will feature visual displays on the activities of participating individuals and organizations and provide opportunities for informal one-on-one conversations between aspiring and established leaders. We are now accepting proposals for Showcase poster displays. If you or your organization would like a spot in the Showcase, contact Melissa Lamberton at mllamb@email.arizona.edu or 520-621-9591 x52.

A preliminary agenda is posted at http://www.cals.arizona.edu/azwater/.
On-line registration for the conference will open April 5.
Sponsorship opportunities are still available.
For information contact Susanna Eden 520-621-9591 x61 or seden@cals.arizona.edu.
Other questions? Contact Jane Cripps at: jcripps@cals.arizona.edu 520-921-9591 ext 55

Come to the Water-themed FUNdraiser in support of The Water Project, Tucson’s Synergistic Water Festival at the Rhythm Industry Performance Factory, 1013 S. Tyndall Avenue (1 block West of Park Avenue, just South of 20th Street). $10 suggested donation.

For more information, visit the Water Project Website at: www.waterprojectfestival.org

Joel D Valdez Library (Stone and Alameda)

Lower Level Meeting Room; doors open at 5:30 pm

City/County Water Study – Next Steps?

A landmark, 20-month multi-disciplinary, multi-agency study of Tucson-area water resources was completed just one month ago.  The goal was to develop a common understanding of basic facts and critical factors for planning a sustainable water future.  The Phase I and Phase II reports have now been submitted to the Tucson Mayor and Council and the Pima County Board of Supervisors.  They include 56 recommendations and 19 shared goals for our local governments to endorse and commit resources to attempt to move toward a sustainable water supply in our future.

In one sense we are moving into “uncharted waters”. Challenges of climate change, energy scarcity, population growth, prioritization of water uses and other factors are mixing into a complex societal conundrum.  Join us for another informative and progressive community conversation with the following participants:

Sharon B. Megdal, PhD, is Director of the UA Water Resources Research Center. She also serves as Director of The University of Arizona Water Sustainability Program.

Carl Bauer, PhD, is Associate Director of the Water Resources Research Center and an
Associate Professor in Geography & Regional Development at UA.

Nicole Ewing-Gavin, Assistant to the Tucson City Manager, City Coordinator for the City/County Water & Wastewater Study Committee

Vince Vasquez, Water Resources Coordinator, Diamond Ventures, Inc.

Melaney Seacat, Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department, County Coordinator for the City/County Water & Wastewater Study Committee

The public is welcome.
The meeting is free, but donations are suggested at the door.

For further information:   Judith Mattson, 520-395-0663

Email: STinformation@comcast.net