[Scpg] Life After Oil FREE events in Santa Barbara

[Quail Springs]

Quail Springs is an event partner with "Life After Oil" a great series of
FREE 
events taking place in Santa Barbara.  Check it out! 

To view LIFE AFTER OIL full color flyer (1 MB) go to
www.quailsprings.org/lifeafteroil_large.pdf 
or visit www.communityenvironmentalcouncil.org to learn more.


Community Environmental Council

For Immediate Release March 11, 2009
Contact: Megan Diaz
(805) 963-0583, ext. 105
mdiaz at cecmail.org

Energy Leaders Explore "Life After Oil"
3-part lecture series and other events

Santa Barbara, CA - Oil and gas are embedded in every aspect of our lives.
How we travel. How 
we heat our homes. How we generate the electricity that runs our appliances.
Even how we grow 
and transport our food and water. 

But after nearly a full century of relying on fossil fuels that took
millennia to create, what 
happens when our society needs to find other options? In a time of uncertain
fuel prices, global 
warming, and concerns about dwindling oil supplies, many are asking what a
post-oil world 
would look like.

Santa Barbara is in a unique position to chart the course for this new
world. Join the Community 
Environmental Council (CEC) and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
as we 
explore how everyday people are coming together in neighborhoods, schools,
churches and 
community groups to develop local sources for food and water, take advantage
of the abundant 
renewable energy sources in our region, provide support to one another in
case of "oil shocks," 
and create a new, more resilient energy economy. The topic will then
culminate in the theme for 
this year's Earth Day Festival, to be held on April 19 at Alameda Park, as
well as the theme for 
an online short video contest.

Life After Oil lecture series & community events
Organized by the Community Environmental Council
Hosted by Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Sponsored by The Sustainability Project and USGBC-C4

Thursday, March 26 -- 7 to 8:30 pm
Why Do We Need to Think Beyond Oil?
Location: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Cost: Free
Speaker: Michael Brune is Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network
(RAN) and a 
founding board member of Oil Change International, an organization dedicated
to dissolving the 
political barriers to a clean energy transition. His recent book Coming
Clean: Breaking America's 
Addiction to Oil and Coal explores the costs of oil dependency, the role
played by politics and 
finance, and the possibilities for a post-oil economy.
Speaker: Dave Davis is Executive Director of the Community Environmental
Council (CEC), 
whose Fossil Free
by '33 campaign is designed to move our region toward more efficient and
renewable forms of 
energy in one
generation (www.CECSB.org).

Thursday, April 2 -- 7 to 8:30 pm
Organizing our Communities for Life After Oil
Location: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Cost: Free
Speaker: Rick Cole, Ventura City Manager has been called "one of Southern
California's most 
visionary planning thinkers" by the Los Angeles Times and has made Smart
Growth a priority for 
his region. The recent report, Post Peak Oil Vision Plan for Ventura,
outlines how conserving 
natural resources such water and energy - and designing homes,
transportation systems and 
communities to be more efficient with energy use - can protect a community
from potential 
disruptions in energy supplies (oil shocks).

Thursday, April 9 -- 7 to 8:30 pm
Organizing our Neighborhoods for Life After Oil
Location: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Cost: Free
Speakers: John Kelley and Dennis Thompson are local architects involved with
a volunteer 
effort to increase self-sufficiency, community, and sustainability in Santa
Barbara's Mesa  
neighborhood. In addition to creating an architectural vision of a "Mesa
Village," community, 
leaders in this neighborhood are publishing a monthly newspaper, hosting
bi-monthly village 
meetings, and organizing regular "Mesa Food Exchanges."
Speaker: Psychotherapist and ecotherapist Linda Buzzell-Saltzman, M.A.,
M.F.T. is a member 
of the Seeds Committee of Transition Town Santa Barbara -- a new local
organization that is part 
of a global grassroots effort to help communities make the transition to
post-fossil-fuel, 
sustainable living. www.transitiontownsb.org

Sunday, April 19 - 10 am to 5:30 pm
South Coast Earth Day Festival
Location: Alameda Park
Cost: Free
This annual festival hosted by the Community Environmental Council will be
centered around 
the theme of Life After Oil. Highlights include a Green Car Show with dozens
of models of the 
most cutting-edge fuels and vehicles, including the Tesla Roadster, and more
than 200 exhibitors 
featuring technologies and products to help visitors create a greener life.
In addition, this year's 
festival will feature a fully-built-out Green Design Home - a 24x24 foot
model green home that 
will be constructed in the park prior to the festival and moved to a Tea
Fire survivor after the 
festival is over. Details at www.SBEarthDay.org

February 13 to April 19
Green Shorts video contest
Awards for the winners!
The Life After Oil theme will also be featured in a 2-month amateur video
contest and online 
film festival. Videos are limited to two minutes in length and can address
any aspect of everyday 
life including transportation, home and garden, work, recreation, etc., and
the subsequent actions 
taken to reduce an individual's or organization's carbon footprint and
dependence on fossil fuel. 
The contest is free to enter and winning videos will be screened at the
South Coast Earth Day 
Festival; prizes include a laptop computer and airing on local public access
stations. Details at 
www.SBEarthDay.org

Special thanks to our event partners:
COAST, Environmental Defense Center, Fess Parker's DoubleTree Resort Hotel,
Get Oil 
Out, the Mesa Paper, Quail Springs, Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition, Santa
Barbara Food 
Not Lawns, and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network