[Revi]

John Howe's book goes on sale on Amazon and at the Commonground Fair in Unity, Maine this weekend! It's a good book to give to people of all political persuasions, because it doesn't get into politics. He explains and boils all down to equivelant billion barrels of oil, which makes all the different measures understandable. His solution of stepping down in energy use 5% per year really makes sense. Looks like we'll be doing it anyway, so why not make it a systematic process? Great book to give to the uninitiated! We've taken his 5% solution to heart, and saved lots of energy (and Money!)

[Revi]

John Darnell, Roscoe Bartlett's energy advisor, spoke about his 5% solution to the energy situation at the Petrocollapse conference this week. Howe's book was given to every member of congress, and maybe his 5% solution could be implemented. His main suggestion is that every house have grid tied solar, and the extra energy would be enough to run our electric transportation. There is a way out of the box we're in, but we have to start now to make it a reality. We can do this!

[rkerver]

Just listened to John Howe speak at the Monadnock Peak Oil conference in Keene, NH. Interesting man, interesting book. I really liked his PV tractor, doing the work of a diesel. Lot's of panel, lots of battery and the weight is part of what makes it work in the field. I've been worried about what farmers are going to do to replace diesel and feeling pessimistic about biodiesel filling the gap. The PV tractor is a very real, right now kind of solution.

For those who don't know, John is a retired mechanical engineer who has turned his talent to help the small farm overcome the peak oil energy crisis.

[Revi]

John gave a talk to a packed house at the University of Maine in Farmington last night. Lots of people from Farmington and the area got the message. The solution was featured. I hope people start to do things. UMF will start. They have a very enthusiastic professor who has been talking about peak oil since the 70's, Dr. Eastler. His students have a club called the Sustainable Futures Coalition that may make some changes. It's a very aware place already. Recycling all over the place, and an environmental science program. It gave me hope. There are a lot of people who know about the problem now.