Summary of Petro Collapse II conference in DC

Earlier today about 100 concerned citizens gathered at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, DC for the second Petrocollapse Conference on surviving in a world with declining fossil fuel resources.

The event was sponsored by Jan Lundberg’s organization, CultureChange.org, he of the Lundberg Oil Survey Letter family, although not involved with that publication since the late 1980’s. Nine speakers and two videos were on the program. They dealt with a variety of topics related to our current energy, environmental, and related political issues.

Dr. John Darnell is energy advisor to Republican Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, MD-6th, the only member of Congress who is talking about peak oil and the realities of our dismal energy future. He compared our current energy situation to the Apollo 13 near-disaster of 1970, when that Moon mission suffered a catastrophic explosion and only made it back to Earth safely through training, cooperation, conservation of remaining energy, and innovative thinking on the fly. He called for a similar emergency crash effort to deal with declining fossil fuel resources and the need to move to a sustainable society, both in the short and long-terms.

Several themes recurred among various speakers. Micheal Kane of “FromtheWilderness.com” warned of the big lie of Big Renewables, and the political snake oil sales people pushing them. Mark Robinowitz of “Permatopia.com” also warned of malicious politicians guiding the World to a “Last man standing” scenario in a global struggle for the World’s remaining oil reserves while defrauding voters at home in electonically rigged elections, while Jan Lundberg said that if our leaders won’t tell citizens the truth, then it’s up to us to spread the word. Conference moderator Jenna Orkin, whose child was a high school student four blocks from the WTC on 9/11, added that most Congressional staffers are totally in the dark about our energy problems, and that most people in this Country can’t comprehend the coming crisis because they have no reference point for anything this dire in their memory or that of anyone they know.

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