Miscellaneous suggestions for local action

On Energy Bulletin, a list of actions - "Helping cities, towns and municipalities adapt to peak oil: things you can do on the local level"
(On Energy BUlletin there's no place to comment; article was originally posted by Peak Progress here on MySpace, but you need to join MySpace to comment on it there.)

An Oil Drum commenter summarized the list:
* Change school curriculum for High schoolers in grades 9 - 12 to prepare for a fast changing world
* Create awareness campaigns and encourage homeowners to buy products and services from local companies
* Create "food preparation, storage and nutrition" classes for citizens
* Expand business and residential composting programs
* Mandate energy efficiency inspections for homes and buildings
* Assess local food production abilities
* Encourage neighborhood grown food swaps
* Foster neighborhood food swaps based on produce grown within the city.
* Create program for sustainable year round water usage for urban farming
* Create or expand neighborhood introduction programs
* Continue to encourage use of public transportation, biking, walking, and carpooling
* Foster neighborhood co-op owned fueling stations
* Offer "Earth Shift" support groups
* Create "Wisdom of the Elders" program
* Create a re-use storage program


Is Guy Dauncey's list online?
(I'm guessing not, since it's the core of his "101 solutions" book )

What do you think of these ideas?
(along with Marston's list from Power Palooza)
Are there other lists?

Solar farm sites?

A suggestion -

"the Grass Valley Water Treatment plant...would be a great place for a solar farm-- sunny, publicly owned, and already protected by high fences. If the city can't be pursuaded to invest in such a project, perhaps the surrounding neighborhood would be willing to help finance this; several of us would like to get solar panels on our houses but this area is too heavily shaded."

What would it take and who would you talk to, to suggest this?

(this being GV's drinking water plant, not the sewage treatment plant.)

Power-Palooza ideas?

Please add yours as a comment here.

Transportation ideas

How about a North San Juan to Nevada City bus or rideshare - there's no reason everybody should have to traverse that common stretch of 49 in separate vehicles.
Maybe have the pick-up site be the library, so people can use their 'waiting' time productively; could someday have Gem golf-cart-cars available for rent, for running errands in town.

Gold Country Stage bus schedules (in PDF format); more info here.
(buses don't just run around town; they'll take you to
Penn Valley, Auburn, and (Tuesdays only) to North San Juan.)


Your ideas?

What have you done since you saw A.I.T.?

"the path to a solution lies through changing the minds of the American people. Not just on the facts -- they're almost there on the facts -- but in the sense of urgency..."*

And people do come out of the theater raring to go, wanting to do anything and everything, as soon as possible. (Roger Ebert: "I did a funny thing when I came home after seeing 'An Inconvenient Truth.' I went around the house turning off the lights.")

What have you done since you saw An Inconvenient Truth?

What do you want to do, and what would make it easier for you to do it?

How to get people to see An Inconvenient Truth?

Lincoln said in the darkest days of America's darkest passage: "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."*

Lots of people don't want to see the film; some don't even want to go if they're offered free passes. How do we reach them?

Once they see it, some shift straight into "it's hopeless" despair; how do we reach them?

Energy co-op ideas?

At Brad's request ( in comment here; followed by his energy co-op ideas), here's a post soliciting ideas for the energy co-op.

Got some? Post them in comments here.

(FYI, people don't have to register with Blogger to comment; where the comment form asks for your Identity, you can just click on "other" and give the name you wish to be known by.)

And Brad, I love the Pelton Wheel idea! I'm wondering though, how would it work on a creek whose level varied as much as Deer Creek's does?

What's the most important thing we could be doing?

(and why aren't we doing it?)

It's worth taking the time to weigh priorities.

Inconvenient truth - what if you live outside of town?

At the end of An Inconvenient Truth, many "what you can do" options scroll by (and readers are directed to the A.I.T. website, where they're presented online).

But - taking a citizens-of-Nevada-County perspective - what about those of us who aren't in town, who live in Alta Sierra or Cascade Shores or Lake of the Pines or Lake Wildwood, or have a 5 or 10 or 20 acre spread some distance from town?

What actions could you take? What support from your community and/or government would make it easier for you to take them?

Previously...

Previous brainstorms have been posted at http://powerupnc.blogspot.com.