Carol Deppe, author of The Resilient Gardener, suggests how to grow food crops for these times of less stable weather.

"We had a different notion of real wealth…we converted [our paper money] wealth into this land and home," says Steve Unger. Mary Coll adds that they're storing wealth in their knowledge, and by building a low-tech handmade house with no need for outside "experts" for maintenance. With their children Chloe and Finn, we tour the cob house under construction at Inishoge Farm in Sooke, BC, Canada. On the south side, heat from the summer sun is stored in rocks underground, which release heat slowly...

An island near Vancouver, B.C. has designed its own form of currency. Salt Spring Island's paper dollars and coins look and feel beautiful. For the Island’s tourists, they’re genuine souvenirs. Michael Contardi, President of the Salt Spring Island Monetary Foundation, explains that they’re widely accepted by local businesses and banks, and easily redeemed. They’re purchased using national (Canadian) dollars and are spent at many businesses which accept them, including grocery and hardware...

"If you look at our DNA, we're meant to be connected…. You can take people out of the tribe, but you can't take the tribe out of the people." Bill Kauth and Zoe Alowan share a model for community where people live in their own homes located "roughly within biking distance." The co-authors of We Need Each Other: Building Gift Community explain that their own tribe, who have met weekly for three years, has committed to staying in place and to being there fully for one another. Countering the...

These four presentations were taped at the ASPO-USA 2008 conference. Morey Wolfson shows a stunning Google Earth presentation of oil's planetary transportation Choke Points, primarily in the middle east. Jeff Vail discusses how our energy future is not controlled solely by what's possible economically, technologically and geologically but, equally importantly, geopolitically. He notes we will increasingly produce less because of geopolitical problems--as in Nigeria, Iraq, and elsewhere.

What if the food system benefited local producers, nourished nearby people, and built a stronger community? Krishna Singh Khalsa of Eugene, Oregon wants to turn the food system on its head. He wants it to be run by, and for the benefit of, ordinary people — not corporate profit. He's exploring models of local cooperative, entreprenuerial organizations where people provide the labor, share and hire resources, caretake the land, use all of nature's abundance, support farmers and food producers,...

Megan observes that while the ASPO-USA conference focuses on the energy depletion problem, what's needed are solutions and strategies for communities and people. Her town's anxious response to a recent power outage provided a lesson, as many people didn't know what to do, nor had they built a network of mutual support. We need community contingency plans for sharing and surviving with less energy.

Asking "wouldn't it be wonderful if our city could feed itself?" Joe Leitch ponders everybody in Portland planting a chestnut tree. Pam Leitch relates how they both left the corporate world after reading the book "Your Money or Your Life". As educators on sustainability and resource depletion, permaculture and social justice, they soon learned of Peak Oil.

Take a tour, accompanied by curious sheep and geese, of Mark Cooper's self-sufficient small farm. Over several years, he transformed a rundown house and hillsides of berry brambles into pasture and gardens where he produces and preserves most of his family's food. Visit the Goose Grotto in a constructed pond, a heritage fruit tree orchard, logs producing shiitake mushrooms, and a cheap-and-easy container kitchen garden. Mark gives us a close-up view of the solar dehydrator he constructed from...

According to Professor Guy Prouty, every civilization rises, evolves, and then collapses to a simpler structure — and this will include our own. Comparing America with the Western Roman Empire, Prouty notes the over-reach of our military, the unsustainability of capitalism, peak oil, and climate change. And, this time, we may see a global collapse. Transitioning to a simpler society will require us to change behavior and consciousness: decrease energy, get out of debt, decentralize,...

Energy researcher Glenn Rambach's charts show how America budgeted for energy independence following the OPEC embargo in 1973. Then the Reagan administration switched to having "the market" create research incentives, so federal funding declined severely. He says we've lost 30 years, are spending in the wrong places, and need to get back to serious research in energy development.

Patrick Marcus and other motivated citizens sprouted a community garden on city land slated to be a park in Ashland, Oregon. When the garden was threatened by plans to develop the park, they got active. Their research and advocacy led to official policy supporting community gardens in city parks.

In Colorado it's cold for much of the year, but inside this cozy dome greenhouse, the plants are growing happily. Take a grand tour with Buckhorn Gardens manager and permaculturist Breigh Peterson: the greenhouse structure with its interplay of light and water, warmth and air; curving raised beds of vegetables and flowers; fish tanks moderating the temperature; vertical trellises and shelves to use vertical space. Outdoors a huge garden of row crops and a young orchard are complemented by...

How do you grapple with bigger, deeper issues like catastrophic climate change? Author Carolyn Baker and video producer Ivey Cone join Janaia in a wide-ranging conversation about keeping our hearts open while witnessing the crumbling of industrial civilization. We discuss tools for holding our center, supporting each other, gratitude, and witnessing the powers of the universe at work. For Carolyn, grieving is the most important work now. She sees grieving as the other side of gratitude and...

Tour Janet and Richard's quarter acre for an example of what's possible in suburbia. Their front yard of edible plants also provides habitat for birds and insects. The backyard radiates out from an herb and kitchen garden to vegetable beds and containers; 25 fruit and nut trees; and a restful Zen garden. Near a future pond is a "three sisters" spiral of corn, beans and squashes. Check out their rainwater catchment barrels system, solar ovens, grid-tied photovoltaics with backup batteries, a...

The peak oil message is slow to gain acceptance, says energy analyst Randy Udall, because it's at odds with our optimistic It's-Morning-in-America mentality. Politicians "Don't Do Depletion." Randy describes challenges, mitigations, and exciting opportunities to create a prosperous path to a lower-energy future.

“We’ve had 50 years of unusually stable weather… What do we need to do now, to garden in times that are less predictable?” Plant breeder Carol Deppe, author of The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times, suggests growing a wider variety of crops adapted to conditions where you are; crops needing minimum inputs; and varying gardening patterns with the year. “Short season crops are a premium,” she asserts. She discusses seed saving, and storing enough seeds so...

What happens when citizens apply permaculture principles to a city grid? They create friendly places within the grid that invite people to come together. Mark Lakeman, co-founder of Portland, Oregon's City Repair Project describes these "creative intervention" projects as placemaking at its best. People learn to work together, build trust and have fun. The results, from painted intersections to cob benches and other organic structures, invite people "to inhabit the planet on our own terms"...

"The next twenty years will be totally unlike the last twenty... We’ll face the greatest economic and physical challenges ever seen by our country, if not humanity.” So opens Chris Martenson's much-viewed online Crash Course illuminating the relationship between economy, energy and the environment. Starting with the power of exponential growth, he tidily sums up our economic problems: Too Much Debt. Chris discusses the implications if we continue the status quo, and ways to prepare. He...

"My full name is Pawatsqwachitl. I come from Ahousaht on the west coast of Vancouver Island." Following the indigenous custom, Pawa Haiyupis introduced herself, her people and territory. She thanked the Coast Salish people and territory where we were videoing (Victoria, B.C.) This First Nations woman works with youth, elders and spiritual leaders to practice their culture and "activate their blood memories," as one elder calls it. She says: "We're going on medicine walks, we're doing sweats in...