Implementing Plan C – conservation, curtailment and cooperation

NewSolutionsJanuary-February 2009 Number 16 Activists Remain Optimistic Despite Country’s Financial Meltdown

By Megan Quinn Bachman eak Oil activists from across the P nation gathered at a college outside of Detroit over the Halloween weekend to confront the scary prospects of declining worldwide oil production – and to focus on how they and their communities can cope. Despite grave reports of imminent and permanent falloffs in oil production, com- bined with financial meltdown and climate instability, participants at the Fifth U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions left with strategies to dramati- cally cut energy use – plus the optimism that they can accomplish much. “People can find ways to lead happy, fulfilling lives even as this doomed system crumbles all around them,” Russian immi- grant writer Dmitry Orlov told the 250 conference attendees at the longest run- ning annual Peak Oil conference in North America, this year a joint effort of the Yellow Springs, Ohio-based Community and consuming. “Consumerism took our Solutions and the Upland Hills Ecological souls, but community will return them,” Awareness Center, and held at Oakland Murphy said. University in Rochester, Michigan. Murphy, author of Plan C: Community Other speakers offered ways to make Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate needed lifestyle changes – from creating Change, focused on our severe economic household self-reliance to securing water challenges. He said that while Peak Oil supplies and increasing soil fertility, saving could mean a slow decline in our standard gasoline with innovative ridesharing solu- of living and climate change could eventu- Top: Dmitry Orlov compares the situation of the U.S. to the former . tions using cell phones and the Internet, ally make the planet uninhabitable for Above: The conference was organized cutting utility bills by retrofitting homes humans, we now also face a financial crisis around Pat Murphy’s recent book, Plan C: to use 80 percent less heating and cool- that may require involuntary and immedi- Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil ing energy, and installing solar hot water ate curtailment of energy and resource use. and Climate Change. systems. Community-level strategies were Orlov described the five stages of offered with presentations on creating resil- economic collapse underway in America shipping slows, big box retailers struggle, ient communities and forming Transition today. He noted that the financial collapse and states experience major budget short- Towns, a community process for economic has already begun with the disintegrating falls and slash government programs. re-localization which started in England. credit pyramids and the bailout treadmill, “Customer service comes to mean that Pat Murphy, executive director of in which foreigners either buy our debt or customers must provide a service,” Orlov, Community Solutions, said that cooperat- it’s monetized, causing hyperinflation. He author of Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet ing, sharing and curtailing in community said the signs of commercial and political Example and American Prospects, said of a must triumph over competing, hoarding collapse are also becoming clear, as global continued on next page

January-February 2009 New Solutions Number 16:  Conference Continued from page 1

fast-approaching time when skills mean more than money. He also foresees shifts in consumption from “all you can eat” to “all you can scrounge” and from buying new products to the mantra of “keep it running.” Orlov touched on the importance of community in concluding that we could avoid social and cultural collapse, but it would require that people extend personal virtues of generosity, compassion, and charity beyond family and friends to a wider circle “who matter to us, and we to them.” Author sug- gested to participants that a “window of opportunity” was opening for the peak oil movement, in which we can re-define what’s practical, possible, and necessary for survival. He said that similar opportunities Keynoter John Michael Greer talking with ASPO-USA co-founder Dick Lawrence, who travelled from Massachusetts to attend the conference. arose during the Great Depression and in the 1970s oil crises. spikes have helped to shift the energy possibility: “The grandchildren of our He said that in the 1930s this led to the discussion. He quoted former U.S. Energy grandchildren will tell their grandchildren government adopting previously radical Secretary James Schlesinger’s famous com- stories about this time, the time when ideas, such as government insurance of ment that America has only two modes of everything changed. And what each one of bank deposits, Social Security, and legal- response to energy issues – complacency us does this weekend, and in the months ized labor unions, and in the 1970s to and panic. He said that peak oil activists and years that follow, has the power to recycling, organic agriculture, appropriate have gotten used to complacency as a way shape those stories far into the future.” technology and alternative energy. of life and forgotten, “how quickly panic Peter Bane, editor of Permaculture Greer, author of a just-released book, can take hold and get very large numbers Activist, advised how to increase house- The Long Descent: A User’s Guide to the End of people thinking about the unthinkable hold and community self-reliance, such of the Industrial Age, argued that highly in a hurry.” as by securing and storing water supplies, volatile oil markets with record high price Greer ended his talk with an inspiring using humanure to increase the fertility of depleted soils, utilizing weeds for medici- nal purposes, and sharing our houses. “The quickest way to reduce our ecologi- cal footprint is to share things,” he said, adding that while the previous period in human history was about moving away from our communities due to the availabil- ity of cheap energy, the next period will be about returning home, where “your help and warmth is needed.” Food activist Chris Bedford talked about how to get communities to use local, organic food as an economic development strategy and persuade schools to pur- chase healthy, local food. He stressed the importance of organic agriculture, which is as productive as conventional agriculture in good times, but twice as productive during droughts. He foresees organic farming as the high knowledge job of the New Society Publishers was one of the organizations featured at the conference’s “Green Expo.” 21st Century, and a coming identity crisis

 : New Solutions Number 16 January-February 2009 for conventional farmers when they realize loss of heat through highly conductive they don’t know how to grow food without materials, and using highly rated windows fossil fuels. and doors with thermal breaks built in. John Richter, from the Institute for “These create steady indoor temperatures Sustainable Energy Education, gave an that won’t drop below 50 degrees without a overview of renewable energy. He said that heating source,” she said, explaining that her despite great potential, renewable energy own 1200 sq. ft. Passive House is so effi- constitutes only a small percentage of U.S. cient that she can heat it with a hairdryer. energy production, is more expensive than Several innovative post-peak oil trans- fossil fuels, and provides only intermit- portation schemes were proposed at the tent power. Richter cited subsidies being conference. A short-term solution, which misdirected into fossil fuel production as a uses the existing infrastructure of roads continuing challenge and concluded that and cars, was the “Avego” shared transport renewable energy is only a partial solution. system, a new service that aims to fill John Richter called for curtailment, or at “Curtailment, or at least serious conserva- empty car seats through GPS technology, least serious conservation, in addition to tion, is also needed,” he said. cell phones and web services. Sail boating renewables. Passive House specialist Katrin Klin- was presented as a long-term utility which was important to act from the bottom up genberg discussed her vision for reducing requires little maintenance or industrial because power holders enthralled to their home heating and cooling energy use by infrastructure, and since its energy source is vested interests won’t lead the transition up to 90 percent by insulating the building wind, is truly sustainable. to lower energy use. He called for devel- shell (roof, floors and walls) and making it Localization activist Michael Brownlee oping crisis management and disaster airtight, using a heat recovery ventilation presented the Transition Towns model as response programs and contingency plans system, creating thermal breaks to reduce a way for people to work in their com- to deal with coming economic hardship. munities towards re-localizing production “We need a way to circumvent political of food and other goods, plus services. polarization and revitalize culture while He quoted Transition model creator Rob addressing the immediate economic crisis,” Hopkins, who defined the Transition he said. “Now is the time for alternative movement as a “creative, engaging, playful movements to stop being alternative,” process, wherein we support our com- Heinberg concluded. “We need to become munities through the loss of the familiar the mainstream.” and inspire and create a new lower energy Participants left Oakland University infrastructure which is ultimately an inspired to put to work what they had improvement on the present.” Among the learned about cutting energy use. One “resilience indicators” for communities that described the conference as a “kick in the he proposed were the percentage of food butt” to get moving and another said, “I produced locally, the ratio of car park- realized the power that resides in my own ing space to productive land use, and the choices and the decisions of my own number of 16-year-olds able to grow 10 community.” different varieties of vegetables. George Perkins, a participant from Community Solutions Outreach Direc- Louisville, KY, echoed a similar view of the tor Megan Quinn Bachman described need for both personal and community her vision of a community economy, in empowerment. “This conference rein- which essential needs are met close to forced a sense of urgency to make signifi- home and security is not defined by how cant personal changes and raise awareness much money we accumulate, but in the in my community,” he said. n acquisition of valuable skills, the support of neighbors, and the maintenance of healthy, Megan Quinn Bachman is the Outreach Director of diverse, and productive habitats. Voluntary Community Solutions. changes and sharing resources will be criti- Housing was a key topic. Katrin Klingenberg cal, she said, warning of the dire implica- (top) gave a presentation on the Passive tions of fierce resource competition during Couldn’t attend the conference? House concept. Linda Wigington (above), an energy decline. To read or download conference presen- of Affordable Comfort, Inc., also took part along with Klingenberg, in one of the Author and Peak Oil educator Richard tations or order DVDs of the event, visit topical roundtables on housing. Heinberg, speaking via webcast, said it www.communitysolution.org/08conf.html.

January-February 2009 New Solutions Number 16:  Energy – Cause of the Current Economic Crisis?

By Dr. Robert Brecha Figure 1: U.S. GDP and World Oil Production (relative to 2002) nalysts looking at the recent collapse Ain stock market values have traced the current problems back to the U.S. housing market, careless lending practices by banks and the obscure packaging for re-sale of loans. While the house of cards upon which the U.S. mortgage industry was built is a leading symptom of the broader problems in the economy, the buck does not stop at sub-prime loans. A crucial question to ask is: why did these sub-prime loans become problematic? Once borrowers started to default on loan payments, the tremendous exposure of lending institutions was revealed, and the walls came tumbling down. However, there was a deeper cause that led to an increase GDP has continued to climb, whereas world oil production has been stagnant, leading to in defaults. Behind the visible symptoms of strongly increasing prices. A plot of world GDP would look very similar. a weak housing market, one must consider once again the prime mover of the world new phase of world economic develop- the upward pressure on prices. Thus, up to ment in which supplies of finite fossil fuels a point, the laws of supply and demand do economy – energy. will not be able to keep up with growth seem to work reasonably well. Economic growth in the past several in demand for energy. It can be expected Returning to the premise of this piece, years was accompanied by steadily rising that each time the world begins to recover the smoking tailpipe behind the housing energy prices, especially of oil, but also of from an economic slowdown, such as the market crisis is, to no small extent, the natural gas, uranium, and even more recently, recession of the early 2000s or from the rise in energy prices over the past several of coal. Together, these fuels represent over current severe recession, demand for fossil- years. As gasoline prices and heating costs 90 percent of the energy consumed by the fuel energy will rise. In this new paradigm, doubled, and then tripled, homeowners had U.S. Although energy intensity (energy per however, production will then quickly reach to begin making difficult but real choices dollar of GDP) in the U.S. has decreased limits imposed by the availability of rela- about paying utility bills, buying food, since the 1970s, the rise in energy prices tively inexpensive resources. This dynamic putting gas in the car, or making mortgage over the past few years has resulted in a will rapidly drive up energy prices again, payments. Just a few months ago, we were return to nearly the 1970s level of energy and result in the destruction of demand concerned about high inflation, due in part spending compared to GDP. Unfortunately, leading to another economic downturn. to rising food prices, also caused by high we have missed the opportunity presented The comparison shown in Fig. 1 energy costs; again, the root cause of this over the past few decades to become more between oil consumption and GDP in the was energy scarcity, and high prices were energy efficient, especially as compared to time period before 2004, and the lack of forcing choices among households. some of our economic competitors. rising oil production from 2004 through A natural outgrowth of these choices However, a new dynamic has entered 2007 helps explain fairly well the strong is an increase in the number of those who into the equation more recently. During the rise in oil price we experienced until August could not make minimal payments, and the economic boomlet of the past few years, 2008. As demand increases because of rate of defaults on home mortgages began it has been interesting to notice that new economic growth, stagnant supply implies to rise. In a society where savings rates are world petroleum production has lagged a rising price. (The supply side of the essentially zero for much of the population, behind demand, thus leading to higher equation, that rising prices will call forth there is no cushion available when times get prices across the board. In fact, during increases in supply, has only limited effec- hard. Of course, the problem was exacer- the past three years of particularly strong tiveness in a world of finite resources.) bated by mortgage lending practices such as economic growth, petroleum production The figure also helps explain why the zero-down payment, interest-only loans with has been essentially flat – the first time in price of oil fell again very suddenly as enticing initial interest rates that were then the history of our fossil-fuel-based economy demand destruction set in when economies reset with much higher monthly payments. that strong economic growth and high in the U.S. and around the world slid into Fundamentally, however, the cause of in- prices did not summon forth the requisite recession. Plunging demand sent the world creased defaults was not that the loans were supply increases needed to drive prices back energy system back into a regime in which made and then re-packaged, but rather that to a “normal” equilibrium level. suppliers are not straining against a ceiling energy prices helped trigger a decrease in the We may very well have entered into a in production capacity, thereby relieving ability of homeowners to make payments.

 : New Solutions Number 16 January-February 2009 From the Director Past, Present & Future

Yet another key part of the current which could indicate that this current n the last issue of New dynamic is contained in the redistribution recession will be a long one. The decrease I Solutions, we intro- of wealth from the middle class to a small in driving and, more importantly for the duced the concept of segment of the upper class since the 1970s future, the plummeting sales of large U.S.- “Peak Debt,” suggesting and the even more rapid redistribution manufactured vehicles, are trends that have that the real crisis of our upward to the top 0.1% over the last few severe economic repercussions, but both time might come from years. Had real wages for most workers of these started well before the sub-prime our inability to afford not been falling or barely holding steady, meltdown moved into full swing. fossil fuels. This was it might have made sense to take on larger Unless we recognize that there is a key immediately prior to the mortgages as an investment in the future. underlying cause for the economic crisis current economic collapse, The combination of stagnant income, that is just now in its beginning stages, it is and has proved prophetic. ballooning payments, and sky-rocketing hard to imagine how we will find effec- In this issue, Bob Brecha energy costs, however, was simply too much tive solutions to the problem. Although it shows how Peak Debt to bear, resulting in the downward spiral is not a popular idea in the , and steep rises in energy costs may be the of mortgage defaults, massive layoffs, and one critical effort we must make from now fundamental reason behind our current further defaults. While energy prices have on is to learn how to use significantly less crisis. I too have spent time investigating the declined amidst the turmoil, the damage energy of all kinds. We have ample room role of debt in our societal difficulties. You has already been done. to make energy-efficiency improvements, can see the results of that thinking in my Data from the Department of Energy’s and although some of these measures will article on the following pages. Buildings Energy Data Book 1 show that take capital investments, initially, they are We recently held our Fifth U.S. Confer- since the last energy crisis, average homes among the only expenditures that one can ence on Peak Oil and Community Solutions have grown larger, with an increase in just make in a home that will actually pay off – Plan C: Community Survival Strategies the past 20 years alone of about 30 percent. and, effectively, generate extra income in for Peak Oil and Climate Change. This Most importantly, energy expenditures have the future. year’s conference was co-sponsored by the also increased significantly, by at least 50 There are other reasons to follow the Upland Hills Ecological Awareness Center, percent from 1990-2007. path of increasing energy efficiency and, and held at Oakland University in Rochester, There are several indicators that have along the way, of making a transition to Michigan. More than 250 people attended. been overlooked in most mainstream-media use of renewable energy sources, including Megan Quinn Bachman offers her summary commentaries on the current crisis. First, mitigation of the most severe consequences of the conference as our lead story. a comparison of housing markets around of climate change and enhancement of In December, we launched the Com- the country during the initial stages of the national security. In the midst of an eco- munity Solutions blog, which you can link downturn showed that homes closer to nomic crisis of this magnitude, however, to from our website. We’ve done a few post- major metropolitan areas were not losing it seems that the best argument for energy ings and started to generate some discus- value at nearly the rate of large houses in sion you may find interesting... join in the 2 efficiency measures is that they can provide exurbia. Homeowners looking for some relief to financially strapped citizens. Done conversation! financial relief were lowering both their well, a comprehensive energy efficiency A recent posting on the blog was written transportation costs and their space con- program could also serve to generate jobs, by Rob Content, our Program Manager, ditioning costs by moving to a new home since every community in the country will in which he looks at the Obama plan for closer in; at the very least, they were no energy, and finds it lacking. It’s classic Plan be making similar efforts. longer looking to buy McMansions in the B, or “green technology will save us.” As we In the end, there is simply no downside exurbs. This seems to indicate that energy have often pointed out to people, this is a to following the path of using less energy, costs are playing a significant role in very high risk option. I urge you to check and it may be the only long-term possibility home-buying decisions. out the post. for emerging from this crisis and preventing A second indicator that usually precedes Over the past few months, I’ve attended similar ones in the future. n an economic turndown is a decreasing and spoken at several “passive house” rate of growth in vehicle-miles-traveled (or Robert J. Brecha, Ph.D. is the Bro. Leonard Mann venues. This housing aspect of Plan C is nearly equivalent, in the amount of gasoline Chair in the Natural Sciences and Professor, Dept. of one area into which we’re putting a lot of Physics and Electro-optics Program University of Day- consumed). That is, for any given quarter, if ton, Dayton, OH 45469-2314. Phone: (937) 229-2727. our efforts. In fact, we have a film underway data shows that we are driving less, or even Email: [email protected]. which documents the efforts of many people that the number of miles driven is increas- References to drastically reduce home energy consump- ing more slowly, it is a good bet that an tion, both in new homes and buildings as 1. http://buildingsdatabook.eren.doe.gov/ economic slowdown is on the way. well as in retrofitting old ones. We’ll keep 2. See, for example, the report “Driven to the Brink,” you updated on the film’s progress. Over the past several months we have online at http://www.ceosforcities.org/newsroom/pr/ seen the largest decreases in miles driven files/Driven%20to%20the%20Brink%20FINAL.pdf. Let’s all work for a great new year. n (not just lower rates of growth) in decades, – Pat Murphy

January-February 2009 New Solutions Number 16:  Plan C and Debt – Defining a New Renaissance Man

By Pat Murphy The government, desperate to maintain n my book, Plan C: Community the status quo of consumption, continues I Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and to provide funds to lending institutions. Climate Change, I contrast the need for This is essentially creating government debt, curtailing energy consumption with a since private debt sources are no longer theoretical Plan A (Business as usual – find available to the extent they were before. more oil) and Plan B (Business as usual The advantage for the government is that – just add wind, solar and biofuels). Advo- there are few payment terms and the actual cates of Plan A and Plan B emphasize that repayment of the debt can be off-loaded to there is no need for any change in lifestyle subsequent generations emphasizing that technologies of various We watched our savings decline as life types, either “black” or “green,” will allow went on with our organizational activi- the American standard of living to be ties, which included participating in the maintained indefinitely. Third Annual Passive House Conference But suddenly, with no apparent warn- in Minnesota. At this conference, Stephan ing, the credit/debt system – which is core Tanner (the first person in the U.S. to to Plan A and B – has failed for reasons build a house that uses 80 percent less which are still unclear. In hindsight, one energy than conventional buildings – the can find authors such as Ken Phillips Bad( Passive BioHaus in Minnesota) argued that Money – Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, we needed to define a New Renaissance and the Global Crisis of American Capital- Man who would follow industrial man ism) and Robert Shiller (The Subprime – now heading for extinction. Stephan’s Solution – How Today’s Financial Crisis BioHaus represents the concept of frugality Happened and What to Do About It), as – it is small, extremely well built and well well as some members of Congress, who insulated and uses very little energy. warned about the potential for a financial I asked myself what a new Renaissance crisis similar to what we are experienc- person would look like in terms of our ing. Part of the problem was due to the modern financial system. In the past, reli- inventions of credit worthy “financial gions considered usury (earning interest on instruments” (aka Ponzi schemes) and the loans) a sin – although various interpreta- tions also define this as excessive interest. In government push to make bad loans via Stephan Tanner (top) argues the need for a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Now the Shakespeare’s Hamlet, 1603, Lord Polonius New Renaissance Man dedicated to frugal government is desperately printing money says “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; living. This Waldsee BioHaus (above) is the (electronically of course) and giving it for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and first built in the U.S. that uses 80 percent borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” Is less heating and cooling energy than to the banks and investment houses to conventional buildings. delay their possible bankruptcies. The first there an economy that can operate without decade of the 21st century is remarkably making loans and charging interest? In a New Renaissance Person would have similar to the period of the 1920s which an 11/13/08 article “America’s Economic done exactly that. Such a person might led to the Great Depression, including an Crisis Is Beyond The Reach of Traditional reconsider the whole approach to buying a excessive increase in the money supply. Solutions,” Paul Roberts, former Secretary house. He or she might reject the concept Plan C calls for a more frugal approach of the U.S. Treasury, notes that “consumer of borrowing from the bank. That person to living – a way of life based more on rela- debt expansion is the fuel that kept the might simply save the money necessary to tionships, caring and sharing rather than U.S. economy alive.” He goes on to say buy or build. one of material accumulation, hoarding that, “The growth of debt has outstripped The popular press notes that 20 percent and competing. The book includes power- the growth of income to such an extent of economic activity was in the financial ful arguments for voluntarily disentan- that an increase in consumer credit and sector (lending and insurance), now down gling ourselves from a focus on obtaining bank lending is not possible.” This is not to 12 percent and dropping. About 18 as many goods and services as possible news. He might have extended that to say percent of our incomes go into servicing and making consumption the reason for a decrease in consumer credit and bank debt – close to the 20 percent financial sec- existence. The credit crisis, which is really lending is inevitable. tor part of the economy. Another popular a debt crisis (since people cannot repay I’m not sure how Stephan financed the financial number is that people should money they have borrowed), is now forc- BioHaus. One unlikely possibility is that spend about 2½ to 3 times their annual ing people toward such a frugal approach. he saved money for the building. I think income to buy a house. If these are good

 : New Solutions Number 16 January-February 2009 approximations, it would mean that a per- The first decade of the 21st century is con game of selling the Brooklyn Bridge to son operating on a cash basis could save 18 remarkably similar to the period of the naïve tourists) are simply embellishments percent of their income for about 15 years 1920s which led to the Great Depression, of the basic Ponzi scheme of private banks to get the price of a house. And assuming including an excessive increase in the creating credit with permission from the that 18 percent savings could continue government. This credit creation is paral- for 45 year, the person would have saved money supply. leled with inflation; that is, issuing huge about eight years of income. amounts of credit means large increases in People are now becoming more aware people accept accruing debt as a way of inflation. This worked for a few, those who of the credit/debt problem in the same way living. This is an economy where people bought the biggest houses which appreci- they became more aware of Peak Oil and feel they have to borrow money, whether ated rapidly, but now they are exposed as other resource peaks (along with climate they need it or not, to get a good credit the credit/debt system shows its weaknesses. change). And people are beginning to see rating so when they really need credit, it is What is the alternative? How would that this historical credit/debt period may available. we deal with this in a New Renaissance well be as short as the fossil fuel era – two People are beginning to understand era? First people would live frugally, real- to three centuries. Credit and debt have that the banks and investment bankers izing that the attempt to make money reached their peak (likely in the same year, are creating money and that the author- on speculation is harmful to the com- 2008, as oil production reached its peak) ity for creation comes from the federal munity and themselves if they get “over and life will become very different. government. The banks are not loaning leveraged.” Buying excessive living space Why has this happened? The current the money that depositors have placed as an “investment” would be considered debt crisis is showing the chicanery and with them; they loan out about 10 times damaging to the community. (“There is immorality of the financial corporations, the amount deposited. The crisis that enough housing for everyone’s need but with the support of the federal govern- has arisen is due partially to the fact that not enough for everyone’s greed.”) Second, ment, whose members are under constant certain banks and other institutions, with New Renaissance people would not onslaught from financial lobbyists. What government permission, began to loan 30 consider borrowing a virtue but rather a we need to understand is that it is not the times more than the amount deposited. weakness or something to be done only in recent excesses but the long term concept The recent Ponzi schemes of loan secu- time of emergency. Third, a New Renais- of a debt economy – an economy where ritization (a concept that is akin to the old sance person would be very skeptical of the banking system. Local credit unions will Figure 4: Homeowner Debt as Percentage of Income –1980-2006 be formed to husband the excess capital of the community to be applied to local energy-saving solutions. The New Renaissance man will be a person who has the skills to do a wide variety of tasks and who can do so without being dependent on a credit system. We can all begin the effort to make that kind of change. Going back to Shakespeare’s comment that “borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry,” we can decide to develop husbandry skills. The archaic definition of husbandry was “the care of a household.” A more modern definition is “the control or judicious use of resources.” (Husbandry, and its gender counterpart wifery, never included the skill of borrowing money.) These older skills must be relearned to create New Renais- sance men and women. n

Pat Murphy is the Executive Director of Community Solutions and author of Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change. Beginning in 2000, “irrational exuberance” led to a steep increase in mortgage and total debt as a percentage of annual income. Source: http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2006/07/record-household-debt-service.html

January-February 2009 New Solutions Number 16:  New Solutions is published by Special Membership Offer The Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions, a non-profit You can become a Community Solutions member and receive a copy of Pat organization, that has been studying and Murphy’s new book, Plan C – Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and promoting small local Climate Change, for a combined cost of just $50 (a savings of $5). In addition, community for more as a member, you’ll receive New Solutions to keep you up to date on what we’re than 60 years. doing and to help you make informed decisions about how best to adapt to a To subscribe to New Solutions, become low energy life. a member. Send your tax-deductible Please send me a copy of Plan C and enter me on your membership roll. contribution of $35 (or I authorize/enclose payment of $50. more) to Community Solutions, P.O. Box VISA/MC number Exp. Date 243, Yellow Springs, OH 45387 or visit our Name on card website. Your contri- butions will help us Signature continue this work. To receive regular Daytime phone email communica- Street address tions, send us an email at info@ com- City State/Province Zip/Postal munitysolution.org. Email address © 2009 The Arthur Morgan Institute for Send me New Solutions via postal mail via email Community Solutions. All rights reserved. You may also join Community Solutions via phone at 937-767-2161 or online at www.communitysolution.org

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