PWD Pre-Conference Workshop 2018

A Prosperous Way Down (PWD) pre-conference workshop was held in the afternoon of January 24, prior to the Emergy Synthesis 10 Biennial Conference at the University of Florida.  The following notes were assembled by those in attendance.

Workshop Discussion - Mary Odum

Some principles to live by:

Speak the truth to power, the whole truth, no matter how much your voice shakes.

Detour around corporate or government funding that creates muzzled voices.

Build anew, smaller, more locally, amid the ruins of late-stage capitalism.

Workshop Attendees

Resetting priorities

Per Mary Odum, remember that Odum’s primary objective in developing Emergy was to substantiate the science for studying a prosperous way down

That was where it started

The Emergy Society should return to big picture thinking and a focus on PWD

Translate Emergy into English, even at conferences like this.

In Discussion

Practical Steps

There are a number of proposals below.  In general, many would require organizing, leadership, and funding.  We should propose, therefore, that there is a standing call for leaders to step forward on any of these, and for proposal/grant writing to commence.

Teaching, Education

Teach PWD in primary schools

Teachers need class materials on PWD - Some of these would require grant writing for funds

Produce written materials for teachers to download for their classes

Make our own short videos (7 minutes) that teachers can incorporate into their lectures, in the style of ‘Crash Course’, etc.  

There are many sources for videos these days, the most entertaining is maybe Crash Course, some sites are for younger kids, and I think we should all explore Complexity Labs for its many videos of systems and complexity

Crash course - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izRvPaAWgyw

Teacher’s pet - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlnFylwdYH4

KLU science - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1X-WpfUvm4

Complexity Labs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqmEsAD79cU

"Films for Action" Videos

Other Youtube videos already available on PWD topics

Produce live webinars

Take field trips into nature

Portray the cultural positives of change in descent and a low energy world

Consider using different, more understandable terms (for example, re-co-opt "embodied energy" for the term Emergy, especially when speaking to non-scientists)

More Discussion

PWD MOOC

And a winning idea, via Peter May, an online course

Create an online course for PWD

Dr. Brown already has a lecture series on Emergy

Tom Abel has some ppts that were made from the PWD book (They will be linked to this website)

But Peter is recommending a ‘full’ online course, probably taught from a university, perhaps that would include guest ‘lectures’ from many of us

Discussion

Mexico De-Growth Conference in June

Enrique Ortega (and Mariana Oliveira?) is going

Experimental communities, permaculture, Transition towns, De-growth, Buen Vivir, Via Campesina, etc.

Francesco

Shareholder activism

I.e., lawsuit feedback

This sounds like an emergent behavior for stopping bad ecological behavior, bad economic projects, etc

We should expect that adjustments like this should naturally emerge in the social arena for resisting runaway consumption, i.e., for aiding maximum power (the maximization of useful power transformations)

PWD website ‘group’

Create a ‘group’ in our website to continue discussion

This is being pursued, Elliott has made a first attempt to create a group, but had some problems

He will try again

Write the next chapter of PWD

Or a new textbook

This is a very sincere request from Betty Odum

A Prosperous Way Down (2001) University of Colorado Press needs to be updated

She wants someone to pick up the ball, to carry on their writing

Betty calling for more scholarship

Tom Abel presentations

Tom made two short Ppt presentations near the end

“Did Julian Simon Get It Right?”

This was basically one slide, showing the US oil peak of 1970s, and the current oil production (with fracking) that is nearing that 1970s peak

This was intended to annoy the PWD community and spur discussion

But it was also intended to make us pause and think about peak oil and the fact that there is an economic system out there that will be trying to ‘adapt’ to peaking oil through innovation, etc

“Is PWD a Revitalization Movement?”

Or call it an example of a millennialist movement?

Other examples were given, and the typical features of a revitalization movement were listed:

Revitalization Movements

The point was to urge PWD people to strategize about how we present our case

We do not want to be lumped into categories with the bad examples

We need to put a check on our ‘certainty’ about the future, science is rarely certain

Tom had two other Ppts that he did not show:

"Natural and Cultural Energy Hierarchy"

"The Big Slow Curve"

Also, Hanne had a Ppt that Tom apologizes(!) for failing to work into the session

I would like to link Hanne’s, if she feels it is appropriate. Yes, please, Hanne, says Mary.

Tom strategizing about 'revitalization movements'

Final Comments

Thanks to Sue Lee for photographs and origami.  I will be using the photos on the PWD page, where I will post these notes when we are through editing them. And Mary says, thanks, Eric Lee for the link to this wonderful article on renewable energy and PWD:

http://www.sustainable.soltechdesigns.com/emergy-yield-ratio-matters.html

Last, Betty Odum had some comments:

   In the list of attendees’ emails are useful.

   I have course outlines and contents for my community college courses: Energy and Ecology.  I also have the online versions of the courses.

Let’s have a working gathering of those who want to create and spread courses. We can start by each presenting ideas, with links to already written material.

To whom shall we send it?

Visual Discussion

In Attendance: