WORD OUT! The Blog to Build a New Society

We're just back and settling in after a fantastic weekend at The Fifth U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions. Plan C: Individual and Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change. It was great to meet several of our authors - John Michael Greer, Dmitry Orlov, and Pat Murphy - it's a rare and valued opportunity to meet face to face when we're all so spread out around the continent.

The conference was exciting and inspiring. Even though we must wean our selves off oil, address critical issues of housing and food security, and deal with the fact that the wheels seem to have come off the global economy, it doesn't seem nearly as overwhelming when we realize that we have so many great thinkers who are engaged in mapping the new territory we are entering. And here at New Society we are incredibly lucky to be working and collaborating with these thinkers and helping to bring their ideas to a wider audience.

Being at the conference reminded me of one of the most important (yet all too easily forgotten) basic tenets of my life. Challenge is opportunity. And while there's no doubt that we are living through some very challenging times right now, the great news is that that means that opportunity abounds.

Jump on board! Use the comments below to tell us what opportunities you're working on creating in your own communities. We'd love to hear about it.

Here's some pictures from the Plan C conference!

New Society's EJ Hurst and Dmitry Orlov, author of
Reinventing Collapse

Pat Murphy, author of Plan C and New Society's
Heather Nicholas (yours truly)

John Michael Greer, author of The Long Descent
signing books at the conference