Friday, May 18, 2012

Being ready for an uncertain future - sustainable living seminar


BEING READY FOR AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
Four Monday Evenings: May 21 & 28, June 4 & 11, 2012
Facilitated by John Adams
Center for Creativity and Community

23 West St. Charles St.
(HWY 49 – on west side just north of the blinker light)
San Andreas
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm


(Dessert potluck!)

There is no way to be certain how the future will unfold, but there is growing concern in many quarters that the next 20 years won’t be anything like the last 20 years! This seminar is presented in a four part series and extends the work of Jared Diamond (Collapse), Richard Heinberg (The End of Growth), Chris Martenson (The Crash Course), Cam Mather (The Upside of Down) and others, in exploring the inner workings of our society’s prevailing ways of thinking and behaving.
These four evenings will help you understand the nature and interrelationships of some extremely serious risks to our familiar way of life and our future prosperity. It weaves together some of the most likely reasons we may experience significant challenges to “life as usual” – exploring the interactions of how the economy; the availability of cheap, abundant energy; and essential resource availability affect our everyday lives. Our goal will be to interconnect the various challenges and make them understandable. Each of the first two sessions of the course, which will be held on consecutive Monday evenings, will open with dialogue on some provocative questions, then involve a video presentation, and wind up with Q & A and further dialogue on items of interest.
The third and fourth sessions are devoted to exploring our readiness to change and the possibilities for preparation, both as families and as a community, for an uncertain future. People will leave with a clearer sense of their own needed next steps for being building family and community resilience.
Come and extend your network. One of the enduring outcomes of past offerings is the opportunity to join in a growing community of local folks who are helping each other to build resilience and are sharing ideas and resources on an on-going basis.
BIG GOALS

1.      Understanding the present challenges to “life as we know it.” Getting the interconnections!
2.      Reaching our own (self / family) conclusions and deciding what to do.
3.      Building a community of self-reliance and resource sharing


OBJECTIVES
By the end of this series, you will be able to:
  • Understand why our economic system is in trouble.
  • Know the relationship of fossil fuels to your future prosperity.
  • Link environmental and resource depletion issues to both energy and the economy.
  • Meet like-minded folks and join a growing community of concerned foothill citizens.
  • Have the opportunity to create a personal action plan for “being ready for an uncertain future”

MAIN LEARNING POINTS
  • Dealing with the potential disruptions that could occur in the next twenty years.
  • The role cheap, abundant energy plays in your prosperity and your quality of life.
  • Why depleted resources add up to big challenges
  • The creation of money and how the Federal Reserve System functions.
  • Why it is essential to understand compound interest (exponential growth) and how it relates to your life.
  • Developing an action plan for yourself, your family, and your network of “fellow travelers.”

To register, contact John Adams at 728-9432 or jadams2212@comcast.net or by clicking on Contact at: http://home.comcast.net/~jadams2212/.  

Cost:  Suggested price is $5 per session to cover copying expenses and make a donation to the Center. No one is turned away if payment is a challenge.

Location:
Center for Creativity and Community
23 West St. Charles St. (HWY 49)
San Andreas

John Adams is formerly Director of Educational Programs for the Foothill Collaborative for Sustainability. He has also served FoCuS as a Board member and is Emeritus Professor at Saybrook University. Prior to his academic involvement, John had a private practice in speaking and seminar leadership for over 20 years focusing on how our thinking influences our behaviors and experiences – especially in the areas of sustainability, change adjustment and stress management.