peakmoment Videos

Episode 156: Kris Holstrom's off-grid permaculture farm at 9000 feet high is living proof that food can be grown nearly anywhere. Managing with a very short growing season and water constraints, she and her interns have created magic. Tour the sun-warmed, insulated greenhouse where greens are grown year-round. It's home to a waterfall and pond with fish, trellises for grapes and seedlings, artwork for the soul, and mushrooms growing from straw. The outside garden offers herbs, berries ...

Tags: permaculture farming gardening community

Peak Moment 155: With a long-time eye to declining energy resources, Bart Anderson envisions a very different society in five years. The former editor of Energy Bulletin.net offers advice for post-oil living: Understand the problem. Prepare psychologically for big shifts and the unexpected. Find your niche and get good at it. See what your great grandparents did as a model for living well within limits. "Live poor and learn to do it well" as Bart did as a graduate student. Things ...

Tags: peak oil collapse preparedness

Peak Moment 154: In Peak Moment's very first field production, bicycle enthusiast Galen Shumacher takes us for a spin on a three-wheeled "tadpole." This human-powered vehicle (HPV), built for competition by the Chico State University HPV club, has two wheels in front and a single in back. Janaia's unrehearsed ride shows that it's easy to learn, comfortable to ride, stable, highly maneuverable, and fun! Galen also shows us the improved model being built for the upcoming competition. (PS they ...

Tags: transportation bicycle

Peak Moment 153: Jenny Pell's infectious enthusiasm will sweep you up into creating a future that's beyond sustainable — to one that's "additive". This lively permaculturist suggests that you belong where you live and get (re)connected to your "chain of inputs and outputs". She invites us to to regain skills, especially in food production, and to participate in creating abundance, which is "the only way forward, the only way for the human family to survive." (www.permaculturenow.com) Also ...

Tags: permaculture food local

Peak Moment 152: Kate Magruder feels that "Opinions make walls. Stories make bridges." Using narrative, music and images, Placement Project participants create short stories that not only empower the tellers, but also elicit respect, admiration and tenderness from listeners. Kate hopes that telling our stories can build an honest sense of community in her town of Ukiah and beyond. Watch some digital stories at www.storymapping.org

Tags: story community

Peak Moment 151: Biting into a fresh-baked cookie from "Baked in Telluride" is a double treat -- a yummy goody that also supports a local independent business. Owner Jerry Green has been going "green" for decades before it became fashionable, and is successfully facing the challenges of running an independent business in a tourist town while competing with bakeries thousands of miles away. While a town councilor, Jerry helped shape projects like affordable public housing and public ... local ...

Tags: local business sustainability politics

Peak Moment 150: Ecopsychologist Sarah Edwards, PhD, explains stages people often go through when facing the implications of climate change and resource depletion. She outlines various aspects of Denial, Anxiety, Awakening, Despair, Powerlessness and eventual Acceptance. Differentiating these from the normal grief process, Sarah emphasizes how we can face inevitable feelings of grief and free our energy for positive, practical action in our personal and community lives. ((eco-anxiety ...

Tags: psychology peak oil climate change collapse lifestyle spirituality

Peak Moment 149: Take a personal tour with members of Santa Barbara City College's Student Sustainability Coalition. They're propelling action -- like bringing fresh, local organic produce daily to the salad bar, and placing recycling bins in the cafeteria. They're educating the campus all year round and especially during Sustainability Week -- on the climate crisis, renewables, and campus transportation alternatives. Now their advisor, professor Adam Green, has formed a Center for ...

Tags: sustainability education activism

Peak Moment 148: In this two-part program, Diana Leafe Christian, author of Finding Community: How to join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community, zeros in on how to find an ecovillage. Once you determine what you want, what are the criteria to explore whether a particular ecovillage is a good fit for you? www.ecovillagenews.org In part two, Bob Banner, publisher of Hopedance magazine, shares insights from Andrew Harvey's Sacred Activism workshop "What breaks your heart, what you really love ...

Tags: intentional community ecovillage activism spirituality

Peak Moment 147: 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 ...

Tags: permaculture farming local food greenhouse