I posted this comment @ The Oil Drum on Sunday: "In Philadelphia, we just had a "Beyond Oil" conference bringing together environmentalists, local politicians & social justice activists, & peak oil experts like Jan Lundberg: http://phillybeyondoil.org"

On Sunday, I went to a follow-up meeting in Philly with some of the organizers of the conference. One of the things we discussed was our disappointment that leaders (and members) from local religious communities, for the most part, did not attend & seemed unwilling to seriously consider our ideas. Especially because many of our organizers come from explicitly faith-based backgrounds (ie, the conference was initiated by The Shalom Center, a progressive Jewish group, and was held in a Quaker building), this was a big failure for us. We tried to analyze the reasons for this -- the essence seems to be that institutions like churches, synagogues, etc are too bureaucratically invested in the status quo to be leaders on an issue that poses such fundamental challenges to our entire way of life, probably unless & until its reality becomes unavoidable. That doesn't mean we'll give up on reaching out to organized religion, but we've lost some hope that they'll be active participants in our coalition...

We also discussed some national campaigns that we could join as a local partner. Without going into what campaigns those are, I'll say that none of them seem really effective or interesting to me. They're all missing that critical 'zing-factor' which is needed to catapult Peak Oil awareness into the cultural mainstream. I have some ideas about language & 'framing' that could do the trick, but instead of revealing those now I'll pose some thoughts & questions about underlying strategy:

1) At TOD a little while back, there was discussion about uniting on a "Draft Roscoe Bartlett for President" campaign in 2008. While I love Roscoe's honesty & leadership on PO, it's a bad idea for 2 reasons: We can't wait until 2008, & it sets us up for the trap of believing in the illusion that a single inspirational leader (almost like the illusion of a technological quick-fix 'silver bullet') can save us.

Instead, we might consider intervention in the 2006 mid-term elections, not to elect any particular candidate, but to inject PO into public dialogue in a way that all of them must speak to. What if citizens 'bird-dogged' candidates at public events? When Republicans attended John Kerry events wearing 'Flip-Flop' costumes, that was news AND it made an indelible impression on public consciousness. What if PO activists bird-dogged BOTH candidates in any given race? What symbols, stunts, etc could we use to make our point?

2) What if, following such a media & public awareness campaign (which conceivably could occur at once in numerous states or localities), we held a number of simultaneous local "Energy Leadership Summits" in cities across the country? Has the PO movement matured enough to be a real source of leadership? Can we work together across ideological & geographical boundaries? If, say during the weekend prior to Thanksgiving in 2006, there were 20 conferences spanning the continent, that would be hard for folks to ignore & could generate political momentum...

Finally, in any public outreach/media campaign, it's crucial to articulate a message that doesn't turn off or paralyze people, but rather draws them in to learn more & be active. What is our "core message"? How do we speak to people in a way that moves them beyond "Civilization is collapsing" panic & selfish survivalism to "We can live sustainably if we mobilize together" hope & action?

Looking forward to yr responses ;-)
Peace ~ Ethan from Philly