Sustainable Oxford Hills, Maine http://www.sustainableoxfordhills.org Sustainable Oxford Hills is a group of people in and around the eight towns of the Oxford Hills of Maine (Harrison, Hebron, Norway, Otisfield, Oxford, South Paris, Waterford, West Paris) dedicated to our transition to a lower fossil fuel future. We are interested in ideas and solutions regarding food, transportation, energy and community. daily 1 2009-03-30T20:14:13Z Welcome http://www.sustainableoxfordhills.org/welcome A community site for helping us make the transition to a lower fossil fuel future. The Sustainable Oxford Hills, Maine, USA, web site is one result of a community meeting that was held in late January 2009 to discuss the complex of issues regarding the rising cost of fossil fuel, global climate change, and our response to it.

This video by Richard Heinberg explains our mission - all hands on deck!

New to this site? We are new to it as well. The section that is most active now is the Energy section. Please browse through it to see see the beginnings of what we are thinking.

Join this site! If you are interested in these issues, you are welcome to create an account on this site. This will allow you to make comments on many of the articles and reviews posted here. To join, just click the New User link at the lower left. While we will accept anyone, we would prefer that you live in or around the Oxford Hills, Maine. We demand that you play nice.

Are you interested in any of these issues in the Oxford Hills? Join us! Be an editor for this site. Draw people into conversation about these issues. Help us plan our future. Contact Connie Allen (coall46@yahoo.com) or Mike Dunn (mdunn@sad17.k12.me.us).

If you are interested in energy issues, join our meetings (see calendar or Upcoming Events, at right).

 

Mike Dunn
April 16, 2009

]]> No publisher Michael Dunn 2009-03-22T12:05:00Z Page Users http://www.sustainableoxfordhills.org/Members Container for users' home directories No publisher Michael Dunn 2009-03-22T18:44:32Z Folder Events http://www.sustainableoxfordhills.org/events Site Events No publisher Michael Dunn 2009-03-22T11:17:03Z Folder Learn More http://www.sustainableoxfordhills.org/challenges No publisher Michael Dunn 2012-02-01T22:15:00Z Folder About this site http://www.sustainableoxfordhills.org/about-this-site Learn who is behind this site and how to use it This site is the result of a group of people who met in January 2009 to figure out how to help ourselves through tough economic times, largely by becoming somewhat more self-reliant in terms of energy, food and transportation. In the process, we hope to build a stronger, healthier and closer community.

The site opened in late March 2009 through the efforts of Katie Branch and Mike Dunn. It will be developed through the efforts of many of the members of the energy group which has been meeting regularly since early March.

There are at least four ways you can use this site. They are listed in order of increasing involvement.

  1. You can be an information consumer. Learn what you can and do what you can to cut your energy bills, save money and slow our export of dollars to oil producing countries.
  2. You can mail any of us with suggestions for improvement. Each major section of this site will have a primary contact person. This person is primarily responsible for the content of that section. Thanks for your ideas!
  3. You can participate in online discussions by replying to articles. Any article that has a "Reply" button at the bottom of it can be commented on. To reply, you need to create an account. You don't have to use your real name, you don't have to be of any certain age, but you do have to be thoughtful and nice. Being nice is judged soley by the section's moderator.
  4. You can become a site editor. With this role, you will be able to create content by creating folders, pages, calendar events and news items. You will probably want to join at least one of the groups.

Join in any way you can to help make the Oxford Hills more economically secure.

 - Mike Dunn, March 29, 2009

]]> No publisher Michael Dunn 2009-03-29T22:35:00Z Page SOH Meeting http://www.sustainableoxfordhills.org/soh-meeting Regular meeting. No publisher Michael Dunn 2012-01-04T01:24:49Z Event Mission and Vision http://www.sustainableoxfordhills.org/mission-and-vision-1 SUSTAINABLE OXFORD HILLS ENERGY TASK FORCE
Consolidated Problem Statement, Objective, Vision Statements,
Central Issues, and Easy Things to Do Tomorrow

PROBLEM STATEMENT
The escalating tension between worldwide energy depletion and continued
population growth will make it necessary for the eight towns of Oxford Hills to
transition from global consumerism to a local economy by 2020.


TASK FORCE OBJECTIVE
Our objective is to help the community develop an understanding of the serious
challenges we face and the need to tackle them collectively, create a sense of
urgency for action, and help find realistic solutions for each Vision component.


VISION STATEMENTS
ENERGY
Develop and manage sources of renewable and sustainable energy that are
necessary to address each of the following community essentials:

  • FOOD & WATER
    • Develop sources of clean water and wholesome food in sufficient quantities to sustain our communities; including surpluses for crop failures, future seed supplies, trade, and drought.
  • SHELTER
    • Incorporate methods for highly energy efficient building with locally available materials. Develop strategies to renovate existing buildings using these methods.
  • ELECTRICAL POWER
    • Maintain electrical capabilities for light, machinery, medical services, communications, information and computers.
  • HEAT
    • Implement strategies for the effective generation of safe and reliable heat for buildings, cooking, hot water and industrial applications.
  • TRANSPORTATION
    • Identify current and future transportation realities and needs, challenge current practices, and then develop alternatives to the existing transportation infrastructure.
  • GOODS
    • Identify the basic material necessities of the community and develop local manufacturing capabilities or access to external sources. (Clothing, shoes, matches, soap, paper, etc.)
  • COMMUNITY SERVICES
    • Provide for essential public services including education, health, safety, security and social services.
  • ECONOMY
    • Prepare to adapt to external economic changes with a local and sustainable economic model. NOTE: Check Out the “Steady State Economy”

CENTRAL ISSUES FOR THE COMMUNITY PRESENTATION

  • Annotated with comments from 5-19-10 meeting.
  • Economy
  • Growth Based Economy
  • Surplus Energy for Growth
  • Credit Dependency/Personal Debt
  • Lack of Saving
  • National Debt/GDP?
  • Jobs: Need vs. Availability
  • Segment Into Personal, National, International: GDP (earnings)/Savings/Debt (debt/gdp 30% for US, 108% for Greece)
  • Environment
  • Resource Depletion: Oil/Minerals/Water/Topsoil/Desertification
  • Population: Exponential Growth Driving Accelerated Resource
  • Depletion and Biodiversity (species extinction/pollution)
  • Climate Change: Environment Being Altered To Point Of
  • Unmanageability: Population Displacement and Migration (consider
  • leaving out of initial presentation)
  • Energy
  • Net Energy: Cost Of Extraction
  • Peak Oil
  • Growth In Worldwide Demand
  • Alternate and Renewable Energy Limitations/Realities
  • Food

1. Transportation
2.  Production
3.  Fertilizer
4.  Mega Farm Government Subsidies vs. local farms (10 calories in for 1 calorie out, 30 lbs. grain for 1 lb. beef)


EASY THINGS TO DO STARTING TODAY TO REDUCE ENERGY
CONSUMPTION (new topic from 5-19 meeting)
Take Advantage of the  Alan Day Community Garden to Raise Some
of Your Own Vegetables (call ___________)
Eat Less Meat
Insulate Your Home
Buy Energy Star Appliances
Carpool
Consolidate Trips to Town
Fill Your Gas Tank No More Than Halfway (weight reduction
increases MPG by 3% to 5%)
Walk
TBC

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