news-record.com

I just wanted to give you a head's up on a couple events going on this week: 

* The Triad Intentional Communities Network meets Thursday, with this month's subject about co-housing possibilities in the Greensboro area. You can follow the TICN discussions through its blog. 

* Gerald Cecil, a physics and astronomy professor at UNC Chapel Hill, will give a peak oil presentation this Thursday as well. Cecil was featured in a story I wrote about the controversial topic oil last year. Speaking of, an examination of the peak oil debate just came out by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. 

From the report: 

"The supply of energy as we have known it is in the process of transition. Today’s “easy” conventional oil that the world relies upon as a primary energy source is being depleted, and, regardless of the exact timing of peak oil production—be it this year or fifty years down the road— the world faces the challenge of adapting to a new model of energy supply. Although the peak oil literature tends to concentrate heavily on the scenarios of peaking world oil production, the true underlying issue is a fear that the transition from conventional oil to substitutes will be expensive and chaotic, leaving insufficient time for supply substitution and adaptation.

"This adaptation process—which involves using more renewable resources and conservation and developing new technology and processes to better access hydrocarbon deposits and more efficiently extract and refine nonconventional sources—has already begun. But the road to the future energy balance—one with dwindling amounts of conventional oil—is far from mapped out."