This event and website are under continuous development, see above for last update.
Posted: 2013-01-12 Begin 2013 updates, expanded dates & content
3-13 Bio updates, 4-2 Draft schedule, presentations
4-26 Firm schedule with conversations

Sustainable Life Skills   Fri, May17th -Weds 22nd
immediately preceding

The Age of Limits

Thursday May 23rd thru Monday May 27th, 2013
Dedicated to the pioneering work of Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers & Dennis Meadows
and their epochal 1972 report "The Limits to Growth."

Conversations on the Collapse
of The Global Industrial Model

Memorial Day Weekend at Four Quarters

The original “Limits to Growth Report” (1972 Meadows et al) did not include a time line for the global growth scenarios it examined. With the addition of statistical data for the following 40 years it is now possible “to fit to the curve” and make rough predictions based on observed resource production and consumption patterns, overlaid upon continued population growth.

For 50 years serious thinkers have questioned the assumptions of our global industrial culture and its prospects over the longer term. In recent decades they have succeeded in bringing at least some of the core science into popular discussion, notably petroleum depletion and especially climate change. Through these years proposals have been made outlining the governmental policies that would be necessary to begin “solving” these problems. Sadly, we can now see through the course of events, or rather non-events, that the window of opportunity is closing, if not already closed. We are now confronted not by a problem, but by a predicament; one which has no solution, but only adaptations and mitigation's.

Environmental Degradation and Resource Depletion.
Global Population Growth and Demographics.
Rentier Debt and Growth Based Finance. Global Climate Change.
A world now reaching The Limits of Growth on a Finite Earth.

·In-Depth Conversations With:

John Michael Greer: Scholar and author of more than twenty books on a wide range of subjects, including The Long Descent: A User’s Guide to the End of the Industrial Age, The Ecotechnic Future: Exploring a Post-Peak World, and The Wealth of Nature: Economics As If Survival Mattered.

Carolyn Baker Ph.D.: Professor of history and psychology, psychotherapist and author of Navigating The Coming Chaos: A Handbook For Inner Transition and Sacred Demise: Walking The Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse.

Dmitry Orlov: Essayist, wry social commentator and author of the acclaimed Reinventing Collapse – The Soviet Experience and American Prospects.

Gail Tverberg: Professional Actuary and Mathematician, global limits analyst and writer.

Guy McPherson: Professor emeritus of Natural Resources and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, social critic and writer on the emerging climate catastrophe. His book “Walking Away from Empire” chronicles his journey from privileged academic to rural permaculturalist.

Albert Bates: is an influential figure in the intentional community and ecovillage movements. A lawyer, author and teacher, he has been director of the Institute for Appropriate Technology since 1984 and of the Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm in Summertown, Tennessee since 1994.

...and more being confirmed.

The Age of Limits directly addresses our developing understanding of the core issues relating to the emerging decline of the western industrialized model and the practical adaptations and preparations that apply on the personal, family and local levels.

Our science understands that business as usual cannot continue, that the degree of catastrophe from Climate Change is simply unknowable in its scope and that global population die-off is a real possibility within the lifetimes of our young people. We want to present this information in a level, thoughtful and non-hysterical manner; as the situation is so dire that it needs no amplification, but rather, compassion.

So this is not intended to be a conference in the usual sense of presentations to a passive audience. We will instead foster “Weekend Community” through the creation of physical spaces that encourage attendees meeting and exchanging with each other and with our presenters... in a very natural and beautiful setting.
   In addition to two full days of presentations and workshops, there will be low-key Appalachian string music in our community spaces featuring a finger foods social meet and greet Thurday evening, a discussion in the round Friday evening, a moving exploration of grief Saturday evening and an old style barn dance Sunday evening. And we will be offering community meal plans through our “Starvin’ Artist Kitchen.”
It is not all Doom and Gloom!