Petroleum Free for One Year: Practical Sustainability in the Digital Age

Join us for an encore evening with Doug Fine ("America in the Drug Peace Era," Fall quarter) as he describes his decade-long adventure living off the grid on a remote solar-powered ranch in New Mexico. Ten years ago, Fine says, he rediscovered his "indigenous gene"-the part of every one of us that is still a Paleolithic hunter-gatherer. This had nothing to do with culture, he is convinced, and everything to do with biology and endorphins; waking to bird-calls rather than to an alarm clock will probably make many of us happier humans, he suspects.

In this amusing and inspiring talk and slide show, Fine documents his journey from child of the 1980's suburbs to successful eschewer of petroleum. Attendees will come away with two major messages. First, we will learn that practical sustainability in the Digital Age is not a matter of Steve Jobs versus the Unabomber. We can have Netflix, as long as we make our laptops solarpowered and enjoy a salad we grew ourselves while we watch the movie. Second, we shouldn't think that eliminating 80 percent of the fossil fuels in our lives is a pipe dream best left to the experts. We'll see in his mischievous storytelling that if the initially survival skill- challenged Fine can do it, anyone can.

Room 040