D  e  s  e  r  t   E  x  p  o  s  u  r  e        January 2008

Warm-up Wake-up Call

Silver City's third annual conference on Peak Oil and Climate Change ranges from the backyard to the South Pole.

If you want to see whether the world is getting warmer, check the coldest spots on earth — the poles. At this year's Third Annual Conference on Peak Oil and Climate Change in Silver City, Feb. 2, Curt Smith will share his first-person perspective from near the South Pole, where the Silver City resident has spent two seasons.

"What's happening at the poles has real impact on what's happening over the rest of the planet," says Smith. "It's something we really need to pay attention to. I don't see the real story of what's going on at the poles in any of the media. There are large chunks of ice floating around now, already. How are you going to dock an oil tanker when the sea level goes up 20 feet? If we lose the ice cap, what is going to happen to the oceans when all that surface area is exposed to the height of summer?

"We simply have to start changing the way we live now. It's going to be so much worse if we don't start making these changes until 20-30 years from now," he says.

Smith will be the local keynote speaker at the conference, which will give attendees the opportunity to engage with experts of many stripes and experiences, on DVD and live from the podium, and to learn grassroots techniques and lifestyle changes to make a difference.

He's worked at the Palmer Station on the Antarctic peninsula, a remote research facility under the auspices of the National Science Foundation. Smith describes the area's noteworthy remoteness: "Well, you can't get there by plane, and it's a five-day boat trip (from Chile). You don't want to get caught in a big storm in the Drake Passage," he adds with a dry laugh.

Aside from some penguins, perhaps, Smith says about 40 people — split evenly between researchers and support staff — inhabit the research station at the height of the season, our New Mexican winter, which is the Antarctic's summer. This is a much smaller facility, he says, than the other Antarctic research stations, the South Pole station that employs about 250 people and McMurdo, which is home to about 1,200. Smith has worked the 230-day research stint at Palmer Station the past two years.

Smith earned his first degree, in geology, back in the 1980s. He worked as a geophysicist in oil and gas consulting for the early part of his career, all through the 1980s. Then he went into computers and technology, his profession ever since, and this is what he currently does professionally at Western New Mexico University in Silver City.

"I'm their network nerd," he says with a good-natured laugh.

In his talk at the conference, Smith will offer some of his own photography to illustrate his points, "and also a lot of charts," he says.

"The Antarctic Peninsula is going through a lot of changes already," he explains. "A big misunderstanding right now, in general, is that people think the animals are just adapting, that things are changing, sure, but the animals are just changing their way of life and moving along sort of seamlessly with the changes." He pauses. "It just ain't so. I'm sorry to have to say that there's not a lot of happy good news. In fact, the underpinnings of the whole food web down there are already being affected. And there are already some clear implications as to how this might relate to other ecosystems. That's all of us."

Silver City resident William Joseph is a key organizer of the event, which is put together by a small group of individuals and sponsored by the Gila Resources Information Project (GRIP), a local non-profit concerned with environmental protection and education. Other businesses and partnering organizations offer support to the conference, Joseph explains.

Joseph describes the first annual conference as "an experiment" that drew about 120 people from far and wide. It was a great kick-off, he says, held at WNMU. From that experience, the group learned what people were looking for and designed the second conference, a three-day event at Silver City's downtown Silco Theater, accordingly. The various educational sessions that year had some 50 attendees each, he says, and at least 100 attended the opening keynote presentation.

The goal of the annual conference, Joseph says, is multi-fold: educate the public, start up grassroots groups, form coalitions for action and raise funds for further efforts. This year will especially bring in "community building," he says, with an optional dinner — incorporating foods raised by the Silver City Greenhouse Project, of which Joseph is a prime mover and shaker. (See "Greenhouse Effect," January 2007.)

"It'll give people the chance to meet and talk and see what their neighbors are doing about climate change," Joseph says. There also will be a DVD presentation.

Joseph gives a simple overview and loose outline for this year's all-day conference. "We'll be starting with Peak Oil with a DVD of renowned eco-expert (Richard) Heinberg and ending with Curt (Smith)," Joseph says. "It's all practical stuff in between — local people, nothing fancy. These are things that people can take home with them and implement in their real lives.

"We're not talking about installing huge, expensive solar panels and stuff like that. The first line of defense, the first thing anybody can do that really makes a difference, is conservation," he emphasizes. "That's certainly a key message we want to get out there."

— Donna Clayton Lawder

If You Go:

What: The 3rd Annual Peak Oil and Climate Change Conference

When: Saturday, Feb. 2, 9:15 a.m.-8 p.m.

Where: The Silco Theatre, 311 N. Bullard St., Silver City

Cost: Free

More info: GRIP 538-8078, www.gilaresources.info; William Joseph, 538-5892

Tentative schedule:

9:30-11 a.m. — Introduction, Richard Heinberg DVD "Peak Everything"

11 a.m.-12 p.m. — Local school presentations

12-1:15 p.m. — Lunch

1:30-5 p.m. — Presentations on transportation alternatives, oil-intensive foods and practical retrofitting for your home

5-6:30 p..m. — Break (dinner by donation), DVD on "Simple Living and Food" (during dinner)

6:30-8 p.m. — Introduction to the mayor's initiative for climate change, closing keynote by Curt Smith