POST-OIL CITIES: FUTUR SCENARIOS
Conference and debate
POST-OIL CITIES: FUTUR SCENARIOS
12.05.2011 at 18.00h
Related activity to QUAM2011
Daniel Lerch Urban planner, USA. www.postcarboncities.net
Lluís Sabadell Artiga Artist and curator, Post-Oil Cities, ES. www.postoilcities.org
Place: ACVic. Centre d'Arts Contemporànies | C. Sant Francesc, 1 Vic
Presentation
Almost all activities in our society are, directly or indirectly, oil dependent. OIL is not only used to generate energy - we use it mainly in transport, but it is also used in food production (fertilisers, pesticides...), clothing, dyes, plastics, varnishes, hygiene products, etc.. In less than a century, oil has modelled cities and society as we know them today, with all their progress and growth, but also their want and especially the consequences arising from these, such as overexploitation of the planet, pollution and climate change.
To depend entirely on a single material causes a huge vulnerability, especially if it is non-renewable, with a finite amount which will eventually run out after production first stagnates and then falls, in a process known as Peak Oil.
Our current cities have grown, been designed and are organised from unctional patterns based on the use and availability of cheap oil, but we know that this must change in years to come. Why not start thinking, organizing and planning our cities today, for the time beyond oil?
Daniel Lerch (Post Carbon Cities Institute, author of the book of the same name) will talk about the energy and climate uncertainties we face by concentrating on cities. He will analyse the phenomenon of Peak Oil - which signifies the end of the era of cheap oil, and how this will affect our cities and our everyday lives, finally proposing a series of recommendations
to local agencies, governments and civil society so they can tackle this future energy and climate uncertainty.
Finishing the session, Lluis Sabadell Artiga (Post Oil Cities) will present a series of inspirational projects from around the world, analysing the strategies developed to confront a future that must necessarily go through a shift in energy paradigm.
To sum up, a day to put many questions on the table about the future of Vic and Osona as we confront this scenario of energy and climate uncertainty, leading to an interesting audience debate.
Daniel Lerch is Program Director of Post Carbon Institute. He is the author of Post Carbon Cities (2007), the first major municipal guidebook on peak oil and global warming, and the lead editor of The Post Carbon Reader (2010), a collection of original essays by some of the world's most provocative thinkers on the 21st century's interconnected sustainability crises. One of the few experts specializing in local government responses to global fossil fuel depletion, Daniel has delivered presentations and workshops to elected officials, planners, and other audiences across the United States, as well as in Canada, Ireland, the UK, and Spain.
This activity is organised within the framework previous to QUAM 2011, which under the title WIKPOLIS will be held between the 8th and 15th of July. QUAM 2011 will focus on the construction of tools, tactics and collective practices applied in urban and rural contexts.To approach the issues arising from the proposed subjects, two workshops: graphics, metrics and policies of space ("Cartography and political space") , led by the collective Iconoclasistas and a second workshop Creative collective practice in social space led by David Juárez from Straddle 3 with the participation of Santiago Cirugeda from Recetas Urbanas, Diego Perez from Todo por la praxis and Sergio Moreno from Hackitectura. Both workshops have the collaboration of the local collective La Torratxa and will be developed in different facilities around the city of Vic.
