Redesigning Our Communities for Life After Fossil Fuels

Redesigning Our Communities for Life After Fossil Fuels

A series of virtual events in 5 locations in the U.S.
with connections to local, in-person community events


About this Series

In 2022 and 2023, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate partnered with the Post Carbon Institute and many local community groups to bring you a series of events on transitioning our communities to manage our ecological crises. These events took place virtually on Zoom with community leaders from 5 locations throughout the U.S., followed by the promotion of community events at the local level.

The purpose of this series was to educate leaders and other residents in each community on our predicament of declining energy resources, the power that restoring ecosystems and biodiversity has to stop wildfires, drought, flooding, and cool the temperatures, the urgent need to grow and distribute more food locally, and the strategies local leaders are using to redesign our communities for life after fossil fuels.

These events elevated the voices and forward thinking work of numerous diverse community leaders from Oregon, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Montgomery County, Maryland and their surrounding regions. These leaders showed us how they are blazing new trails and establishing new models for life after fossil fuels.

The virtual events also featured Keynote speaker Richard Heinberg, author and senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, and national leaders from Biodiversity for a Livable Climate (Bio4Climate), who shared their expertise, resources, and practical solutions to build resilience for these rapidly changing times.

Local community events were then promoted to support event participants in next steps to learn strategies for increasing resilience, help out with a community project, and build practical skills in order to replicate these projects at home and in their neighborhoods.

It has been a privilege to feature such incredible community and national leaders from around the country. These leaders are blazing new trails and establishing new models for life after fossil fuels. It is vital for us to follow them, support their work, and learn from them as they lead the way.

You can find a detailed description of the speakers, moderators and their topics of discussion by clicking on the links below under each event.

You can also find a growing playlist of the video recordings of each event on our YouTube channel – YouTube Playlist – Redesigning Our Communities for Life After Fossil Fuels.

We deeply appreciate the donations of time our speakers and moderators, partners and sponsors, and our planning team and other volunteers gave to this series – Thank You.

Specifically, this could not have been successful without the 2 years of dedicated work by our event planning team of volunteers including Philip Bogdonoff, Glenn Gall, Jim Laurenson, Beck Mordini, and Shannon Scrofano; and our partnership with Richard Heinberg and the entire team at the Post Carbon Institute including Amy Buringrud, Desiree Cesarini, Rob Dietz, Asher Miller, and Clara Winter.

We are also grateful for the additional support we received in hosting these events from Sami Aaron, Jessica Alvarez Parfrey, Kyree Clark, Julia Eden, Cindy Laniewski, Nathan Lou, Alberta Pedroja, Justin Ritchie, Tania Roa, Jon Schull, Carl Stafford, Clare Strawn, and Natalie Wermers.

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Past Events

FIFTH Event: OREGON

Leaders from Oregon joined us to share their expertise, resources, and practical solutions. See our speakers and the topics we discussed:

Virtual Event – November 18, 2023
with local leaders from Oregon

Stay tuned for the video recordings and slide presentations.


FOURTH Event: CLEVELAND

Leaders from Cleveland joined us to share their expertise, resources, and practical solutions. See our speakers and the topics we discussed:

Virtual Event – March 25, 2023
with local leaders from Cleveland

Now Available – Recording of the Main Session Panel Discussions:

Redesigning Our Communities for After Fossil Fuels – Cleveland – March 25, 2023

Stay tuned for other video recordings and slide presentations.


Third Event: LOS ANGELES

Leaders from Los Angeles joined us to share their expertise, resources, and practical solutions. See our speakers and the topics we discussed:

Virtual Event – January 21, 2023
with local leaders from Los Angeles

Now Available – Recording of the Main Session Panel Discussion:

Untapped Wisdom on Mitigating Natural Disasters and
Rapidly Increasing Local Food Production

Stay tuned for other video recordings and slide presentations.


Second Event: KANSAS CITY

Leaders from Kansas City joined us to share their expertise, resources, and practical solutions. See our speakers and the topics we discussed:

Part 1: Virtual Event – November 12, 2022
with local leaders from Kansas City

Part 2: Community Engagement Events
in or near Kansas City

Stay tuned for the video recordings and slide presentations.


Inaugural Event: MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND

Leaders from Montgomery County, Maryland joined us to share their expertise, resources, and practical solutions. See our speakers and the topics we discussed:

Part 1: Virtual Event – September 10, 2022
with local leaders from Montgomery County, Maryland

Part 2: Community Engagement Events
in or near Montgomery County, Maryland

Stay tuned for the video recordings and slide presentations.