Past Events

. . . to give you an idea of what we and other like-minded groups have done in the past . . .

Wednesday, May 28, 2008, 7 - 9 p. m., at Kate and Keith's house. Topic: "Some Pros and Cons of Nuclear Energy." Bob Stocker will present some basic information and lead the discussion. For directions or more information: call Keith at 303-300-2368, or send an e-mail to keith [at] DenverEnergyAwareness [dot] org.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008, 7 - 9 p. m., at Kate and Keith's house. We will continue our discussion of projects for the coming year. Join us, the more the merrier! For directions or more information: call Keith at 303-300-2368, or send an e-mail to keith [at] DenverEnergyAwareness [dot] org.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, March 26, 2008, 7 - 9 p. m., at Kate and Keith's house. We will continue our discussion of projects for the coming year. Join us, the more the merrier!

March 20 -- Colorado Renewable Energy Society meeting. Thursday, March 20 / 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. Jefferson Unitarian Church / 14350 W. 32nd Ave., Golden. "Faith-Based Perspectives on the Earth, Environment, Global Warming, and a Sustainable Future," Free to members, $5 non-members. More info: www.cres-energy.org

March 20 -- A cross-disciplinary panel of noted scientists and experts will discuss
"Peak Oil and the Future of Energy" at the University of Colorado at Boulder
on Thursday, March 20. The free, public event will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Center for British and Irish Studies on the fifth floor of Norlin Library. Panelists include CU chemistry Professor and CU Environmental Initiative
Director Carl Koval, Association for the Study of Peak Oil-USA President
Steve Andrews, Colorado Governor's Energy Office representative Morey
Wolfson and National Renewable Energy Laboratory Biofuels Group Manager Jim
McMillan.

Sponsored
by CU's University Libraries, the event is the second in an ongoing series
of discussions moderated by Richard Brenne, author of the forthcoming book
"The Truth About Everything." For information call 303-492-8302.

Wednesday, February 27th -- Meet at Kate and Keith's house, 7 - 9 p. m. Ira Kalfus will give a demo on LEDs and ham radio, and we'll discuss our projects.

Wednesday, January 23rd -- We'll meet at Kate and Keith's house, 7 - 9 p. m. Topic: What shall our group do in 2008? Call 303-300-2368 for directions or send e-mail to Keith "at" DenverEnergyAwareness.org.

Wednesday, Nov. 28th -- Denver Energy Awareness goes to the movies again! We'll have a house party at Kate and Keith's house, 6:30 p. m. to 9:30 p. m. (call 303-300-2368 for directions or send e-mail to Keith "at" DenverEnergyAwareness.org.) Note the different time: 6:30 p. m. to 9:30 p. m.

We'll watch "What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire," which is the longest and most ambitious of all the movies spinning off the "peak oil" idea. Peak oil is covered, but it is much broader, going into global warming, overpopulation, and all the various "doom and gloom" scenarios. It has gotten good reviews, but it is a solid two hours long. We'll have a short discussion afterwards. Organic popcorn will be served.

This movie has no relationship, incidentally, to the 1964 black comedy of the same name, starring Shirley MacLaine as a woman who keeps marrying rich men who die untimely deaths.

Thursday, September 27: LAST MINUTE CHANGE: our next meeting will be at the Sliding Door Gallery, 554 Sante Fe, Denver, CO 80204, at 7:00 p. m. We will watch the new movie, "A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash." It is part of the Argus Film Festival. Sorry about the last minute change. For more information or directions, call 303-300-2368 or send an e-mail to keith "at" denverenergyawareness.org

Thursday, August 23 -- our next meeting at Kate and Keith's house, 7 pm - 9 pm. Call 303-300-2368 for directions. Discussion topic: "Politics, continued."

The basic conclusion of our last "brainstorming" discussion in July was that while we do have something to choose from among policies and candidates vis-a-vis global warming, there isn't much to choose from so far as peak oil is concerned (no candidates declaring we must deal with peak oil or anything like that). Furthermore, the media, popular culture, etc. are also pretty much stacked against making his issue a political one. The question we were left with to continue discussion on is: where is the weak point in this system? Does political action make any sense? Can anyone answer these questions? Come on August 23 and let us know.

Incidentally, we have also been contacted by the Minnesotans for Sustainability and they want to work with us to have a joint political statement of some sort in the context of the major political party conventions (to be held in Colorado and Minnesota this year). We're not sure what we'll be doing but if you're interested in working on this, let us know.

Thursday, July 12: "Political Action." Another broad topic, how can we narrow this down? Is it worthwhile even pursuing political action yet? Roscoe Bartlett for President, or someone else, or what? Come to our brain-storming session at Kate & Keith's house in southeast Denver, 7 p. m. to 9 p. m. (call 303-300-2368 for directions).

To see what we've already mentioned, go to our What do Do section.

Thursday, June 21: Summer Begins, and we have our next Denver Energy Awareness Meeting at Kate & Keith's house in southeast Denver, 7 p. m. to 9 p. m. (call 303-300-2368 for directions). We will continue our discussion on "Economic and Social Factors" relating to Peak Oil.

Want to help us? Come to this discussion and come up with three economic or social objectives not already mentioned at our May 24 meeting. To see what we've already mentioned, go to our What do Do section and look at item 3.

We are still in "brainstorming" mode, and so we seek both economic and social factors affected by peak oil, but also corresponding economic and social objectives for dealing with peak oil. The sky is the limit: do not be constrained, at this stage, by political realities (we'll deal with that later, see items 2 and 4 at the What do Do section).

May 24: our next meeting, at Kate and Keith's house.

Discussion session on "Economic and Social Factors Relating to Energy." You may note an uncanny resemblance between this topic and our March 15 topic. The reason being, we never really got to this topic on March 15, instead we talked about the reports from Brad on carbon tax, and from Angela on car sharing. This time we're going to really talk about economic and social factors. O. K., pretty broad topic, and we'll probably just wind up identifying what we don't know and need to investigate further.

Discussion areas include -- constraints, both of time and scale; population; consumption; scale, allocation, and distribution of resources. This will be at Kate and Keith's house near Denver University. Call Keith Akers at 303-300-2368 (or send e-mail to keith "at" denverenergyawareness.org) for directions.

If you want to prepare for this session and are feeling ambitious, look at the magnificent book by J. R. McNeill, Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World (see review here). If you want even more, look at Ecological Economics by Daly and Farley.

MAY 3:

A Conversation with Global Warming Activist Laurie David -- producer of Academy-Award winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." Sponsored by the Denver Public Library (click here for details). Thursday, May 3, 7 p.m., Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th Street.

Thursday, April 19, 2007, 6:30 p. m. to 7:30 p. m. -- our next meeting. Instead of our regular meeting scenario, we'll go out to the University Hills branch of the Denver Public Library to listen to a presentation on: Superbia! 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods, presented by co-author David Wann (also co-author of
Affluenza). He says a few simple changes can put the "neighbor" back into our neighborhoods. This is sponsored by the Denver Public Library and the public is welcome.

APRIL 14:

National Day of Climate Action (click on link and enter your zip code for local events.) Urge cutting carbon emissions by 80%. Events in Denver include:

People of Faith Step it Up -- First Plymouth Congregational UCC, 3501 S Colorado Blvd., Englewood, CO, 9 am - 12 noon, with Rep. Diana DeGette.

Sign the Kyoto Protocol -- University of Denver, in front of Mary Reed building. Guest Speaker: James Richmond; music: Becktet Jazz Trio.

Thursday, March 15, 2007, 7 p. m. -- our next meeting. Discussion session on "Economic and Social Factors Relating to Energy." Discussion areas include -- constraints, both of time and scale; population; consumption; scale, allocation, and distribution of resources. This will be at Kate and Keith's house near Denver University. Call Keith Akers at 303-300-2368 (or send e-mail to keith "at" denverenergyawareness.org) for directions.

Thursday, February 15, 2007, 7 p. m. -- our next meeting. Discussion session on "Local Preparedness." Possible subtopics include -- be a sustainable community; individual action; local currency, barter; sharing; localize. Individual action by itself is a vast subject. This will be at Kate and Keith's house near Denver University. Call Keith Akers at 303-300-2368 (or send e-mail to keith "at" denverenergyawareness.org) for directions.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007, 7 p. m. -- our next meeting. Brainstorming session on "what should we do in the coming year?" This will be at Eileen and Clem's house near the Denver Tech Center. Call Eileen Mackin at 303-740-7665 for directions.

Thursday, December 14: The Denver Peak Oil and Gas Meetup group will be meeting at Belmar Library, 555 Allison Pkwy. (Wadsworth and Alameda), 720-963-0900. Thanks to John Langhus for organizing this. For more details, click here.

Wednesday, December 13: we will view the DVD "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil," and commiserate with each other about falling gas prices. This will be at Kate and Keith's house at 7:00 p. m. Call 303-300-2368 or e-mail us for directions. (There will be NO meeting on Dec. 20.)

Wednesday, Nov. 15: discussion on Peak Oil and food issues. Kate and Keith's house in southeast Denver, 7:00 p. m. For directions and details, call 303-300-2368 or e-mail keith "at" denverenergyawareness.org.

Saturday, October 7: The annual Tour of Solar Homes (www.nationalsolartour.org) will take place throughout the Denver Metro area on Saturday, Oct. 7, and in the Boulder area on Sunday, Oct. 8. This is the best opportunity of the year (and every year) to see energy efficiency and renewable energy in action for real people in real homes. Call 303-806-5317 / look at www.cres-energy.org for more info.

October 26-27 (Thursday-Friday): 2006 Boston World Oil Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. "Time For Action: A Midnight Ride for Peak Oil."

Wednesday, September 20, 7 - 9 p. m.: "PEAK OIL — When Does it Happen, and What Happens Next?" At the First Universalist Church, 4101 E. Hampden Ave. (corner of Hampden and S. Colorado), Colvin Commons. Steve Andrews (co-founder of ASPO-USA) and Pamela Quigley (petroleum engineer) will be speaking. This presentation will cover the inevitable decline of oil and natural gas, and what it means for Denver, the country, and the world. Sponsored by Denver Energy Awareness, this event is free and the public is invited.

Wednesday, August 23, 5:30 p. m. Discussion by Steve Andrews: "Peak Oil and Gas And Its Implications for Renewable Energy." Community Room, Red Rocks Community College, 13300 West Sixth Avenue, Lakewood, CO 80228, phone: 303-914-6600. (Use the South Lot.)

Sponsored by The Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES).

Steve Andrews is co-founder of ASPO-USA, a long-term member of CRES, and a member of our own group. He is a writer, trainer, and lecturer on residential energy efficiency; he and his wife designed their off-grid home in Southern Colorado.

July 7 - 13, 2006: "Solar 2006" conference in Denver. Some sessions will be free. For more details contact the Solar 2006 website.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006, 7 - 9 pm, at Eileen and Clem's house. We will hear a talk by petroleum engineer Pam Quigley. Call Eileen Mackin 303-740-7665 for directions or more details.

Pamela Quigley worked for 16 years as a reservoir engineer for British Petroleum, before they went "beyond petroleum." In her career, Pam worked all over the world, including supervising exploration well operations on the North Slope of Alaska, offshore North Sea, and offshore deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Her final assignment with BP was as a crystalline photovoltaic Product Line Manager for BP Solar in Frederick MD.

Sunday, May 28, at First Universalist Church, 4101 E. Hampden (Colorado and Hampden), at 11:15 am. Hear Pam Quigley, a petroleum geologist, talk on peak oil at the Community Forum. (Not sponsored by our group but of interest.)

Wednesday, May 17, 7 - 9 pm, at Kate and Keith's house. We will watch and discuss the second half of the Colin Campbell interview by Global Public Media. Call 303-300-2368 for directions or more details.

Tuesday, May 9, 2006, 7:30 p.m., at Boulder Unity Church, 2855 Folsom in Boulder, Colorado. Hear James Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere and The Long Emergency. $5. (Not sponsored by our group but of interest.)