Post Carbon Institute (PCI) is a

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-govern ...

which provides information and analysis on

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, energy scarcity, and other issues related to

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

and long term community

resilience Resilience, resilient, resiliency, or ''variation'', may refer to: Science Ecology * Ecological resilience, the capacity of an ecosystem to recover from perturbations ** Climate resilience, the ability of systems to recover from climate change * ...

. Its Fellows specialize in various fields related to the organization's mission, such as

fossil fuels A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ma ...

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

, food, water, and population. Post Carbon is incorporated as a

501(c)3 A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 5 ...

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

and is based in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. Post Carbon Institute largely publishes and promotes the work of its Fellows and allies. It maintains two major websites
postcarbon.org
for material from its staff and Fellows, an
resilience.org
for material from allies. Since 2009 it has focused on: publishing articles, reports, and books; running issue-oriented promotional campaigns; and serving as a speakers' bureau for some of its Fellows.

History

2003–2008

Post Carbon Institute was founded by Julian Darley (President) and Celine Rich (Executive Director) in 2003. (Although not explicitly recognized as a founder, Dave Room helped build the Institute from months of its inception into a funded organization.) Its initial purpose was to implement programs to educate the public on issues surrounding global fossil fuel depletion (see

peak oil Peak oil is the hypothetical point in time when the maximum rate of global oil production is reached, after which it is argued that production will begin an irreversible decline. It is related to the distinct concept of oil depletion; whil ...

peak coal Peak coal is the peak consumption or production of coal by a human community. Global coal consumption peaked in 2013, and had dropped slightly by the end of the 2010s. The peak of coal's share in the global energy mix was in 2008, when coal accou ...

, peak gas) and

, as well as on possible responses to these challenges. A key tool for this was a film called "The End of Suburbia," which featured

Richard Heinberg Richard William Heinberg is an American journalist and educator who has written extensively on energy, economic, and ecological issues, including oil depletion. He is the author of 14 books, and presently serves as the senior fellow at the Pos ...

and James Howard Kunstler among others. Post Carbon promoted the concept of '' Relocalization'', a strategy to build community resilience based on the local production of food, energy, and goods, and the development of more localized governance, economy, and culture. Post Carbon Institute was one of the few organizations in this period actively promoting the concept of

, along with groups such as the

Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

, the International Forum on Globalization, and the Transition Towns movement, and websites such as EnergyBulletin.net and

The Oil Drum ''The Oil Drum'' was a website devoted to analysis and discussion of energy and its impact on society that described itself as an "energy, peak oil & sustainability research and news site". ''The Oil Drum'' was published by the Institute for th ...

. It ran the predominant online social network focused on community responses to peak oil and climate change, th
Relocalization Network

joined as a Senior Fellow-in-Residence in 2008. Major activities included:
Global Public Media
streaming long format audio and video interviews about the issues surrounding fossil fuel depletion.
The Relocalization Network
a network of groups and individuals working to educate their local communities and develop programs to re-localize food and energy production, and reduce local consumption.
The Energy Farms Network
a demonstration and partnership program to explore production of feedstocks, fuels and electricity by local farmers for local users.
The Oil Depletion Protocol
(aka the

Rimini Rimini ( , ; rgn, Rémin; la, Ariminum) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It sprawls along the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia (the ancient ''Ariminu ...

or Uppsala Protocol), a blueprint for an international agreement to avoid price and supply volatility problems associated with global oil production.

Since 2009

Asher Miller
became Executive Director in 2009, and Post Carbon restructured to concentrate its program activities on research and publishing. It broadened its topical focus to include

natural resource depletion Resource depletion is the consumption of a resource faster than it can be replenished. Natural resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources (see also mineral resource classification). Use of either o ...

, the limits to

economic growth Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy in a financial year. Statisticians conventionally measure such growth as the percent rate o ...

human overpopulation Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...

, food, and other issues - partly in response to the changed U.S. political landscape following the

2008 oil crisis 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number o ...

, the

financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of ...

, and the election of President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

(se
Post Carbon Institute Manifesto
. Most of its earlier programs were consolidated or discontinued. It entered into partnerships wit
Transition US
and Energy Bulletin.net, a clearinghouse website on issues surrounding global energy resource depletion. Its roster o
Fellows
was significantly expanded to include notable figures such as

Bill McKibben William Ernest McKibben (born December 8, 1960)"Bill Ernest McKibben." ''Environmental Encyclopedia''. Edited by Deirdre S. Blanchfield. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, December 31, 2017. is a ...

Wes Jackson Wes Jackson (born 1936) co-founded the Land Institute with Dana Jackson. He is also a member of the World Future Council. Early life and education Jackson was born and raised on a farm near Topeka, Kansas. After earning a BA in biology from ...

David Orr David Duvall Orr (born October 4, 1944) is an American Democratic politician who served as the Cook County Clerk from 1990 to 2018. Orr previously served as alderman for the 49th ward in Chicago City Council from 1979 to 1990. He briefly served ...

, and

Majora Carter Majora Carter (born October 27, 1966) is an American urban revitalization strategist and public radio host from the South Bronx area of New York City. Carter founded and led the non-profit environmental justice solutions corporation Sustainab ...

Activities

Resilience.org

Resilience.org
is a resource platform for communities building local self-reliance, emphasizing community-based responses to the rapidly emerging fallout from the end of cheap fossil fuels. It was launched in 2012 as the successor to the popular peak oil website EnergyBulletin.net.

Think Resilience

Think Resilience
is an online course on "how to make sense of the complex challenges society now faces" and "how to build community resilience."

Publications

Since 2012, publications have focused primarily on energy and/or community resilience:

Energy

(2013) * Report
''Drill Baby Drill: Can Unconventional Fuels Usher in a New Era of Energy Abundance''
by J. David Hughes (2013) * Campaign: Th
Energy Reality Campaign
with various allies * Book
''ENERGY: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth''
edited by Tom Butler and George Wuerthner, published b
Watershed Media
with th
Foundation for Deep Ecology
(2013). With essays by

Lester Brown Lester Russel Brown (born March 28, 1934) is an American environmental analyst, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and founder and former president of the Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C. B ...

Amory Lovins Amory Bloch Lovins (born November 13, 1947) is an American writer, physicist, and former chairman/chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has written on energy policy and related areas for four decades, and served on the US Nationa ...

and others. * Book
''The ENERGY Reader''
edited by Tom Butler, Daniel Lerch, and George Wuerthner, published b
Watershed Media
with th
Foundation for Deep Ecology
(2013). With essays by

Winona LaDuke Winona LaDuke (born August 18, 1959) is an American economist, environmentalist, writer and industrial hemp grower, known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, as well as sustainable development. In 1996 and 2000, she ran for Vice ...

Vandana Shiva Vandana Shiva (born 5 November 1952) is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalisation author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred to as "Gand ...

, and others. * Report
''Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st Century?''
by J. David Hughes (2011) * Video
300 years of fossil fuels in 300 seconds
Winner of a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

br>DoGooder
best non-profit video award (2011) * Report
''Searching for a Miracle: 'Net Energy' Limits & the Fate of Industrial Society''
by

, with th
International Forum on Globalization
(2010) * Report
''Preparing for Peak Oil: Local Authorities and the Energy Crisis''
by The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre ( ODAC) and Post Carbon Institute (2008) * Book
''Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty''
by Daniel Lerch (2007)

Community Resilience

* Book:
The Community Resilience Reader: Essential Resources for an Era of Upheaval
', edited by Daniel Lerch with authors including Richard Heinberg, Chuck Collins & Sarah Byrnes, William Rees, Stephanie Mills, Brian Walker & David Salt, Rebecca Wodder, Denise Fairchild & Al Weinrub, and Mike Lydon; published by Island Press (2017) *Report
''Six Foundations for Building Community Resilience''
by Daniel Lerch (2015) *Book
''Vermont Dollars, Vermont Sense''
by Michael Shuman and Gwendolyn Hallsmith (2015) * Report
''Resilient Against What?: How Leading U.S. Municipalities Are Understanding and Acting on Resilience''
by Jim Thayer, Morgan Rider, and Daniel Lerch (2013) * Book
''Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems''
b
Philip Ackerman-Leist
published by Chelsea Green Publishing (2013) *Book
''Power from the People: How to Organize, Finance, and Launch Local Energy Projects''
b
Greg Pahl
published by Chelsea Green Publishing (2012) *Book
''Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity''
b
Michael Shuman
published by Chelsea Green Publishing (2012) * Book
''The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century’s Sustainability Crises''
edited by Richard Heinberg & Daniel Lerch with authors including Peter C. Whybrow,

David W. Orr David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics Emeritus at Oberlin College, and presently Professor of Practice at Arizona State University. During his tenure at the Environmental Studies Center at O ...

, and Sandra Postel, published b
Watershed Media
(2010), winner of the Independent Publisher Book Awar
Gold Medal (Environment/Ecology/Nature)

Fellows

Anthony Perl
*

Bill SheehanBrian SchwartzCindy ParkerDavid FridleyDavid HughesDavid OrrErika AllenGloria FloraHillary BrownJanelle OrsiJohn KaufmannJoshua Farley
*

Michael BomfordMichael Shuman
*

Paul Gilding Paul Gilding is an Australian environmentalist, consultant, and author. Gilding, a former executive director of Greenpeace International, and a Fellow at University of Cambridge's Institute for Sustainability Leadership, is the author of ''Th ...

Peter Whybrow
* Sandra Postel
Stephanie MillsTom WhippleWarren Karlenzig
*

William E. Rees (academic) William Rees, FRSC (born December 18, 1943), is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia and former director of the School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) at UBC. Rees taught at the University of British Columbia from ...

William Ryerson

References

{{Authority control Non-profit organizations based in California Think tanks based in the United States 501(c)(3) organizations Environmental organizations established in 2003 Organizations established in 2003