Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

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214 farther horizons
Light) becoming a national leader in improving local effi ciency
(what is called “demand-side management”) while actually lowering
energy bills for residents. Imagine the possibility of a new
four-star, LEED platinum hotel, conference center, restaurant, and
perhaps culinary school as the keystone of a new carbon-neutral,
zero-discharge downtown arts district that features great live performances
in a new theater and a jazz club featuring student artists
from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Imagine a revitalized
downtown bustling 24 hours a day with residents, shoppers, students,
artists, and visitors who came to experience the buzz of the
best small town in the United States that is also the fi rst working
model of post–fossil fuel prosperity.
Imagine traveling just outside the city into New Russia township,
where dozens of farms form a green belt around the city. In
the summer they employ Oberlin teens, providing useful work
and training in the practice of sustainable agriculture. Local farms
fl ourish by supplying the college dining service, local restaurants,
and the public with organically grown fresh foods. Beyond the
green belt there is another forested belt of 10,000 acres that profi tably
sequesters carbon and provides the basis for a thriving wood
products business. Imagine a resilient town economy buffered to
a great extent from larger economic problems because it is supplied
locally with biofuels, electricity from sunshine and wind,
and a large portion of its food. Imagine Oberlin leading in the
deployment of new technologies just coming into the market, like
plug-in hybrid cars, solar electric systems, and advanced wastewater
treatment systems. Imagine hundreds of Oberlin students,
equipped with skills, aptitudes, and imaginations fostered in the
remaking of the town and the college spreading the revolution
across the United States and the world.
Imagine a town, churches, college, and local businesses united
in the effort to create the fi rst model of post-carbon prosperity
in the United States, at a scale large enough to be nationally
instructive but small enough to be both manageable and fl exible.