All:
Here is the talk I plan to give… After I received the strongest possible message from you that I should not hold back the message in any way, what you see below is the result. At the same time, I wanted to keep the messaging on the positive/hopeful side, even if the core ideas are not. It’s a fine line, so I am interested in your perspectives on that balance.
I am still wide open to revisions, and it will change between here and then.
One tip: Try to read it in your mind as though it were being spoken. I plan to do a lot with various pauses and verbal emphasis, not all of which is indicated in the formatting below.
Also, the section headers will not be spoken out loud.
[Note: I’ll tell you more about the Post-Carbon Institute retreat at a later time. It was both exciting and sobering. And it firmed my resolve to ‘say it like it is.’ There’s really no time for dilly-dallying anymore, at least if we are to believe that the world’s experts in human population footprint (ecological overshoot), population, water, and food are to be believed.]
Thank you for that kind introduction.
I am pleased and excited to have this opportunity to speak to you. I want to thank the Commonwealth Club and its members for the invitation to speak, and the Post Carbon Institute for bringing me out here.
Tonight I want to illuminate the connection between energy and our economic future.
About me
Before I do, let me tell you a little bit about myself and the impact that the work I am about to share with you has had on my life and that of my family.
Six years ago as a married, 42-year-old professional with three young children, I lived in a suburban, five-bathroom house on the coast of Connecticut, had a secure position as a Corporate Vice President with a very large company, and a twin-engine fishing boat in a slip.
I loved that boat.
Today I live in house that is less than half the size of my prior one, I am now located in a semi-rural location, I have a strong local community, and I have a kayak.
A small one.
Perhaps I could summarize my journey that way; I went from twin engines to a double paddle.
Yeah, that about sums it up.
Now, why did I do that?
My work
For the past six years, I have been combining information and trends in the economy, energy, and the environment into a single comprehensive story.
Instead of delving deeply into any one of these subjects, I discovered that there’s immense value in looking across all three at once.
Instead of being like a blind
by singlespeak 
