Though discussions and evidence continues (and it should) in our main forum about the severity and timing of the looming energy/natural resource crisis, many have reached a point where labeling the situation as 'serious' as opposed to 'severe' no longer is the most relevant question. Each Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon going forward, we plan on highlighting a post/essay on what you, the TOD community, is doing and thinking about peak oil, writ large.

We intend this forum to be akin to a summer night sitting around a campfire, dreaming, hoping, and tossing around ideas that might bring about positive change. The types of discussions we would like to foster are where there are no right or wrong answers, just shared experiences, advice and wisdom. Topics will relate to wide boundary issues surrounding energy descent, including local food production, small scale energy production, experiments in living with less, or just general information and ideas to be shared with the online community. Optimally, about 1/2 the posts (Wednesdays) will be about 'practical skills' that can be individually or locally implemented. The other 1/2 (Saturdays) will be about big ideas, that by definition will be unproven and even unfeasible, but can be passed around the campfire for review and discussion. So a spectrum from pickle production to a what a world without currency would look like are all fair topics.

We have a wonderfully talented volunteer staff, but our expertise does not stray too far outside the analytical. Therefore we invite you, our readers, to submit guest posts that might be of educational interest to our online community.

Please use the thread below to suggest future post ideas or general comments on the series. Jason Bradford, Glenn McAnanama (TOD:Local) and myself will co-edit be co-editors of this section. Email us at TODcampfire@gmail.com if you have an article you think would be appropriate to share. Before the inbox swampeth with articles, we thought we'd spell out some of the guidelines for submissions for this series.

GUIDLEINES
1. Length—-1000-1500 word size preferred (but not a rule).
2. Structure—-break it up into sections with logical headings, especially if long.
3. Title—-short, catchy but descriptive.
4. Graphics and imagery - helpful to make the post readable and break up the text and illustrate main points.
5. Sufficient focus on one topic so that salient levels of detail emerge.
6. No marketing/advertising of products (other than a link to a book, or related product)

To communicate with Campfire editors send an email to TODCampfire@gmail.com.