Jan Spencer has lived in New York, Texas, Arkansas and Oregon. He has travelled out of a back pack to over 35 countries over 5 years on four continents. Highlights of his life include living two years in a rural commune in the Arkansas Ozarks, backpacking in the Ruwenzori Mountains of western Uganda, surfing at Raglan, New Zealand, painting adventures by bike in Italy and his current suburban permaculture project in Eugene. Jan's interests include geography, global affairs and art. He is a self described weather and climate enthusiast.

Urban land use, economics, permaculture, human potential, spirituality, global relations and the environment combine for a unique fusion of Jan's interest. His presentations are upbeat, positive and entertaining including elements of scholar, social critic and stand up comedian.

Jan has made presentations in numerous towns in Oregon, Washington State, the Bay Area, Austin, Texas and Eugene. Venues and hosts have included neighborhood meetings, civic organizations, churches, Grange Halls and conferences such as the Eco City World Summit, Bioneers, Environmental Law Conference and National Co Housing Conference in Seattle.

Articles Jan has written have been featured in The Permaculture Activist, Talking Leaves, Architecture Week, Sentient Times and numerous guest opinions in the Eugene Register Guard. He has made radio interviews in Oregon, Washington State and Florida. He self published “Global Trends – Local Choices” and is working on a fiction novel Eugene – 2035.

Finally, Jan has become a pioneer and advocate for suburban property conversion. His ¼ acre site in Eugene, after ten years, convincingly shows what a suburban property can become. It features grass to garden, rain water catchment, reclaiming automobile space, passive solar re design, edible landscaping and much more. The implications of suburban property conversion are immense touching on economics, human potential, the environment and eco culture change.

Benjamin Ross and Steven Amter tell the story of how the chemical industry, abetted by a compliant government, set loose a plague of pollution that began in the years before and directly following World War II, a plague that still lingers today. The advent of new synthetic chemical products such as Nylon and DDT created new hazards just as the expansion and mechanization of industry exacerbated old ones. Environmental dangers well known today — smog, pesticides, lead, chlorinated solvents, asbestos, and even global warming — were already recognized in that era by chemists, engineers, doctors, and business managers. A few of them spoke out about these dangers, others overlooked scientific truth in pursuit of wealth and prestige, and many struggled to find a balance between the interests of industry and the needs of the wider world.