I was looking through Permaculture One the other day at a friend's house. It was written in 1978 (I think) and was essentially the thesis that came from David Holmgren (student) working with Bill Mollison (mentor/tutor).
It is Permaculture's first book.
In about the second paragraph there is a mention about how this concept is to prepare for our 'fast-depleting energy'.
Way back then, the warnings were there to prepare for a decline in energy production - very few listened.
I'll be interested in seeing how the current oil/energy crisis will affect the popularity of permaculture.
Will we have groups forming everywhere like mushrooms?
Will there be a huge increase in demand for permaculture skills?
Will there be a huge rise in the number of people doing PDCs?
Will we see a weekly tv show called 'Permablitz' where people have their backyards made over into food producing cornucopias?
I'll wait and watch from the vegie patch me thinks!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Catch up
Been a while since the last post and I do apologise. I know how annoying it is to start reading blogs and find they aren't that regular.
But it's been such a busy, busy time. Seems peak oil and climate change are everywhere you turn.
We've just had a big expo on last weekend and that attracted so many people, we have Roberto Perez from Cuba here talking about The Power of Community and Cuba's experience.
Was pleased to see so many people turn up, but it makes it busy.
While it feels like everything - that is the energy descent action planning, the community education, the train the trainer courses, funding - is so far off, but I have to keep positive and keep my eye on the future.
Soon I'm sure it will all turn for the better.
My biggest concern is that we won't have the arms and legs to actually do all this. We need lots of permaculture teachers and practitioners out in the community teaching others and sharing knowledge and resources.
Oh, I saw Morag Gamble's and Evan Raymond's new DVD Think Global Act Local on the relocalisation of our food supply last week.
Fifteen countries in 15 minutes. It's excellent, highly recommended and a great introduction into the ways we can provide food in our communities without the big supermarkets.
Did you know that no peak oil experts or permaculture experts were invited to the Federal Government's 2020 summit??
But it's been such a busy, busy time. Seems peak oil and climate change are everywhere you turn.
We've just had a big expo on last weekend and that attracted so many people, we have Roberto Perez from Cuba here talking about The Power of Community and Cuba's experience.
Was pleased to see so many people turn up, but it makes it busy.
While it feels like everything - that is the energy descent action planning, the community education, the train the trainer courses, funding - is so far off, but I have to keep positive and keep my eye on the future.
Soon I'm sure it will all turn for the better.
My biggest concern is that we won't have the arms and legs to actually do all this. We need lots of permaculture teachers and practitioners out in the community teaching others and sharing knowledge and resources.
Oh, I saw Morag Gamble's and Evan Raymond's new DVD Think Global Act Local on the relocalisation of our food supply last week.
Fifteen countries in 15 minutes. It's excellent, highly recommended and a great introduction into the ways we can provide food in our communities without the big supermarkets.
Did you know that no peak oil experts or permaculture experts were invited to the Federal Government's 2020 summit??
Sunday, February 24, 2008
New ideas...
I've added a video bar and a latest news feed on the right - all focussed on Permaculture. Now I have broadband I'll actually be able to watch a couple of those You Tube posts.
I've also started another blog - http://lifeboatpowerdown.blogspot.com/ which IS different to this one.
This blog was started to explore the links and connections between Permaculture and Peak Oil.
The new blog is to explore the changes I'm making around my home, my garden, my community and region in regard to peak oil and climate change.
We'll see how it all goes...
Sonya
I've also started another blog - http://lifeboatpowerdown.blogspot.com/ which IS different to this one.
This blog was started to explore the links and connections between Permaculture and Peak Oil.
The new blog is to explore the changes I'm making around my home, my garden, my community and region in regard to peak oil and climate change.
We'll see how it all goes...
Sonya
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Climate change & Peak oil are not a problem
There is so much media, government and public attention focused on the ‘problem’ of climate change and, to a lesser degree peak oil, but aren’t we all looking at this from the wrong angle?
I see the changes in our climate and our impending energy descent as symptoms, not problems.
The problem is much deeper and much more personal.
The problem is the way we – those of us in developed countries – are living our lives.
It’s the way we consume way beyond what we actually need, it’s about the food we throw away, the culture of consumerism we’ve created and have now become enslaved to.
Try telling someone that they don’t need the latest model car, they don’t need a wardrobe full of clothes they don’t wear, that we don’t actually need shopping malls full of useless ‘crap’ and see how far you get.
Somewhere, somehow, we all started believing we had the right to live the high life. Marketers jumped on the bandwagon – or perhaps kicked it all off – and we were on our way. The latest handbags, boxes and boxes of shoes, the latest in-season fashion. Live like a celebrity!
What’s hot and what’s not? Our passion for fashion (not just clothes of course, but the latest model kitchen appliance, the celebrity style overseas get away …) is directly related to what’s hot that’s for sure. And another thing that’s hot is the climate.
Human behaviour – consumerism, land use, deforestation, fossil fuel burning – has now changed the world’s weather patterns – perhaps irreversibly. Warning after warning, each more dire than the one before and appearing in our newspapers, our nightly news programs yet… where is the revolution?
Yet, we continue on our merry way, worshipping the consumerism of today’s life… very few people have really made any serious effort to change the way they live. Our societies make it hard for those of us who would like to seriously change the way we live – you try living without a car on the Sunshine Coast!
We continue to pump out (the problem) carbon emissions in huge amounts (the symptom) despite knowing it is going to cause extinction of species (note to all – WE are a species!), destruction of the environment, major disruptions to food supply and loss of available land…
As for peak oil, do you think an ant cares that we are running out of oil, or a bird, or an elephant?
We care that we are running out of oil because we’ve built ourselves into a corner. A corner built on oil, lives dependant on oil, economies dependant on oil, employment, housing, food, mobility… all dependant on oil.
We’re running out because we’ve consumed what was available at an alarming rate. We’ve wasted oil on frivolous, meaningless things that have done nothing to really improve our lives. We’re less happy and more stressed than our pre-oil ancestors.
Looking at climate change as an environmental problem is taking us off course and away from where we should be focussing. We are losing valuable time and wasting valuable energy if we look at this as an environmental problem.
Because what happens is councils and other organisations, thinking they are doing the right thing – climate change is about the environment right? – employ environmental scientists to get to work fixing the problem.
But then, the poor person put in that position realises the problem is not the environment, the problem is people - social, economic, psychological, planning, infrastructure, systems, systems, systems.
Yes, climate change is about the environment, but climate change is only a symptom, not the problem. Same with peak oil – if we didn’t use (waste?) so much of this precious fuel and if we hadn’t designed our whole lives to revolve around it – it wouldn’t be reaching it’s peak and if it was, we wouldn’t care.
When I worked in the medical field, often patients would be being treated and hospitalised for their symptoms, not the problem. Our health system is a reflection of our current crisis.
Yes we can treat symptoms, we can mask symptoms – but unless we treat the underlying problem – and in this case it’s human behaviour and abuse of earth’s resources – we are only ever going to have a bandaid effect.
Let’s instead bite the bullet and address the real issues 1) consumption – or more to the point overconsumption and 2) a change away from linear globalised systems – resource in waste out – extraordinary transport miles and carbon emissions attached to everything we buy.
Let’s be brave and
reduce consumption,
produce locally,
build resilient communities
relocalise and
make the transition to our post carbon future with our eyes wide open and looking forward.
I see the changes in our climate and our impending energy descent as symptoms, not problems.
The problem is much deeper and much more personal.
The problem is the way we – those of us in developed countries – are living our lives.
It’s the way we consume way beyond what we actually need, it’s about the food we throw away, the culture of consumerism we’ve created and have now become enslaved to.
Try telling someone that they don’t need the latest model car, they don’t need a wardrobe full of clothes they don’t wear, that we don’t actually need shopping malls full of useless ‘crap’ and see how far you get.
Somewhere, somehow, we all started believing we had the right to live the high life. Marketers jumped on the bandwagon – or perhaps kicked it all off – and we were on our way. The latest handbags, boxes and boxes of shoes, the latest in-season fashion. Live like a celebrity!
What’s hot and what’s not? Our passion for fashion (not just clothes of course, but the latest model kitchen appliance, the celebrity style overseas get away …) is directly related to what’s hot that’s for sure. And another thing that’s hot is the climate.
Human behaviour – consumerism, land use, deforestation, fossil fuel burning – has now changed the world’s weather patterns – perhaps irreversibly. Warning after warning, each more dire than the one before and appearing in our newspapers, our nightly news programs yet… where is the revolution?
Yet, we continue on our merry way, worshipping the consumerism of today’s life… very few people have really made any serious effort to change the way they live. Our societies make it hard for those of us who would like to seriously change the way we live – you try living without a car on the Sunshine Coast!
We continue to pump out (the problem) carbon emissions in huge amounts (the symptom) despite knowing it is going to cause extinction of species (note to all – WE are a species!), destruction of the environment, major disruptions to food supply and loss of available land…
As for peak oil, do you think an ant cares that we are running out of oil, or a bird, or an elephant?
We care that we are running out of oil because we’ve built ourselves into a corner. A corner built on oil, lives dependant on oil, economies dependant on oil, employment, housing, food, mobility… all dependant on oil.
We’re running out because we’ve consumed what was available at an alarming rate. We’ve wasted oil on frivolous, meaningless things that have done nothing to really improve our lives. We’re less happy and more stressed than our pre-oil ancestors.
Looking at climate change as an environmental problem is taking us off course and away from where we should be focussing. We are losing valuable time and wasting valuable energy if we look at this as an environmental problem.
Because what happens is councils and other organisations, thinking they are doing the right thing – climate change is about the environment right? – employ environmental scientists to get to work fixing the problem.
But then, the poor person put in that position realises the problem is not the environment, the problem is people - social, economic, psychological, planning, infrastructure, systems, systems, systems.
Yes, climate change is about the environment, but climate change is only a symptom, not the problem. Same with peak oil – if we didn’t use (waste?) so much of this precious fuel and if we hadn’t designed our whole lives to revolve around it – it wouldn’t be reaching it’s peak and if it was, we wouldn’t care.
When I worked in the medical field, often patients would be being treated and hospitalised for their symptoms, not the problem. Our health system is a reflection of our current crisis.
Yes we can treat symptoms, we can mask symptoms – but unless we treat the underlying problem – and in this case it’s human behaviour and abuse of earth’s resources – we are only ever going to have a bandaid effect.
Let’s instead bite the bullet and address the real issues 1) consumption – or more to the point overconsumption and 2) a change away from linear globalised systems – resource in waste out – extraordinary transport miles and carbon emissions attached to everything we buy.
Let’s be brave and
reduce consumption,
produce locally,
build resilient communities
relocalise and
make the transition to our post carbon future with our eyes wide open and looking forward.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Notes from a talk by David Holmgren
In August 2006 David Holmgren spoke at the local university. I went along and took notes... and then took those notes to heart.
They became the blueprint for how we prepared for peak oil.
Here is a copy of the notes I took - it was from his talk "Regional Sustainability in an Energy Descent Future"
One of the things he spoke about at length is the need for relocalisation and how Permaculture fits with that.
He spoke of the need for an ‘Earth stewardship scenario’ post peak oil – where we care for the natural resources of the Earth to ensure there will be enough bio physical resources for future generations. This isn’t some hippy dream – if we don’t have rainfall and living soil, we cannot produce food and the world will starve.
Care of the soil, water, air, plants… it all made so much sense and he presented such a positive scenario for the future, rather than the gloom and doom coming from our pollies, the media and science.
I made some notes and thought I’d add them to this site – they are paraphrased, I don’t do shorthand, but here they are…
The need for what he calls a ‘bottom-up’ movement in response to peak oil. Ideas and action coming from the grassroots in the community, rather than government. This mirrors what Professor Ian Lowe says – he uses the examples of the abolition of slavery, women’s right to vote and the inclusion of indigenous people in the Australian census as actions that have been driven by a groundswell in the community, not politicians.
They became the blueprint for how we prepared for peak oil.
Here is a copy of the notes I took - it was from his talk "Regional Sustainability in an Energy Descent Future"
One of the things he spoke about at length is the need for relocalisation and how Permaculture fits with that.
He spoke of the need for an ‘Earth stewardship scenario’ post peak oil – where we care for the natural resources of the Earth to ensure there will be enough bio physical resources for future generations. This isn’t some hippy dream – if we don’t have rainfall and living soil, we cannot produce food and the world will starve.
Care of the soil, water, air, plants… it all made so much sense and he presented such a positive scenario for the future, rather than the gloom and doom coming from our pollies, the media and science.
I made some notes and thought I’d add them to this site – they are paraphrased, I don’t do shorthand, but here they are…
The need for what he calls a ‘bottom-up’ movement in response to peak oil. Ideas and action coming from the grassroots in the community, rather than government. This mirrors what Professor Ian Lowe says – he uses the examples of the abolition of slavery, women’s right to vote and the inclusion of indigenous people in the Australian census as actions that have been driven by a groundswell in the community, not politicians.
Community gardens, Permaculture and organic gardening courses, networks, and sites just like this play a very important part in that movement.
A need for ‘connection’ and ‘transfer’ – bartering, knowing your neighbours, building networks within local communities, skills sharing.
He pointed out that rice uses 7459 litres of water per one dollar of value. Fruit and veg bought in the supermarket comes with a price tag of 103 litres of water per dollar value that you buy. He compared this with his own home food production which he has calculated to be about 20 litres of water per dollar value. Growing food at home saves water.
Holmgren also stated that the most energy efficient way to provide food security for the future was to learn how to grow food at home.
He urged us all to “resist the restriction of water use in home food production” – something I feel very strongly about.
Holmgren concluded his talk with an action plan of what we can all do to build more sustainability into our lives and ensure a better future post peak oil.
Network – for information and inspiration – Permaculture groups and community gardens are a great place to start.
Start producing your own (food, goods, services)and support local producers
Know your neighbours – establish bartering systems, LETS, PETS,
Teach children how to grow their own food (this is already well underway on the Sunshine Coast with lots of permaculture gardens in schools)
Reduce consumption – recycle, reduce, repair, reuse.. etc etc.
If you have extra space, take in a lodger, share your place, (also has economic benefits for you)
Share your car – car pool, organise a local group to share driving, make your trips count, do more than one thing on a trip
Work around impediments
Pay off your debts / work from home
Retrofit your home and garden for the post peak oil future, not for the $ value
Although Permaculture is so much more than gardening, Holmgren’s talk focused on food growing in the future as this is one thing that is not being addressed by governments in Australia. Apparently only South Australia’s sustainability planning includes any mention of food growing (then it is only two lines), no other State is preparing for the scenario of how we are going to eat when peak oil forces the price of fertilisers, refrigeration and transportation to affect the cost of food at the supermarket checkout.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Permaculture & Peak Oil Part II
Permaculture – a stroll through Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability
David Holmgren’s text really interests me and it’s been a major catalyst in my life.
An innocent email to my permaculture teacher a year or so ago about my desire to do a course based on his text that looked at its application to peak oil catapulted me on a journey I certainly didn’t see coming.
I’m now immersed in teaching others about it, running free community information centres, meeting with politicians, as well as many totally new things like – how do you write an energy descent action plan? how do you engage the community? how do you get the peak oil message onto the agendas of regional decision makers…
But what a wonderful and fantastic journey it’s been.
I set up this blog to allow more, shall I say, ‘ramblings’ on my behalf – but isn’t that what blogs are for?
This allows me to expand and discuss ideas – perhaps just with myself, but that’s okay. But I really feel the need to get this out and as a writer by trade, this seems the ideal way to go.
So, now we’ll begin a stroll through Holmgren’s seminal work; Permaculture Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability. Could be the start of an online reading group and that course I always dreamed of (but never got to be a student in because I was teaching it and knew what was coming up next)…
We’ll start at the very beginning… a very good place to start.
Permaculture – perhaps Australia’s greatest invention– is as much an academic theory as it is a garden design system.
A ‘philosophy’ some may go so far as to say. A way of life – I know some people are frightened because it has the word ‘cult’ in it – woooo!
Get over it, it’s just a bloody good idea, but one you can ponder, think about and discuss in depth to your heart’s content.
You have a choice, you learn the practical side and apply it to your advantage and ergo enjoy abundant food, fresh water, a comfortable home and you probably don’t have to do too much paid employment to live well.
Or you can theorise, discuss, debate and expand the idea to become a sociological solution in our modern (but rapidly failing) times.
An ideas to think about from the preface of the book…
Third Wave Environmentalism
Here Holmgren identifies three definite stages of global response to environmental crises. Firstly we’re off to the 70’s – ah, what a decade… bad clothes, bad music, bad hair… but the stirrings of ‘the first great wave of modern environmental awareness’ – around the time of the Club of Rome report in 1972 and the oil shocks (there’s that peak oil again) of 1973 and 75. The scene is set for the birth of permaculture in Tasmania.
[It’s interesting to note that Al Gore credits the images of the Earth taken from the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 as the start of the modern environmental movement – but back to Holmgren.]
Public awareness of greenhouse gas emissions in the late 1980’s triggered the second phase of environmentalism. This is a time permaculture started gaining a lot of attention.
Thirdly, Holmgren suggests that by 1999 things were in place for the third wave – a movement that would ‘lead to the mainstreaming of many of the innovations of the second wave.’
Welcome to the Third Wave people!
It’s here and it’s us!
The fundamentals of permaculture
Permaculture comprises a set of ethics and principles. Ethics set the boundaries and foundations, the principles guide us within those structures. It’s quite easy really.
I immediately saw how these ethics and principles could be applied to every aspect of my life – from relationships to employment, the whole package, how I run my house, how I spend my money, how I make my money, how I live my life.
The ethics are; care of earth, care of people, set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus, and we’ll look at each in detail.
Care of earth
This isn’t some hippy notion… not that there’s anything wrong with that. This is practical and basic. Starting with the soil – a fundamental application of care of earth. If we abuse the soil, we are abusing our food and water supply and ultimately ourselves and our children. And haven’t we been doing a great job of just that! Fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides have all taken the place of soil care. By the way, all these chemical additives that end up in our diet (yummy!) are all made from petroleum and gas products – two words – peak oil. The costs of all these ‘farming’ additives will only be going one way – and that’s up and guess who will wear that price increase – the consumer.
I won’t even touch on had extremely bad management of our water supply has compounded a dire situation into a national disaster. Again well done, just as long as we’re right mate, don’t worry about the future.
Living, breathing, water holding soil is a real salvation – if you’ve ever made compost, turned ‘waste’ into hummus – you know it’s something truly magical. You can actually turn prunings, vegetable peelings, egg shells, manure into soil. Instead composting has been almost demonised. People won’t do because it smells (no it doesn’t), it attracts vermin (no it doesn’t), it doesn’t work (yes it does!).
Real people need real food and real food needs real soil. We will only ever be as healthy as the soil our food comes from. You are what you eat and who wants to be greasy, fast and easy?
Don’t choose cheap, chemically filled food over clean locally grown organic food. The stuff in most supermarkets is heavily subsidised by government funding for fuel and farming. You’re not seeing the true cost of what it really takes to grow food. We are now, thanks to climate change, seeing the real cost of farming for the masses in this ‘modern’ way.
It’s your call. Cheap food today, insufferable climate for your grandchildren. Quality food reflecting the true price of what it takes to grow food (or grow your own) and you may just save future generations from a very crappy life.
Obviously care of earth extends beyond the control we have over the way we treat the soil within the boundaries of our land.
Care of earth reflects that we are all part of the same systems. What climate change has done – all our individual actions have accumulated to change the global weather system. We are all responsible.
I think it is also important to remember that all species are part of caring for the earth – people are separated from the earth in permaculture ethics – perhaps it needs to just be ‘care of earth’ to remind us that we are just a species – one that’s overrun the place and done irreversible damage and made a complete mess of the place, but we are still just one species and the planet will survive just fine without us.
Soil, water, air, plants, animals, insects, microbes, birds, oceans, rocks, trees, people - all ‘of earth’ don’t kid yourself that you’re anything more than compost in the end.
Sonya
Resources;
Holmgren, D 2002. Permaculture; Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability.
Gore, A 2006. An Inconvenient Truth
David Holmgren’s text really interests me and it’s been a major catalyst in my life.
An innocent email to my permaculture teacher a year or so ago about my desire to do a course based on his text that looked at its application to peak oil catapulted me on a journey I certainly didn’t see coming.
I’m now immersed in teaching others about it, running free community information centres, meeting with politicians, as well as many totally new things like – how do you write an energy descent action plan? how do you engage the community? how do you get the peak oil message onto the agendas of regional decision makers…
But what a wonderful and fantastic journey it’s been.
I set up this blog to allow more, shall I say, ‘ramblings’ on my behalf – but isn’t that what blogs are for?
This allows me to expand and discuss ideas – perhaps just with myself, but that’s okay. But I really feel the need to get this out and as a writer by trade, this seems the ideal way to go.
So, now we’ll begin a stroll through Holmgren’s seminal work; Permaculture Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability. Could be the start of an online reading group and that course I always dreamed of (but never got to be a student in because I was teaching it and knew what was coming up next)…
We’ll start at the very beginning… a very good place to start.
Permaculture – perhaps Australia’s greatest invention– is as much an academic theory as it is a garden design system.
A ‘philosophy’ some may go so far as to say. A way of life – I know some people are frightened because it has the word ‘cult’ in it – woooo!
Get over it, it’s just a bloody good idea, but one you can ponder, think about and discuss in depth to your heart’s content.
You have a choice, you learn the practical side and apply it to your advantage and ergo enjoy abundant food, fresh water, a comfortable home and you probably don’t have to do too much paid employment to live well.
Or you can theorise, discuss, debate and expand the idea to become a sociological solution in our modern (but rapidly failing) times.
An ideas to think about from the preface of the book…
Third Wave Environmentalism
Here Holmgren identifies three definite stages of global response to environmental crises. Firstly we’re off to the 70’s – ah, what a decade… bad clothes, bad music, bad hair… but the stirrings of ‘the first great wave of modern environmental awareness’ – around the time of the Club of Rome report in 1972 and the oil shocks (there’s that peak oil again) of 1973 and 75. The scene is set for the birth of permaculture in Tasmania.
[It’s interesting to note that Al Gore credits the images of the Earth taken from the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 as the start of the modern environmental movement – but back to Holmgren.]
Public awareness of greenhouse gas emissions in the late 1980’s triggered the second phase of environmentalism. This is a time permaculture started gaining a lot of attention.
Thirdly, Holmgren suggests that by 1999 things were in place for the third wave – a movement that would ‘lead to the mainstreaming of many of the innovations of the second wave.’
Welcome to the Third Wave people!
It’s here and it’s us!
The fundamentals of permaculture
Permaculture comprises a set of ethics and principles. Ethics set the boundaries and foundations, the principles guide us within those structures. It’s quite easy really.
I immediately saw how these ethics and principles could be applied to every aspect of my life – from relationships to employment, the whole package, how I run my house, how I spend my money, how I make my money, how I live my life.
The ethics are; care of earth, care of people, set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus, and we’ll look at each in detail.
Care of earth
This isn’t some hippy notion… not that there’s anything wrong with that. This is practical and basic. Starting with the soil – a fundamental application of care of earth. If we abuse the soil, we are abusing our food and water supply and ultimately ourselves and our children. And haven’t we been doing a great job of just that! Fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides have all taken the place of soil care. By the way, all these chemical additives that end up in our diet (yummy!) are all made from petroleum and gas products – two words – peak oil. The costs of all these ‘farming’ additives will only be going one way – and that’s up and guess who will wear that price increase – the consumer.
I won’t even touch on had extremely bad management of our water supply has compounded a dire situation into a national disaster. Again well done, just as long as we’re right mate, don’t worry about the future.
Living, breathing, water holding soil is a real salvation – if you’ve ever made compost, turned ‘waste’ into hummus – you know it’s something truly magical. You can actually turn prunings, vegetable peelings, egg shells, manure into soil. Instead composting has been almost demonised. People won’t do because it smells (no it doesn’t), it attracts vermin (no it doesn’t), it doesn’t work (yes it does!).
Real people need real food and real food needs real soil. We will only ever be as healthy as the soil our food comes from. You are what you eat and who wants to be greasy, fast and easy?
Don’t choose cheap, chemically filled food over clean locally grown organic food. The stuff in most supermarkets is heavily subsidised by government funding for fuel and farming. You’re not seeing the true cost of what it really takes to grow food. We are now, thanks to climate change, seeing the real cost of farming for the masses in this ‘modern’ way.
It’s your call. Cheap food today, insufferable climate for your grandchildren. Quality food reflecting the true price of what it takes to grow food (or grow your own) and you may just save future generations from a very crappy life.
Obviously care of earth extends beyond the control we have over the way we treat the soil within the boundaries of our land.
Care of earth reflects that we are all part of the same systems. What climate change has done – all our individual actions have accumulated to change the global weather system. We are all responsible.
I think it is also important to remember that all species are part of caring for the earth – people are separated from the earth in permaculture ethics – perhaps it needs to just be ‘care of earth’ to remind us that we are just a species – one that’s overrun the place and done irreversible damage and made a complete mess of the place, but we are still just one species and the planet will survive just fine without us.
Soil, water, air, plants, animals, insects, microbes, birds, oceans, rocks, trees, people - all ‘of earth’ don’t kid yourself that you’re anything more than compost in the end.
Sonya
Resources;
Holmgren, D 2002. Permaculture; Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability.
Gore, A 2006. An Inconvenient Truth
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Permaculture and Peak Oil Part 1
How can permaculture helps us prepare for peak oil?
Permaculture originated in the 1970’s in Tasmania Australia. Bill Mollison and David Holmgren had a brief but intense working relationship, and both were driven by the environmental crises facing society at the time.
David Holmgren quotes the oil shocks of 1973 and 1975 in the US as one of the catalysts for the creation of permaculture, which at its essence is the bringing together of many practical indigenous and ancient ideas.
So permaculture began in part in response to the early stirrings of peak oil, three decades ago.
[If you are interested in finding out more about the history of permaculture I suggest reading David Holmgren’s text Permaculture; Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability which Holmgren describes as his contribution to the third wave of environmentalism.]
In permaculture we have a blue print for what we could and perhaps should be doing to prepare that was very kindly developed 30 years ago.
Over those past three decades permaculture has carved a credible and international name out for itself as a food production system. A side effect of this success is that now some think that’s all it’s about or that it’s for some strange reason that permaculture is companion planting (something I hear often for some strange reason), which is a shame because permaculture is so much more.
Permaculture has proven it can create food production systems in the harshest of climates. Watch Geoff Lawton’s Greening the Desert to see how it’s being done around the world.
We are in crisis here in Australia with farming land increasingly being abandoned due to desertification – why isn’t permaculture being used to regenerate that land and to then be the basis for the establishment of more sustainable farming practices?
I think it’s strange that permaculture is being embraced around the world but not so much here – perhaps it’s because the countries that are using it successfully NEED it to work, whereas here were pretty affluent, things appear to be abundant, so the desperate NEED isn’t there.
Many people (how many I wonder?) have completed the Permaculture Design Course (PDC) – the standard for recognised permaculture education. The course you need to do to use the word 'permaculture'.
Many more have completed informal introductory and one day courses, and many, many more have read the books and are doing their own thing without ever attending a course.
The PDC is based on Bill Mollison’s text Permaculture A Designer’s Manual and it shows us how to harvest from the natural resources of rain, sun and air. How to build production systems around humans that sustain them, and while doing so, how to work toward enhancing the natural systems, rather than depleting from them. It’s about those essentials of water, food, shelter, warmth, and how these can be integrated systems. It’s also about independence – getting away from the mega-systems of supply, taking responsibility for what we use and consume.
As an aside there is a quote I read in Starhawk's The Earth Path about our understanding of where we fit in the whole scheme of things; it goes something like this...
'The first step is when we start working 'with' nature, the next step is to recognise that we are working 'within' nature and the third and final stage is when we understand and accept 'we are nature' at work.'
All in all a PDC is an excellent start to preparing for peak oil. It’s about small simple solutions, using less, and understanding ‘energy’ in a new way – all great lessons for a post carbon future.
But it’s still about the individual taking action (and yes, I know many a successful eco-village is based on permaculture demonstrating it’s ‘community’ approach), but essentially most permaculturists are working primarily on their own lifeboat building (a term used by Richard Heinberg to explain setting yourself up for peak oil) in their own backyards.
In upcoming blogs I’ll explore how we can all take this knowledge, collective experience and lessons learnt in our own backyards plus more on David Holmgren's text and apply it all to big picture social changes necessary to truly prepare for peak oil.
Sonya
Resources;
Holmgren, D 2002. Permaculture; Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability.
Permaculture originated in the 1970’s in Tasmania Australia. Bill Mollison and David Holmgren had a brief but intense working relationship, and both were driven by the environmental crises facing society at the time.
David Holmgren quotes the oil shocks of 1973 and 1975 in the US as one of the catalysts for the creation of permaculture, which at its essence is the bringing together of many practical indigenous and ancient ideas.
So permaculture began in part in response to the early stirrings of peak oil, three decades ago.
[If you are interested in finding out more about the history of permaculture I suggest reading David Holmgren’s text Permaculture; Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability which Holmgren describes as his contribution to the third wave of environmentalism.]
In permaculture we have a blue print for what we could and perhaps should be doing to prepare that was very kindly developed 30 years ago.
Over those past three decades permaculture has carved a credible and international name out for itself as a food production system. A side effect of this success is that now some think that’s all it’s about or that it’s for some strange reason that permaculture is companion planting (something I hear often for some strange reason), which is a shame because permaculture is so much more.
Permaculture has proven it can create food production systems in the harshest of climates. Watch Geoff Lawton’s Greening the Desert to see how it’s being done around the world.
We are in crisis here in Australia with farming land increasingly being abandoned due to desertification – why isn’t permaculture being used to regenerate that land and to then be the basis for the establishment of more sustainable farming practices?
I think it’s strange that permaculture is being embraced around the world but not so much here – perhaps it’s because the countries that are using it successfully NEED it to work, whereas here were pretty affluent, things appear to be abundant, so the desperate NEED isn’t there.
Many people (how many I wonder?) have completed the Permaculture Design Course (PDC) – the standard for recognised permaculture education. The course you need to do to use the word 'permaculture'.
Many more have completed informal introductory and one day courses, and many, many more have read the books and are doing their own thing without ever attending a course.
The PDC is based on Bill Mollison’s text Permaculture A Designer’s Manual and it shows us how to harvest from the natural resources of rain, sun and air. How to build production systems around humans that sustain them, and while doing so, how to work toward enhancing the natural systems, rather than depleting from them. It’s about those essentials of water, food, shelter, warmth, and how these can be integrated systems. It’s also about independence – getting away from the mega-systems of supply, taking responsibility for what we use and consume.
As an aside there is a quote I read in Starhawk's The Earth Path about our understanding of where we fit in the whole scheme of things; it goes something like this...
'The first step is when we start working 'with' nature, the next step is to recognise that we are working 'within' nature and the third and final stage is when we understand and accept 'we are nature' at work.'
All in all a PDC is an excellent start to preparing for peak oil. It’s about small simple solutions, using less, and understanding ‘energy’ in a new way – all great lessons for a post carbon future.
But it’s still about the individual taking action (and yes, I know many a successful eco-village is based on permaculture demonstrating it’s ‘community’ approach), but essentially most permaculturists are working primarily on their own lifeboat building (a term used by Richard Heinberg to explain setting yourself up for peak oil) in their own backyards.
In upcoming blogs I’ll explore how we can all take this knowledge, collective experience and lessons learnt in our own backyards plus more on David Holmgren's text and apply it all to big picture social changes necessary to truly prepare for peak oil.
Sonya
Resources;
Holmgren, D 2002. Permaculture; Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability.
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