[permaculture] APC10 - final update September 24 - 27, 2010 Australia's Convergence
Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
lakinroe at silcom.com
Mon Aug 23 10:18:02 EDT 2010
"You could spend $50,000 and the rest of your life visiting all these
amazing people and seeing their projects, or a few hundred dollars
now to meet them all in the one place at the same time." Sarah-Jane,
Star APC10 Volunteer, talking with Cairns locals at the Sustainable
Living Expo last weekend.
Only One Month to go! We are not booked out. But you must register now!
This is our last APC10 Update before the event, which we have come to
realise is likely to be the most important gathering of permaculture
minds. The key themes in this convergence will be transition
initiatives, engagement with the mainstream and renewing our networks
and movement's structure. In our extensive correspondence with permi
people world-wide, there is a call for permaculture to move away from
the margin to become an effective and credible voice in the future of
Australia's planning and preparations for the changes that will come
as a result of climate change, peak oil, economic pertubations,
migration shifts etc.
We have summarised our plenary presenters below but we have an
impressive line-up of speakers from around the world, in all about 50
people. Our programme is a conventional conference style programme,
but interaction, discussion, round tables and time-out to network are
vital to the convergence's success. We will be testing our capacity
to skype in speakers from around Australia and the globe - doing so
on a shoe-string budget with volunteers. The complete and final
programme is on the website: <http://www.apc10.org/>www.apc10.org
This is not a big-league corporate event with money to burn, yet it
has attracted the attention of some of the world's most influential
environmental philanthropists including our own Dick Smith and Sir
Richard Branson who was also unable to attend but who is interested
in the potential of permaculture. A couple of the Branson's family
members are coming to do the PDC and attending APC10. This is a
statement about the credibility and reputability of permaculture and
its transformational potential. This comes from the decades of very
hard work put in by permaculture educators, business developers,
community organisers who have been determined to make the principles
and concepts of permacultue work in practice. We pay tribute to Bill
and David, and the generations of people they trained, and feel
honoured to be able to carry the mantle onwards.
APC10 would really not be possible if it wasn't for our sponsors. We
have built genuine personal relationships with each, and we thank
them for their involvement in helping APC10 - bringing speakers from
overseas, supporting registrations from developing countries,
providing IT sevices, catering and staging, advertising and
promotions, and of course, the venue itself. And also our volunteers
and members of Permaculture Cairns who have never doubted what our
small group can achieve and have thrown their all into making this a
world-class, memorable, celebratory and professional event. We love
each and every one of them.
So if you have not yet registered please do so without delay. Your
attendance, at APC10, is vital.
Plenary Guest Speakers:
Major General Michael Jeffery, CEO, Outcomes Australia. One of the
challenges Australia faces in the 21st century is that of making the
transformation from old technologies used in our current,
predominantly industrial farming, to the new reality that we need to
be more 'in tune' with nature. In so doing, we need to recognise the
new realities of climate change, such as more erratic rainfall,
desertification of the landscape, degradation of our soils, the
impact of a burgeoning population, the shrinking of the farm sector
and the explosion in costs of petroleum based inputs on sustainable
food production.
The philosophy of Permaculture advocates the need to work with nature
rather than against it, and this goal complements of Outcomes
Australia. Both recognise that water should be seen as our primary
national strategic asset and managed accordingly and that restoration
of the health of our soils is fundamental to the sustained
productivity of our agricultural landscape.
Sonya Wallace and Janet Millington, Transition Towns. As part of
Australia's first Transition Initiative, Sonya and Janet delivered
Australia's very first Energy Descent Action Plan. Since then they've
been working on a peak oil and climate change policy group for their
local government authority, and have presented at national government
conferences on Transition Towns, Energy Descent Action Planning and
how permaculture can be successfully applied to communities and
regions.
Gunter Pauli, ZERI - Skype from Belgium. Gunter Pauli is a passionate
proponent of green development and a clean economy. In 1994, Mr.
Pauli founded the Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives ZERI
<http://www.zeri.org/>www.zeri.org/ a network of 100 Universities
around the world, developing pilot innovations that could change
prevailing economical business models. A worldwide network of
business systems and communities could create a hundred million jobs,
establish social funds and guide economies and societies toward
sustainable zero waste production.
Gunter Pauli's Blue Economy promotes a business model that speaks to
permaculture principles. In nature the output from every natural
process provides an input for another. There is no waste. A business
model that supports less waste and emissions should be established as
a global standard. Solutions to problems that are elegant in their
simplicity and striking in their effectiveness, demonstrate that a
new economic model is feasible and permits innovation and creativity
to identify possible paths towards a better future.
Bill Mollison, Co-founder of Permaculture & Geoff Lawton. Inspiring,
authoritive, thoughtful and often 'off the cuff', Bill, Geoff and
their families are visiting APC for 2 days of our 4 day convergence
and will provide the Saturday evening keynote presentations.
Russ Grayson, Permaculture V3.0. Russ kicks off the Official
Convergence on Sunday 26th encouraging the movement to self-reflect.
He will ask us to consider some key questions about the effectiveness
of permaculture as advocates for change and asks how does
permaculture need to change to more fully engage in public and
enlarge its influence? How dow we about creating a new Permaculture
3.0?
Daryl Hannah, Environmental Campaigner, actor and permaculturalist,
Gala Dinner Keynote Speaker. Daryl will come to APC fresh from
gaining her design certificate with Darren J.Doherty, but she is not
a permaculture novice. Attracted to simple living, sustainable
housing design and wholistic management principles in agriculture,
Daryl is one of the most down-to-earth celebrities on the planet. For
her environmental activism in North America, she's rated amongst the
top three most influential American actors alongside George Clooney,
Leonardo di Caprio and Brad Pitt. Daryl believes in using media focus
on promoting ethical and progressive causes and has used her fame to
draw attention to renewable energy, indigenous people's rights, and
food security issues. She's humble and honoured to take a place
within the permaculture movement and wants to understand how she can
help promote, educate and progress its goals.
Mark O'Connor, Can Permaculture survive Population Growth? Australia
is set for a population of 140 million by 2100. High density cities,
where most Australians live, will leave little space for gardens and
making permaculture a pipe-dream for many. Mark, co-author of
Overloading Australia, shows how this push works, and how we can beat
it.
David Holmgren, Final Keynote Speaker, Permaculture for the future;
understanding the lineage and preparing for surprise (via Skype). In
the final plenary of APC10 David Holmgren co-originator of the
permaculture concept, draws on lessons from over three decades of
permaculture thinking and activism to distill pointers for using
ethics and design principles to surf the energy descent future
(without being dumped by king waves). This will be an upbeat
presentation that encapsulates how the next generation of
permaculture activists can confidently and creatively face the
cascading crises that are unfolding all around the world. In keeping
with the theme of creatively adapting to the energy descent future,
David will be giving his presentation via Skype from his home,
Melliodora in central Victoria.
We'll see YOU in September!
Warm Tropical Permi Blessings
The APC10 Organising team and volunteers
More information about the permaculture
mailing list