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  • From: "John Schinnerer" <john@eco-living.net>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Where is the Focus on Energy and Housing...
  • Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 23:22:38 -0700 (PDT)

Aloha,

Earth tempering of various kinds is the least industrial way I know of to
moderate energy needs in temperate climates (it's worked for thousands of
years in lotsa places - hogans, kivas, soddies, etc. etc.).

Cold-climate peoples who didn't use earth-tempering were typically so few in
number relative to available land and fuelwood that they had negligible impact
on sustainability of fuel resources.

As mentioned in a recent thread, there are low-tech ways to burn wood quite
cleanly. Population density vs. resource carrying capacity is a more crucial
issue IMO.

The designer's manual is pretty sketchy and speculative on shelter systems.
There's a huge amount of information in other places, however.

Passive Annual Solar, Annualized Geo-Solar, as well as about everything else
in alternative and natural building, have been discussed repeatedly on the
ESSA (Earthfriendly and Self-Sustaining Architecture) list - for list info and
searchable archives go to:

http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/essa/

> Finally, the Energy Transition that started with the California Energy
> Crisis

This "crisis" is more about market manipulation, speculative commodity trading
of energy and energy futures, "privatization" and so on than it is about
actual energy production.

Localized power generation, utility co-ops, etc. are some alternatives to
this.

At the same time it is true that some predictors forsee global fossil fuel
production peaking now or in the near future.

Short-term/direct biomass-conversion schemes cannot cover even a small
fraction of current industrial culture energy use in any sustainable manner.
As mentioned, we are blowing out millions of years of carbon fuel accumulation
in a couple hundred years.

As Rocky Mtn. Institute pointed out decades ago, the easiest (and in some
contexts cheapest) way to 'make more energy' is to use less - "negawatts" as
they dubbed it. "Reduce" is step one. This will be a big change for a
culture addicted to endless growth and infinite resources.

> In terms of our urban culture edible/ecological landscaping is quite a low
> priority for most. Food is low on the list of expenditures in Canada. At
> 6-7% of household budget, food in Canada is the lowest percentage cost in
> the world.

Not for long. Food in industrial nations is "cheap" due to massive subsidies
(explicit and implicit) for energy used to produce and distribute it (and
other subsidies besides). As "cheap" energy runs out, food prices will rise,
perhaps skyrocket. So developing locally controlled sustainable food sources
is still crucial.

I can migrate south in the winter (as many cold-temperate peoples did for
thousands of years), even on foot, more readily than I can live without food.

> I'm saying there are many jobs waiting in energy efficiency and energy
> production.

What sort of jobs, and where is the money for them coming from?

> I propose that people on this list get on to the fundamental topics of
> permaculture. The hard design questions of Energy and Housing among a
> handful of others.

Good thread so far...onwards!



John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
------------------------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Cultural & Ecological Designing
People - Place - Learning - Integration
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net




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