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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Maintaining the standards of permaculture - important issues

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  • From: Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Maintaining the standards of permaculture - important issues
  • Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 09:37:24 -0700

On May 3, 2012, at 2:18 AM, Oystein Tandberg wrote:

> I don't want to make this a long e-mail; so I'll just jump to the
> conclusions:
>
Sure, I'll fall for it. Anyone who reads my stuff knows I love ideas that
overturn the conventional wisdom. And I've looked at all the evidence for
these statements before, in detail, because I am naturally sympathetic to
revisionism. They are each nonsense.

> 1. Humans are not in charge of the climate (so the permaculture response

While it is literally true that no one is in charge of the climate, those
words are a soundbite straight from corporate-funded think tanks. Not being a
climate scientist, I must rely on experts here, and I tend to side with 99%
of the world's climate scientists rather than a handful of oil-company
mouthpieces making zombie statements that will not die when disproved. Follow
the money: the anti-climate-change propagandists work for the carbon industry.

> 2. Exponential human growth (overpopulation) is a myth.

The human population is doubling at decreasing intervals. That is, by
definition, exponential growth, so this statement is mathematically ignorant.
As for it being a problem, population growth is now being sustained by fossil
fuel-based food. Maybe we'll find something else as oil runs out, but we are
already seeing huge declines in food yields from overuse of soils (I did
population genetics work for a while; I recognize the signs of
overpopulation.) Maybe having one species use 40% of the Earth's annual
production is sustainable, but if population doubles again, so does that
number. Anyone who doesn't think human impact is a problem should start
drinking from the nearest river, and see how long you live. I suggest a great
video called "Arithmetic, Population, and Energy" as a good look at what
population growth means.
http://www.albartlett.org/presentations/arithmetic_population_energy_video1.html

These last two are way off topic, but they are fun for me.

> 3. Viruses, as infectious microorganisms, is a myth.

Now we're in my field. I did immunology and genetics research for 15 years. I
have used viruses to cause infections in otherwise healthy organisms. Their
entire genetic machinery is designed to infect; their genes have been
independently used to cause infections, and to do everything needed to infect
healthy organisms. They are little miracles, cleverly designed to cause
infection because it they cannot reproduce without infecting a host; it's
their raison d'etre. Also, it's difficult to explain how a killed virus can
confer immunity against a live virus, even in very unhealthy people, without
viruses being a cause of infection.

> 4. Pasteur was wrong - an infection is always a secondary illness;
> infections arise after tissue has been damaged, by malnutrition or
> intoxication. (PR: enrich the blood for good health, like you would enrich
> the soil for good growth)

People who say this have not read Pasteur. He was not "wrong." He knew that
otherwise healthy organisms throw off infections much faster than sick ones.
And I'd be careful with statements that include the word "always."

I suggest getting into the best shape possible and then letting an Ebola-sick
monkey spray blood on you, or stay in a room dusted with with hanta-virus
mouse turds. It may change your mind about viruses.

These arguments take advantage of the fact that most people have not been
taught to do critical thought, and get sucked in by fallacious bits of
sophistry that match their politics and temperament, since they don't have
the mental tools to properly evaluate them. As Dick Cheney reportedly said,
"you can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones
we're looking for." Like I say, I love to upset the conventional wisdom, but
promoting these dead-wrong, zombie arguments can do real harm to real people.

Now back to the important stuff.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com






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