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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Bioregionalism and Permaculture reply
  • Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:30:31 -0700


This is a copy of a reply I made to another list
paul tradingpost@lobo.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Holmgren and Mollison first wrote their works on permaculture it was
recognized as a great ecological breakthrough. The principles were woven
together from multidisciplinary threads. Differences arose between them and
the US lecturers. All that was before the multiple threats appeared to our
consumption society. We know more about these limits to growth now: peak
energy, resource depletion in general, global warming, species dieoff,
economic contraction.

What we face in the near term has been called a Perfect Storm as all of these
limits are impassible barriers to a civilization that requires endless
resources for economic growth just to maintain stability. Growth and
stability are ending. Industrial nations are gripped in financial disaster,
social safety nets are being shredded in a dozen nations, and one sixth of
the world's population is hungry or starving. shadowstats.com shows real
unemployment is closer to 20% and climbing. And so on.

The resources to create enough alternative energy to keep up our way of life
just aren't there anymore, and changing light bulbs is rearranging deck
chairs on the Titanic. When it costs more for the energy to produce a barrel
of oil (or its BTU equivalent) than you can charge for it, the pumps will
stop pumping. Same for gas, tar sands, and all. Oil production has plateaued
for five years, not rising. IEA says conventional oil peaked in 2006. Look up
EROEI. Look up Exponential Function. Does anyone still believe Congress has a
few trillion to invest for enough solar panels, wind turbines and grid
upgrade to maintain our way of living? Many of us would argue that the Ed
Begleys out there are full of good intentions but are still in denial about
the problems that cannot be solved by trendy seminars. We want to be good
environmentalists but facing up to the full reality seems to be unbearable.
It's all too easy to be shallow green.

These are not problems that can be solved but forced changes requiring us to
adapt. Bioregionalism can help us focus on local food security and
permaculture can help too, but the day isn't far off when the need for
growing and distributing enough food locally in a hurry overtakes every other
concern. And that's without affordable fossil fuels.

andrew wrote:
> The solutions to our economic and environmental problems aren't
> complex or out of reach. Quite the contrary! Our food, fuel and
> fiber needs can be met in abundant ways that strengthen community
> economies by reconnecting people with their local ecologies. By
> cooperating regionally and designing ecologically we create and
> insure healthy and secure economies, landscapes and communities that
> benefit and enrich generations to come!

I hate to say it but that's just not true. We'd like to think everything will
be OK. Instead of such imaginary hype, permaculture needs to update and deal
with current realities and promote doable, practical and ecological ways of
adapting to what's coming in the original spirit of permaculture. Millions of
us right now need to start learning to grow as much food as we can in
whatever space we have available, and need all the help we can get doing it.
Food stamps (or EBT) as it is won't survive the next Congress. We survived
the Depression because half the country was rural and had food gardens and
root cellars, etc. Not today. And we don't have years to develop permaculture
gardens.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“We need to launch an Organic Green Revolution that fundamentally changes
the way we grow our food to maximize yield while mitigating climate change,
restoring clean water, building soils, and protecting agricultural production
during times of drought.”
~ Tim LaSalle, Rodale Institute CEO
Ripe for Revolution event, New York City

"Clearly, our present ways of agriculture are not sustainable, and so our
food supply is not sustainable. We must restore ecological health to our
agricultural landscapes, as well as economic and cultural stability to our
rural communities."
-- Wendell Berry & Wes Jackson

“All of the debts for society’s century-long industrial fiesta are coming
due at the same time. We have no choice but to transition to a world no
longer dependent on fossil fuels, a world made up of communities and
economies that function within ecological bounds. How we manage this
transition is the most important question of our time.”
-- Richard Heinberg

"Many types of jobs will cease to exist: public relations executive,
marketing directors, et cetera. I think work will be very hands-on, and a lot
of it will revolve around food production."
-- James Howard Kunstler, 2003

"How do you move from a system which has built in destruction of the
planet and built in devastation for local communities and local economies and
transition back to systems which formerly worked and new environmentally
sustainable systems? That’s the project of our time."
- Jerry Mander






  • [Livingontheland] Bioregionalism and Permaculture reply, Tradingpost, 12/22/2010

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