permaculture

[Victor Guest <vic@daena.eepo.com.au>]

In a message dated 3/20/97 10:35:59 AM, you wrote:

>Q. Are plumbers responsible (Inanvertantly) for the the police car chases.
>(A Shire engineer told me that Aboriginal people pick up large quantity's
>of copper from our hot water systems)

In Massachuseets, USA, where I lived most of my life, in one town (Orange)
the tap water was so acid that the amount of water it disolved in the pipes
showed up as a fairly strong blue in a tub of bath.  Three of us were
experiencing muscle spasms and the fourth person had bed wetting problems--a
teenage girl, very mortifying.  Acid rain that dramatically lowers the pH of
drinking water, is another problem, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere.
 Also, as you can imagine, heavy metals get picked up as the water leaches
through various rock and gravel layers.  Finally, when the soil buffering
capacity is exhausted, aluminum is mobilized and this kills mycorrhizal fungi
and the whole ecosystem degrades at a rapid pace.  

The culprit isn't merely one form or another of agriculture, it is the whole
way Western Society exists--our heavy dependence on combustion and other
forms of energy that are environmentally degrading, our insistence on
electrolysis of table salt (NaCl) to make chlorine and sodium products
(toxins and soaps, etc.) is probably the single biggest error in the history
of the planet.  Chlorine-based acids, organic and inorganic, add to the
problems described, and ultra-reactive chlorine combines with all manner of
chemical in the environment to create all manner of problem, from ozone
destruction to behaviorial imbalances to mutations.  

Where to we start?  At our doorsteps, I guess.  Trying to be aware of all the
problems so we don't blunder into one by ignorance, like putting chlorine in
drinking water to "purify" it.  

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981). Next  correspondence
permaculture training by email starts in Aug., '97. Internships available.
Copyright, 1997, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 2052, Ocala FL 34478 USA
 YankeePerm@aol.com  

We don't have time to rush.