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permaculture - Re: dirt or Earth?

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  • From: Paul Osmond <paul@tj.netlink.com.au>
  • To: permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: dirt or Earth?
  • Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 22:18:35 +1000

[snip]
>This whole culture and to a lesser extent other western cultures is looking
>for a quick fix from the various new age remedies which I think is a poor
>substitute for the harder path of learning through observation of the earths
>natural processes. Bill once said it is easy to turn a gardener into a
>philosopher but very difficult to turn a philosopher into a gardener.

[snip]

>Scott
>Scott & Arina Pittman
>
>Permaculture Institute
>PO Box 3702, Pojoaque, NM 87501 US
>*********
>Ingenio Patet Campus
>

I agree Scott - it seems to me something has been missing from this
discussion about odd weather, strange plant behaviour etc. Before we go
searching for mystical explanations, I suggest we have a serious think about
global climate change and in particular, what (who) is causing this.

The ocean/atmosphere/earth system can be compared to a gigantic and
unbelievably complex heat engine. And when more energy is added to a heat
engine (in this case, solar energy trapped by "greenhouse" gases), peculiar
and unpredictable things happen. Here in southeastern Australia we are
emerging from one of the worst droughts for decades. The El Nino/Southern
Oscillation - a weather phenomenon which has been around for milennia -
seems to be changing its cycle, which has meant record high temperatures in
some parts of Australia, drought, bushfire etc.

We don't need to seek explanations in auras and crystal balls, we need to do
something practical NOW to curb the flatulence of 500 million cars, umpteen
coal-fired power stations etc. etc. while we still have that option. A
permaculture-based approach which learns from, rather than idealises, nature
seems an eminently practical option to me.

I might add that I, too, have no problem with the "Gaia hypothesis". To take
just one recently-publicised example, sulphur compounds given out by marine
algal blooms can help create clouds, which then block out the sunlight and
reduce the blooms - meanwhile the algae hitch a ride elsewhere on the air
convection currents which the clouds help create (see New Scientist, 30 May
1998).

Sure, there's a lot of mystery still in this world. And there is nothing
wrong with that. There are things we don't understand now that we will come
to understand - and there are things which we won't. But let's not
short-change ourselves by creating mysteries where they don't exist, because
this will only prolong the time taken to deal with very real and pressing
problems.

Paul Osmond




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