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  • From: holmgren@netconnect.com.au
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Permaculture Critique of Natural Edge Project
  • Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 13:10:30 +1000

Title: Permaculture Critique of Natural Edge Project
The Natural Edge Project is a major Australian sustainability research and publishing project strongly influenced by Amory Lovins and the Natural Capitalism concepts/book and related work. This was sent to me by David Masden-Ballard a Canberra based permaculture teacher and activist from way back. Below is my reply. I've included the long list of people on the feedback request to indicate the range of  sustainability thinkers and activists involved and to query what other cross overs with permaculture networks there might be. While my critique may reassure PC activists that we really hold the Sustainability torch, the action out there is very diverse, energetic and influential even if you don't see much of it by reading and listening to the mainstream media. The fact that this work doesn't dominate mainstream media, reinforces some of the comments Russ Grayson and others have  made at various times  about how far down the food chain of influence permaculture really is.

On the other hand, I keep meeting people who are heavily involved in various aspects of the Sustainability agenda who claim  permaculture as being a primary influence in their career and current work and who attempt to organise their personal lives around the minimal ecological footprint and voluntary simplicity ideas.

I see the great challenge for PC activists is to engage with these people to learn what they have discovered in their path and rekindle their radicalism. Its a fine balance between engagement and alienation especially when part of the permaculture message might be that some of this great work may be not so useful or even counterproductive.

David Holmgren

 Dear David Masden-Ballard
I am not so familiar with this project. I have read Natural Capitalism and in PP&PBS I position myself partly in relation to what I call Green Tech optimism.   I've browsed some of the background documents and looked at ACF's  Blueprint project. Looks like lots of great and useful work but I think the paradigm shift is not deep enough to deal with the challenges of the next 30 years.

I'm not really in a position to give detailed comment but suggest that a careful and thorough reading of my book might be the basis of someone else making a really useful critique of this project.  So my main agenda is getting my book more widely read and discussed  in the sustainability field .

In summary I would make the following points about the  conceptual foundations of the Natural Edge Project.

These concepts skirt the issue of the essential nature of capitalism.  The legal fiction at the core of our society that property (ie a corporation ) is a person has provided a legal basis for modern industrial capitalism and our affluence, but is now one of the key drivers accelerating humanity toward the ecological limits precipice.  Does Natural Capitalism simply create the problem in a new form? Permaculture is based on the philosophical and energetic view that capitalism's time is coming to an end rather than on the verge of a golden age.  As the industrial redesign guru's would say "don't invest resources in patching up flawed  structures, instead redesign from first principles"  Ironically permaculture, as explained in my book,  has a program for using fossil fuel wealth to rebuild natural capital in forms useful to people in a low energy future (ie soil and forests). Those espousing Natural Capitalism seem to have only the vaguest notion that wealth from the Green tech revolution will be put into protecting nature (perhaps more for its own sake than out of need)  Therefore it is possible to argue that Permaculture is serious "natural capitalism"

I don't think the energetic and conceptual foundations for the factor 4-10 revolution are generally understood by those involved in creating.  Consequently the ways in which global energy peak will change the nature of this revolution are little debated. The lack of understanding of Howard Odum's   Emergy concepts among the luminaries of sustainability is indicative of the problem.  Permaculture is based on Odum's conceptual work over the last 30 years.

The fundamental issue of predicting net energy futures ie acceleration, stabilization or descent are not generally addressed with the assumption that the descent  senario only indicates human system failure and cannot be discussed as a solution.  I view it as most likely and our adaption to it would illustrate our humanity and higher human evolution (as indicated by almost all spiritual and philosophical traditions). Permaculture  uses the same  creative design energy which characterises this green tech solutions, in a context of positive acceptance of energy descent as the most likely future reality.

The concept of progressive dematerialisation of economic activity, without addressing the underlying psycho-social drivers behind consumerism and affluence is a weakness. The problems requiring fundamental redesign solutions are at the personal and household level as much, or more, than the industry and government level. Permaculture uses ecological design principles to address this end of the spectrum.

This project seems to be light on in the natural resource management/agriculture/food production part of Sustainainability. Nature provides the design rules for this revolution, but in the universities and research institutes involved in natural resource management, there is a conceptual confusion as to what represents a problem or a solution.  Out in the forest and on the farm,  real solutions  are generally more modest and slower than some  of the industrial examples.  The idea that we will grow more cotton in Australia, with less damage to the environment and less use of energy fertiliser, pesticides and water and do it cheaper than the 50 cents a cotton farmer gets out of a $20 tee shirt is clutching at straws.  Both the conceptual confusion and limited success on the farm, reinforces the view that the real action is in the technosphere.  Permaculture's focus on  working with nature to provide our needs, is complementary to the primarily technology focus of this project,  but it is also an implied critique of the complacency about nature as our source of food  and other fundamental needs.  Although I know some of this project's contributors have been influenced by permaculture  I see no prominent permaculture designers or teachers included.

While the economic botany side of permaculture might suggest dryland hemp as part of the solution to the cotton problem, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that people will have to pay more for tee shirts to cover the real cost of water, fuel, fertiliser and soil improvement rather than degradation.  The personal change side of permaculture suggests that dumping fashion driven consumption can instantly generate factor 10 improvements in resource efficiency in clothing people, without wasting millions of dollars in  new eco industries which will recycle our old tee shirts into new fashion items.  But that's no good because it attacks the sacred cow of economic growth.

Is this project big and strong enough to include alternative strategies, devil advocates and other voices which share some of the same ideals but involve a more fundamental application of ecological design principles starting at the bottom rather than the top of human systems?  Probably not, given its advanced stage but I would hope that many of the creative innovators and networkers within the field  can encompass the challenges posed by Permaculture in further evolution of sustainbility projects and so prove the title of my book wrong.

David Holmgren

If you get a chance please send me any comments on the draft of the book, so that I can incorporate them in my response to Charlie,

the team below, is a bit of a Who's who of Sustainability
X-From_: secretariat@naturaledgeproject.net  Mon Jul 21 03:26:21 2003
Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 19:21:18 +0930
From: "Karlson 'Charlie' Hargroves" <secretariat@naturaledgeproject.net>
Subject: The Natural Edge Project - Update 6
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Reply-to: "Karlson 'Charlie' Hargroves" <secretariat@naturaledgeproject.net>
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2720.3000

***************************************************
Full report downloadable from
http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/Documents/TNEP-Project_Update_6.pdf
***************************************************

Greetings to the supporters and teams of The Natural Edge Project.

The opportunity to bring together such volumes of amazing material in the
development of the publication has been both overwhelming and exhilarating.
Attempting to develop this first edition of Natural Advantage of Nations is
a major undertaking made possible only by the ongoing support from partners
and the amazing contributions from our co-authors, partners, editorial team,
working group and supporters.

We have the pleasure in announcing that the final structure for the
publication has been drafted and we hereby invite your comments and
feedback. We are particularly interested in how your work can be
incorporated into the overall model to strengthen it and provide the breadth
of knowledge needed to undertake such a task. Comments will be received in
an ongoing way however the earlier the response the more likely it will be
incorporated into the material.

The next phase will be the release of the 50% First Draft which will
effectively be a precis of the full publication in approx. 150 pages,
summarising the argument and illustrating it with our best thoughts on case
studies and material. This document is currently being prepared and we
anticipate release by the end of July.

We appreciate the patience and ongoing support you have all given our team
and we have been very focused on producing a document that reflects this
support and the contributions made in a strong framework that can be the
basis of a nation achieving natural competitive advantage.

Highlights of this period have been the opportunity to focus our attention
on the bring together of the various materials and contributions into the
first draft of the publication. Further to this we have gained the support a
number of new partners to the project. The Institution of Engineers
Australia, through the Environment College and the Environmental Engineering
Society has been accepted as a Principal Partner further strengthening the
strong support given to the project from the Institution.

The Board of Triple Bottom Line Australia has formally endorsed the
project and we are looking forward to working with them to ensure the
accounting sections of the publication are up to date and presenting the
strongest case.

Kind Regards

Karlson ‘Charlie’ Hargroves
Project Coordinator

***************************************************
All the latest information regarding the project can be found in the
Document
Store at http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/Documents/

Summary of Update 6:
·  Content Update
·  TNEP Partner Profiles;
   a) Principal Partner - Environmental Engineering Society and Environment
       College of the Institution of Engineers Australia,
   b) Project Partner - Sustainable Industries Division, Queensland
       Environmental Protection Agency
·  Formal endorsement from Triple Bottom Line Australia for TNEP
·  TNEP Working Group Member Profile - Rob Murray-Leach

---------------------------------------------------
Karlson 'Charlie' Hargroves
Project Coordinator
The Natural Edge Project

C/- Engineers Australia
11 Bagot Street
North Adelaide SA 5006

T: +61 (0) 8 8361 6929
M: +61 (0) 412 427 543
http://www.naturaledgeproject.net
---------------------------------------------------

cheers

David

David Marsden-Ballard
Green Corps Team Leader
Greening Australia ACT & SE NSW
Office:     02  6253 3053
Mobile:   0427 270 324

Environmental Educator and Permaculture Designer
B.App.Sc.(Social Ecology) Hons., Grad.Dip.Env.Ed., Dip.Perm.Des., MEIA. J.P.

--
David Holmgren & Su Dennett
Holmgren Design Services
  • Ph   + 61 3 53483636
  • Email     info@holmgren.com.au
  • Website  http://www.holmgren.com.au

Melliodora (Hepburn Permaculture Gardens)
16 Fourteenth St,
Hepburn
Victoria
Australia. 3461.



  • [permaculture] Permaculture Critique of Natural Edge Project, holmgren, 07/22/2003

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