permaculture

[John Schinnerer <john@eco-living.net>]

Aloha,

Please post a link or links to info on this project.
I didn't find anything that seemed relevant from a google on

sahara project

I will assume this isn't the same as the project that wants to divert a 
big chunk of the Nile and pump it over ridges into an adjacent riverless 
desert valley for crop irrigation...

> ...but aren't any of us interested in permaculture using 
> our ideas and techniques to change an already changed landscape?

Of course.  My concerns are scale ("use small and slow solutions"/"start 
small and work outwards") and appropriate action ("apply self-regulation 
and accept feedback").
That's why I say it's a slippery slope...
If in permaculture we assume we are somehow beyond or exempt from the 
hubris that has perennially surfaced in all other human activities, then 
we are already lost in hubris.

> And if 
> you are designing "whole systems" seems to me you are an engineer of sorts.

The question I ask is - what is the designing based on?  Observations of 
mechanical (Newtonian, inorganic, etc.) systems, or observations of 
living systems?

My observation is that when the word "engineering" is in the 
description, more often than not most or all of the designing is based 
on non-living systems (even when living systems are involved).
If we're talking about computer engineering, automotive engineering, 
etc. this is not a problem (until the context is expanded further, anyhow).
If we're talking about bio-engineering, environmental engineering, etc. 
then I think it is a problem.

cheers,
John S.

--

John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
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