permaculture

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

Aloha,

I see a clear pattern in all of the institutional citations - newspaper 
articles, W's speech, Lester Brown, etc. - regarding biofuels/bioenergy.

The pattern is only asking the question "how and with what do we replace 
fossil fuel?" and the consistent avoidance of any possibility of 
actually having to get used to (or better yet designing for) declining 
energy usage.

Avoidance of even asking the most fundamental question:

Are we using more energy per unit of time than we are getting from the 
sun per unit of time?

If we are - then 'replacing' fossil fuels with biofuels and whatever 
else is just rearranging those 'ol deck chairs on that big big 
unsinkable ocean liner.

What is our (very localized) solar gain, and what portion of that could 
be harvested to support humans in the long term (which of course means 
allowing all the living systems we need to support us to have at least 
their necessary share).

Answering these questions - in macro and micro contexts - is the 
*beginning* of figuring out how much energy use by humans might 
theoretically be sustainable.

hi ho,
John S.

--

John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
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