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Subject: permaculture

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  • From: Tommy Tolson <healinghawk@earthlink.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Shit
  • Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 21:19:28 -0500

Robyn Francis wrote:

IMO Looking at renewables to replace such a massive consumption of energy is
a doomed techno-fix approach.
The permaculture approach would be to look first at where energy savings can
be most effectively achieved. E.g. In the state of Qld 40% pf domestic
electricity is used for water heating, the state government has now made
solar water heaters mandatory for all new homes and offers subsidies for
homeowners to switch from electricity to solar.
Smart business initiatives are slashing power consumption on that front e.g.
20% power savings simply from switching off all computers & equipment of
stand-by and non-essential lighting at night when the office is closed.

Once you start eliminating these excessive and wasteful demands on
production (and they really start to add up to substantial amounts once
there's a good number of strategies), then exploring the logistics of
renewable sources for essential needs become a far more feasible exercise.

Robyn

"Change your life - not the climate"
In the US, 30% of total power consumption goes to facilitate citizens continuing to shit in their drinking water.
We clear-cut forests in order to make paper with which to wipe our butts. Doesn't this indicate a serious problem with shitting somewhat ethically?
I consider this to be the sort of energy problem that has potential to encourage a just, sacred, and sustainable society.
Virtually no one is willing to be responsible for their own shit, literally (and figuratively, too). What would Permaculture do?
In California, composting toilets are against state law as the only means of handling shit. A house must have a water toilet.
Where I lived, in southern Santa Rosa, California, the ground water on the Santa Rosa Plain was all sewer water from local septic systems.
To whom is this acceptable?
Built wetlands have, as a by-product, septage that has to be transported off-site ever so often.
/The Humanure Handbook/ does not show up in searches on BN.com or alibris.com. Joseph Jenkins has shit figured out but no one likes his solution, apparently.
How shall we shit so we can live with the results?

Tommy Tolson
Austin, TX




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