permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

http://blackbrowngreen.com

Have you heard about this exciting new web site 
that partners issues of social justice and 
environmental causes? I think you should check it out.

Black. Brown. Green. is a web portal of resources 
and information that integrate people of color 
and our needs and issues with the movement for 
environmental sustainability. It's also a place 
for people of color to learn about green living 
and develop an understanding of how issues of 
social justice and environmental sustainability 
are interlinked not only in the political world, 
but in our daily lives. Black. Brown. Green. is 
solution oriented. We hope to spread the 
understanding that all things are connected and 
that we are stronger when working together than 
we are when we are tearing each other apart.

The BBG 
<http://blackbrowngreen.com/pages/philosophy.html>philosophy 
combines the principles of permaculture and 
non-violent social change into a clear blueprint 
for how to create a world that sustains us all. 
(see below this is how we do it)

Our 
<http://blackbrowngreen.com/pages/history.html>history 
page tells the stories from people of color who 
have come before us and valued sustainability 
long before the modern popular green trends. Have 
we forgotten that green living is in our blood? BBG helps all of us remember.


BBG provides a cache of 
<http://blackbrowngreen.com/pages/artvid.html>articles 
and videos that address the interconnectedness of 
green and social issues. Learn how deeply 
entwined we are with the fate of the planet. 
Learn why issues remain segregated even after 
we've fought long and hard for equality. Educate 
yourself and others about the 
<http://blackbrowngreen.com/pages/history.html>history 
and current situations of people of color around 
the world. Debate hot topics. Expand the definitions of green.


BBG's 
<http://blackbrowngreen.com/pages/share.html>e-newsletter 
helps you to stay up to date on the issues 
and  policies that affect your daily lives. We 
also connect you with the many 
<http://blackbrowngreen.com/pages/resources.html>resources 
that provide excellent news coverage of the 
things you need and want to know, and the 
<http://blackbrowngreen.com/pages/resources.html>people 
who are working towards a socially just, green 
world. We don't want to re-create the wheel, we 
want to get your wheels in motion.



BBG's 
<http://blackbrowngreen.com/pages/living.html>living 
section gives you practical day-to-day ways to 
live a green life. Many people of color choose to 
live in an environmentally sustainable way 
because we know first-hand the damage that 
oppression can do to any being, including our 
planet. You can 
<http://blackbrowngreen.com/pages/share.html>share 
your ideas, tips with a community of people who 
are committed to living a BBG lifestyle.

This is how we do it.

The BBG Philosophy partners the 12 principles of 
Permaculture with the 6 principles and 6 steps of 
Nonviolent Social Change to create an outline for 
living the best lives we can and creating the 
healthiest future for our world. We don't 
reinvent the wheel. We build connections between 
cooperating wheels to create smooth-running, 
interconnected, powerful gears. To this end, we 
don't re-write or re-create. We pair and partner 
to bolster communities, combine goals and strengthen our culture as a whole.
The 12 partnered principles are:
1. Observe and Interact + Gather Information.
2. Catch and Store Energy + Educate Others.
3. Obtain a Yield + Choose Loving Solutions, Not Hateful Ones.

4. Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback + Remain Committed.
5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services + Peacefully Negotiate.
6. Produce No Waste + The Entire Universe Embraces and Deserves Justice.
7. Design from Patterns to Details +Take Action Peacefully.
8. Integrate Rather Than Segregate + Defeat Injustice, Not People.
9. Use Small and Slow Solutions + Reconcile.
10. Use and Value Diversity + Seek Friendship and 
Understanding Among Those Who are Different from You.
11. Use Edges And Value The Marginal + Suffering 
Can Educate and Transform People and Societies.
12. Creatively Use And Respond To Change +This Is 
A Way Of Life For Courageous People.



Permaculture is a broad-based and holistic 
approach that has many applications to all 
aspects of life. At the heart of permaculture 
design and practice is a fundamental set of 'core 
values' or ethics which remain constant whatever 
a person's situation, whether they are creating 
systems for town planning or trade; whether the 
land they care for is only a window box or an entire forest.

Designed by David Holmgren, permaculture is based 
on three ethics: Care of the earth (because all 
living things have intrinsic worth); care of the 
people; and reinvest all surplus, whether it be 
information, money, or labor, to support the first two ethics.

• Earthcare - recognizing that the Earth is the 
source of all life (and is possibly itself a 
living entity- see Gaia theory) and that we 
recognize and respect that the Earth is our 
valuable home and we are a part of the Earth, not apart from it.

• Peoplecare - supporting and helping each other 
to change to ways of living that are not harming 
ourselves or the planet, and to develop healthy societies.

• Fairshare - ensuring that the Earth's limited 
resources are utilized in ways that are equitable 
and wise by placing limits on consumption.

Permaculture has come to mean more than just food 
sufficiency in the household. Self-reliance in 
food is meaningless unless people have access to 
land, information, and financial resources. So in 
recent years it has come to encompass appropriate 
legal and financial strategies, including 
strategies for land access, business structures, 
and regional self financing. This way it is a whole human system.

Nonviolence is a powerful tool for creating 
social change in our countries and around the 
world. When we work to remedy one issue, we 
affect all issues. The issues change in 
accordance with the political and social climate 
of our nation and world. Nonviolence is not only 
a method for social change, but a positive way of 
life that becomes a part of all of our personal 
relationships and everything we do in our homes, 
communities and political and business life. It 
is a permanent attitude that is reflected even in 
the choice and tone of words, in body language and way of thinking.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. defined six principles 
of nonviolence which were the heart of his 
philosophy of nonviolence. A commitment to these 
six principles is the key to making nonviolence a 
way of life in our personal relationships and in 
resolving conflicts, reconciling adversaries and 
creating social change at the community, national 
and international levels. He also identified the 
six steps of nonviolence as a methodology for 
applying the six principles in solving problems 
and resolving conflicts peacefully.