permaculture

[Ben Martin Horst <ben.martinhorst@gmail.com>]

On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 12:40 PM, jamesdavid Sneed <harvestcircle@hotmail.com
> wrote:

>
> I, to am responsible for the spills and the mining disaters, and so are
> you. It is not just the greedy corporate owners, but all of us. I can't stop
> them, so I must change myself, every bit of myself that does not live in
> harmony on this planet.
>

Well, yes, we're all guilty, but to paraphrase Orwell, some of us are more
guilty than others. I refuse to accept that my footprint, at perhaps 5
metric tons of CO2/year, is somehow equivalent to BP's 1,376,000,000
tons/year (that's the 2004 number). Personal sustainability is something all
of us should be seeking (and I'd really like to be able to get my own carbon
footprint down into negative numbers), but even if everybody subscribed to
this list were to become an ecological saint, it still wouldn't make a dent
in the globes crises. We need to look for the least change for greatest
effect... it seems to me that some of those "least changes" involve
reforming broader societal systems, including the way corporations are
chartered, structured, and held accountable (for example, dismantling
corporate "personhood" and ensuring that the precautionary principle is
observed in corporate charters), rather than trying to go individual by
individual.

In their own personal practices, many permaculturists have created solutions
that have broader impact beyond their own daily lives -- personal change can
be influential to broader society. But while I've been progressively making
changes in my own lifestyle, it's defeatist to think that I can't be
politically or socially active until I've got all my own issues perfectly
figured out. Sometimes it takes concerted action against vested interests --
in this case Big Oil -- for alternatives to gain any broad traction or
acceptance.

-Ben