permaculture

[Jason Gerhardt <jasongerhardt@gmail.com>]

While I agree that we need more science to back-up permaculture design and
the results it yields, I disagree that we should wait until science catches
up with us (and I don't mean that egotistically, just that science is quite
thorough and takes a long time to validate things), or even that it is "a
conversation the permaculture community has to have". I like to think about
the indigenous inhabitants of the Sierra Madre Occidental and the massive
check damming they did in the regional watersheds. I then like to think
about what their actions might have meant considering that area is now
recognized as one of the most important biodiversity hot spots on the
planet. Did those peoples have metrics and evaluation criteria, or were
they just aiming for abundance?

I don't really see much evidence that there are perfect states for an
ecosystem, as most of what we call wild or pristine is impacted by humans
in either negative or positive ways. Since humans have proven to be quite
the keystone species themselves, we'd be wise to make sure we are having a
positive impact, the likes of which can be measured by a whole host of
ecosystem health indicators. Since much of the planet is pretty degraded it
is fairly obvious when things start to improve.

Perhaps the biggest problem we have is that we somehow don't see ourselves
as natural enough.

-- 
Jason Gerhardt
Designer and Educator