If you
are skeptical about the coming global environmental collapse, I suggest you
give up your ostrich tendencies and pull your head out of the oil sands. Some of us do not believe anything
until we see it for ourselves—but we don’t make a real effort to go out and see
the world. We look out our back door and say everything looks OK—the
environmental Doom’s-dayers must be crazy liberals. I remind you—the Earth is
the Earth—it is one big ecosystem that does not care about man’s petty politics
and national borders. If there is drought in Australia and Africa, and
diminishing rain forests in South America, this effects the global climate—even
Texas!
I am an
avid television watcher and I have been judged harshly by my friends. It is
true there is a lot of ridiculous trash on American (USA) TV but there is also
some excellent information. A recent addition to DirecTV, TV via satellite, is
a station called Cinemoi. I am most excited by the programming called Earth
From Above by
aerial photographer, Yann Arthus-Bertrand. One of the most heart wrenching
moments in Arthus-Bertrand documentaries was to hear the interview of a man who
lives in Southern Australia. It only took 40 years of questionable farming
practices to decimate 1/3 of the continent into a dustbowl. A lake he swam in
and drank from as a youngster is now a sand pit. Experts say they may never
recover this land---the ground water is so fouled and acidic it kills plants
and animals, and will burn through the soles of your shoes.
Aerial
photographer, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, bases the Earth from Above TV program on his aerial photography. "Yann Arthus-Bertrand is an aesthete with the soul of a
moralist. He uses the beauty of the world to beguile you into a photograph in
which a larger lesson awaits. His lesson is about the planet in
jeopardy."-----Richard Lacayo, Time magazine.
Yann
Arthus-Bertrand is a French photographer, journalist, reporter and
environmentalist who is best-known as an aerial photographer uncovers the story behind the landscape. The subjects are not always photogenic -- his prints
show poverty and strife as well as green tranquility; and everywhere in his work is the encroaching hand
of humanity and its enterprise. He keeps close track of the coordinates of his
locations, so other photographers may track their progress over time.
GoodPlanet, a
non-profit organization set up by Yann Arthus-Bertrand in 2005, seeks to
educate the public and raise awareness of environmental protection. In 2007 it
was recognized as a public-interest foundation, enabling it to put its
activities on a long-term footing.
The GoodPlanet foundation advocates a
lifestyle respectful of the Earth and its inhabitants. It puts forward
realistic and optimistic solutions and encourages each individual to act for
the planet, relying on a series of programs that it continues to develop and
strengthen with the aim of "putting ecology at the heart of our
conscience".
I do not
believe in a Doom's Day scenario. I believe the Creator inspires us with
evolutionary answers. Life is about change, evolution and growth. The Creator
is never static that is totally apparent throughout all of Creation in it’s
cyclic and evolutionary nature. We have rolled over the old Mayan calendar and
are now back to day one. Where do we go from here? I believe the answer lies in global
cooperation and pursuing innovation such as permaculture. We all need to make
sustainable choices. Choices must be made. The nationalistic political status
quo won’t work. It is impossible to have a “Global Economy” and then pretend
that Global environmental issues are irrelevant because your corner of the USA
is clean and beautiful. The retrograde attitudes of US politicians must
change—one cannot freeze yourself in time. There is no new continent to immigrate
to, to hide in. We are a global community.
Central to
permaculture are the three ethics: earth care, people care
and fair share.
They form the foundation for permaculture design and are also found in most
traditional societies. Ethics are culturally evolved mechanisms that regulate
self-interest, giving us a better understanding of good and bad outcomes. The
greater the power of humans, the more critical ethics become for long-term
cultural and biological survival.
Permaculture
ethics are distilled from research into community ethics, learning from cultures
that have existed in relative balance with their environment for much longer
than more recent civilizations. This does not mean that we should ignore the
great teachings of modern times, but in the transition to a sustainable future,
we need to consider values and concepts outside the current social norm.
Permaculture is a branch of ecological design, ecological
engineering, and environmental
design which develops sustainable architecture and self-maintained
agricultural systems
modeled from natural ecosystems.
The
core tenets of permaculture are:
•
Take
care of the earth:
Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. This is the first
principle, because without a healthy earth, humans cannot flourish.
•
Take
care of the people:
Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their existence.
•
Share
the surplus:
Healthy natural systems use outputs from each element to nourish others. We
humans can do the same. By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside
to further the above principles.
Permaculture
design emphasizes patterns of landscape,
function, and species assemblies. It asks the question, "Where does this
element go? How can it be placed for the maximum benefit of the system?"
To answer this question, the central concept of permaculture is maximizing
useful connections between components and synergy of the final
design. The focus of permaculture, therefore, is not on each separate element,
but rather on the relationships created among elements by the way they are
placed together; the whole becoming greater than the sum of its parts.
Permaculture design therefore seeks to minimize waste, human labor, and
energy input by building systems with maximal benefits between design elements
to achieve a high level of synergy.
Permaculture designs evolve over time by taking into account these
relationships and elements and can become extremely complex systems that
produce a high density of food and materials with minimal input.
The design
principles, which are the conceptual foundation of permaculture, were derived
from the science of systems ecology
and study of pre-industrial examples of sustainable land use.
Permaculture draws from several disciplines including organic farming, agroforestry, integrated farming, sustainable
development, and applied ecology.
Permaculture has been applied most commonly to the design of housing and
landscaping, integrating techniques such as agroforestry, natural building, and rainwater
harvesting within the context of permaculture design principles and
theory.
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