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This is What Denial Does
Consumerism, Economics — by George Monbiot October 16, 2008
The economic crisis is petty by comparison to the nature crunch. But they have the same cause.
by George Monbiot – journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist
 Click for full view Courtesy: Throbgoblins |
This is nothing. Well, nothing by comparison to what’s coming. The financial crisis for which we must now pay so heavily prefigures the real collapse, when humanity bumps against its ecological limits.
As we goggle at the fluttering financial figures, a different set of numbers passes us by. On Friday, Pavan Sukhdev, the Deutsche Bank economist leading a European study on ecosystems, reported that we are losing natural capital worth between $2 trillion and $5 trillion every year, as a result of deforestation alone(1). The losses incurred so far by the financial sector amount to between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion. Sukhdev arrived at his figure by estimating the value of the services – such as locking up carbon and providing freshwater – that forests perform, and calculating the cost of either replacing them or living without them. The credit crunch is petty when compared to the nature crunch.
Comments (1)Letters from Vietnam – The Road to Na Sai
Aid Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, People Systems, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 14, 2008
We catch a rare glimpse of an ancient and beautiful culture – the Black Thai people – and applaud the work of a modern day NGO who is working to help improve the lives of these noble people whilst retaining their unique identity – just as a new road threatens their natural, low-carbon existence.
Black Thai Villager in Rice Fields, Na Sai Village, Vietnam
Photos: Craig Mackintosh
A few days ago I had the profound privilege of spending two days in a ‘lost village’ – a tiny community hidden away in one of Vietnam’s border regions. I invite you to share in this rare opportunity by way of the text and images below.
The topography of the landscape, and its remoteness, has isolated the Na Sai village, separating it from modern influences and modern ‘development’. Being here in Vietnam, whilst the world faces a potential "systemic" financial meltdown, is rather ironic, particularly as I compare the vulnerabilities of the outside world with a community like this – a community for whom industrialised society is a seeming universe apart in terms of culture and socioeconomic dependencies.
In many ways, from my observations, if the rest of the world were to sink into the ocean this community would barely notice.
Comments (15)Rising Seas and Powerful Storms Threaten Global Security
Global Warming/Climate Change — by Earth Policy Institute
by Janet Larsen, Earth Policy Institute
Standing before the United Nations General Assembly in October 1987, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives, made an appeal representing “an endangered nation.” That year for the first time, “unusual high waves” in the Indian Ocean inundated a quarter of the urban area on the capital island of Male’, flooded farms, and washed away reclaimed land. Gayoom cited scientific evidence that human activities were releasing greenhouse gases that warm the planet, ultimately raising global sea level as glaciers melt and warmer water expands. The trouble extended beyond small islands; studies showed that rising seas would wreak havoc on the U.S. Gulf Coast, the Netherlands, and the river deltas of Egypt and Bangladesh.
Permaculture (and why it is my new way…)
Courses/Workshops — by Daphne Drew October 12, 2008
Editor’s Note: A recent PDC graduate tells us about her post-PDC thoughts below. If you’re watching current world events, and feeling the need to get back to a sound platform of existence (on all levels – practically, physically and spiritually), then we still have a few seats left on the November 2 two-week PDC course at PRI’s headquarters – Zaytuna Farm, NSW, Australia. This course will be taught by Geoff & Nadia Lawton.
Photo: Craig Mackintosh
Hello, my name is Daphne Romani Drew, architect and recent PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate course) graduate from Geoff Lawton’s course at Quail Springs, California. I would like to share how permaculture has changed my life (from the inside out) and why others should consider it too.
Comments (2)Letters from Vietnam – Arriving to HEPA
Aid Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 10, 2008
Hanoi, Vietnam
Photos: Craig Mackintosh
Greetings from Vietnam. Geoff and Nadia and other PRI team members (including yours truly) landed here five days ago – aiming to continue to help develop the work of SPERI (Social Policy Ecology Research Institute), a Vietnamese NGO and sister organisation to PRI.
Comments (1)The Other Bail-Out
Consumerism, Economics, peak oil — by George Monbiot
Another set of corporations is pressing for public money. Governments should let them die.
by George Monbiot – journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist
While all eyes were fixed on the banking bail-out, a bucketload of public money was quietly sloshed into the pockets of another undeserving cause. Last week, George Bush agreed to lend $25bn to US car manufacturers. It’s a soft loan, which will cost the government $7.5bn(1). Few people noticed; fewer fought it. The House of Representatives approved the measure by 370 votes to 58. The great corporate bail-out is spreading like the plague.
It has already crossed the Atlantic. Yesterday European car makers demanded that the EU hand them €40bn ($54bn) in cheap loans to match the US subsidy(2). Where will the public spending spree end?
Comments OffBill Mollison Interview from 1991
General — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 7, 2008
Editor’s Note: Here’s a great Bill Mollison interview to throw into the mix. The interviewer is Alan AtKisson, who caught Bill in Seattle in ‘91, and interviewed him in a downtown hotel to the ironic accompaniment of traffic noise.
Alan: Permaculture is a slippery idea to me. But from what I read, it seems that not even those who actually do permaculture really know what it is.
Bill: I’m certain I don’t know what permaculture is. That’s what I like about it – it’s not dogmatic. But you’ve got to say it’s about the only organized system of design that ever was. And that makes it extremely eerie.
Alan: Why "eerie"?
Comments (3)Intro to Permaculture
Presentations/Demonstrations — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 5, 2008
Permaculturist, Ethan Roland, gives a quirky, upbeat intro to Permaculture, with promises of more to come.
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Vuon – Ao – Chuong – The Traditional Vietnamese Farm
Aquaculture, Eco-Villages, Fish, Food Forests, Land, Livestock, Plant Systems, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Nguyen Van Man October 4, 2008
by Nguyen Van Man
VAC is an acronym formed from the three Vietnamese words Vuon, garden or orchard, Ao, fish pond, and Chuong, pigsty or poultry shed. It refers to a form of domestic agriculture in which food gardening, fish rearing and animal husbandry are wholly integrated, and stems from farming methods developed in the Red River delta of Vietnam.
The VAC system is a highly intensive method of small scale farming that makes optimal use of land, water and solar energy, achieving high economic efficiency for low capital investment. Plants are used for food, fibre, and fuel, and always products are passed into the production cycle. Developed from age old production agricultural practices, VAC farming now takes place in many regions of Vietnam, with models varying according to the terrain and the climate.
Comments (6)Can Permaculture Save the World???
Alternatives to Political Systems, Bio-regional Organisations, Biodiversity, Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Economics, Financial Management, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, People Systems, Population, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Village Development, Water Contaminaton & Loss, peak oil — by Ted Trainer October 2, 2008
Editor’s Note: Point one – this article is circa 1998, from the now-ceased publication Permaculture International Journal. Point two – it is now more relevant than ever, so please read and ponder. The article goes a long way towards explaining why I mix articles the way I do – some about Permaculture, some about current events, the global situation, and the desperate need for systemic social, political and economic change.
Ted Trainer argues that although the planet cannot be saved without Permaculture, not enough people in the movement realise where Permaculture fits into the solution.
We are fast approaching a period of enormous and probably chaotic change. Western industrial-affluent-consumer society is unsustainable and is rapidly running into serious difficulties.
Permaculture is a crucial component of the solution to the global predicament. However I want to argue that Permaculture is far from sufficient, and indeed that it can be counter-productive if it is not put in the right context. That is unless we are careful, promoting Permaculture can actually help to reinforce our existing unsustainable society. We must do much more than just contribute to the spread of Permaculture. We must locate Permaculture within a wider campaign of radical social change. Before I try to explain this, I need to outline how I see the global predicament we are in. Whether or not you will agree with my conclusions about what needs to be done and where Permaculture fits in will depend greatly on whether you share my view of the situation we are in.
Comments (6)Congress Confronts its Contradictions
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Economics, Society — by George Monbiot October 1, 2008
They baled out of the bail-out, but the money will still have to come from us. It always has.
by George Monbiot – journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist
According to Senator Jim Bunning, the proposal to purchase $700bn of dodgy debt by the US government “is financial socialism, it is un-American”(1). The economics professor Nouriel Roubini calls George Bush, Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke “a troika of Bolsheviks who turned the USA into the United Socialist State Republic of America”(2). Bill Perkins, the venture capitalist who took out an advertisement in the New York Times attacking the deal, calls it “trickle-down communism”(3).
They are wrong. The banking subsidies Congress rejected last night are as American as apple pie and obesity. The sums demanded by Bush and Paulson might be unprecedented, but there is nothing new about the principle: corporate welfare is a consistent feature of advanced capitalism. Only one thing has changed: Congress has been forced to confront its contradictions.
Comments (1)Trees Giving Up Battle, But Sustainable Farming Offers Hope
Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Global Warming/Climate Change, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Trees — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor
The silver bullet solution to climate change in many people’s book is to simply ‘plant a tree’. A recent study indicates that it might not be quite that simple…
Comments (2)The ability of forests to soak up man-made carbon dioxide is weakening, according to an analysis of two decades of data from more than 30 sites in the frozen north.
The finding published today is crucial, because it means that more of the CO2 we release will end up affecting the climate in the atmosphere rather than being safely locked away in trees or soil.
The results may partly explain recent studies suggesting that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing faster than expected. If higher temperatures mean less carbon is soaked up by plants and microbes, global warming will accelerate.
A Pattern Revolution
Eco-Villages, Health & Disease, People Systems, Society, Trees — by Warren Brush
by Warren Brush, Quail Springs
All over the world, an ancient way of being has combined its elemental forces with the truths gained in the modern age to spark the fires of a new and imperative revolution. It is a subtle revolution of knowing the story of where all that sustains us comes from, and of honoring those things deeply. This revolution’s power draws from an ancient well of knowing that we as humans, with our opposing thumbs, expansive brains, and the capacity for empathy, are destined to draw from as we become stewards and caretakers of the land, and one another. Weaving our story with that of which sustains us not only empowers us to be revolutionaries in an age of rampant capitalism and its resource and culture eating syndromes, but also allows us to take true responsibility for the impacts of our lives. In its sheer humility, this revolution may be the very humus that is formed under the footsteps of the soldiers of capitalism and imperialism. As they pass unaware of us, our way of being becomes the nutrient from which new life will grow in a time beyond our own.
Criminal Mastermind
Global Warming/Climate Change — by Marc Roberts September 30, 2008
Click for full view
Courtesy: Throbgoblins
Al Gore announces his incredulity at the lack of non violent direct action from the young in the face of global corporate inertia. Judging by some of the woefully misguided responses from the Right, you’d think he’s advocated ritual kitten-disemboweling on the Whitehouse lawn.
Wouldn’t it be grand if some high profile, well respected and experienced mainstream American politician could be found to lead the way into some actual, law-breaking, jail-time civil disobedience? If only there was someone like that somewhere….hmmm
Comments OffPermaculture Volunteer Sought for Uganda
Aid Projects, Project Positions, Village Development — by Janice Smart
Can you imagine yourself preparing a small-scale intensive garden whilst enjoying Ugandan songs, smiles and sweet bananas? If so, this permaculture volunteer position may be for you!
The Network for Holistic Community Development (NEFHCOD) is a small, non-government organisation established in 2005 in the Rakai District, Southern Uganda. NEFHCOD works to empower communities and the needy for sustainable economic development and works predominantly with those living with and affected by HIV/Aids, orphans, invalids and the elderly. Our work encompasses health, education, the environment and community capacity building.
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