1 intro permaculture 2015

Plentitude FundamentalsJuliet Schor

1. A New Allocation of Time – less industrial work, more time for working outside of the BAU economy and for social relations.

2. Self-provision - or make, grow, or do things for oneself. Includes new forms of hi-tech making.

3. True Materialism – it is only when we take the materiality of the world seriously that we can appreciate and preserve the resources on which spending depends.

4. restore investments in one another and our communities. While social bonds are not typically thought of in economic terms, these connections, which scholars call social capital, are a form of wealth that is every bit as important as money or material goods.

Work and spend less, create and connect more.

Permaculture Design CertificationThe Sustainability Revolution

April, 2015Lawrence (Lonnie) Gamble, P.E.

This presentation prepared on solar powered computers

Signs of Spring:Arugula is Up in Lonnie’s Greenhouse

Planted on March 9, up by March 15

Other Signs of Hope

70% of the world is fed by peasant farmers

Obama Solar Quote

The Renewable Energy Revolution is Here

Add stunning progressShow ad on stealing grease from

Notes

GermanyOn Saturday, May 26, 2012 Germany got 40% of it’s energy from solar.On Sunday, May 11, 2014, Germany got 75% of it’s energy from

renewables.

Energiewende, the innovative public policy around renewables has created 400,000 jobs in Germany

Solar Potential Germany vs Iowa

Germany (Berlin): 883 kwh per kwTotal Solar Installed in Germany: 38,359 mw

Iowa (Fairfield): 1300 kwh per kwTotal capacity of the Iowa grid: 10,000 mw

Iowa

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 20120%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

From 5% to 25% in Just 6 Years!

% Iowa Electrical Energy from Wind

5 Times Increase in Wind Energy Production in 6 years

Solar in Iowa - 20042 kw

Solar in Iowa - 2008Prairiewoods 10 KW

Solar in Iowa - 2012Sky Factory 54 kw, 79,000 kwh

Solar in Iowa - 2014 Farmers Electric Coop

800 kw 1,000,000 kwh

Portugal at 58% Renewable Energy for 2013(First half of 2013 was 75%)

Pop 10.4 million

By 2020, Renewables will account for 35,000 jobs

Kauai

On August 31, 2014, during daytime hours, 57% of power on Kauai was from renewable sources. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Hawaii)

Once Anahola goes on-line, solar will approach 80% of the energy demand on some days. At some times solar output may exceed demand. Kauai is a laboratory for the world on 100% renewable energy.

Costa Rica 100% Powered by Renewable Energy for the 1st 75 days of 2015

Pop: 4.8 Million Annual % Renewables: 88%

Renewables allowed a 12% reduction in energy prices

“We are declaring peace with nature,” Costa Rican ambassador Mario Fernández Silva

Electric Transportation: Nissan Leaf

• Nissan Leaf Example

Assume 12,000 miles per yearLeaf gets 5.4 miles per kwh, 2300 kwh per yearCost for electricity at 12 cents (40 cents on Kauai) /kwh:$271Equivalent cost for gas @$3/gallon: $1200Cost of PV panels to produce this much annual energy: $1600Cost of system: $4600

Like having 70 cent per gallon gasoline

11th Hour

Sustainability Challenges

2 Degrees Safe Global Temp rise

It’s wrong to profit from wrecking the planetIt’s time to divest from fossil fuels

5 times more coal, oil, and gas in proven reserves than is safe to burn. We need to leave 80% of it in the ground.

The fossil fuel industry wakes up every day determined to burn it all.

575 Gigatons of carbon can safely be added to the atmosphere

2795 Gigatons of carbon in proven reserves

“We need a persuasive and visionary yes rather than a ongoing no”

- Naomi Klein, UH Manoa Feb 2015

“Although the problems are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple”

- Bill Mollison developer of Permaculture Design Methodology

“We are charged with designing the future,

not being victims of it”- R Buckminster Fuller

• Mcdonough audio/video - ethics of design, design as first signal of human intention

Oberlin Lewis Center

If we get the design right, we get cascading side benefits

If we get the design wrong, we get cascading side effects

Sustainable Living: A New and Better Design for Living

Permaculture: A system of design for Sustainable Living

Consider Design and the Electric Car:The better car makes the worse city

The surprising sustainability of city livingGoing beyond individual initiative

Richard Register Sustainable Living Department Distinguished Scholar

• “I look for what needs to be done. After all, that's how the universe designs itself.” - Buckminster Fuller

Living Fully Rooted in the Abundant Flows of Natural Systems

Permaculture Definition: A Fertility Cult

Permaculture celebrates nature’s extravagance

Eco-efficiency vs Eco-effectiveness

“The stone age didn’t end because we ran out of stones….” - Saudi Oil Minister

Economy of Scarcity Economy of Abundance

Nature’s Economy: Ecosystem Services

Man’s Economy

Observation and Permaculture Design

Permaculture:

• Scan from Wired magazine (or off internet?)

The design of human habitats that have the stability, diversity, and resilience of natural ecosystems

Other systems of Ecological DesignNatural Step Principles: The Rules of Nature

In order to create a sustainable society, we need to understand that we must operate within natural laws and principles rather than attempting to overcome them. Scientists agree on the following non-negotiable facts about the earth:

1. The earth is a closed system with respect to matter. Nothing enters or leaves (aside from the odd meteor or rocket), which means everything that was here two billion years ago is still here today. There is no away: matter can change form, but it doesn’t leave.

2. The earth is an open system with respect to energy. In fact, energy from the sun is the only input into the system. This energy enters our atmosphere and is released back into space in the form of heat. The sun’s energy drives everything.

3. Life exists in the thin layer around the earth called the biosphere, which is as thin as the skin of an onion. The biosphere is very fragile – as we’re learning almost daily, and there is only so much wear and tear it can take. And it is certainly rare. As far as we know, there’s only one just like it in the entire universe, and the more we learn about it, the more complex and beautiful it turns out to be.

4. Photosynthetic organisms (plants and some algae) capture the sun’s energy and use it to power their growth. This growth supports the development of every organism on earth – in other words, photosynthesis pays the bills.

5. All life on earth depends on complex, self-regulating systems that circulate materials and energy in closed-loop cycles (Gaia). Slow geological processes move materials from deep in the earth’s crust (or lithosphere) to the biosphere and back again. Ecosystems in the biosphere rapidly cycle and recycle nutrients, water and energy from one organism

to the next. Nature works in efficient cycles where nothing is wasted.

From Co-op America's statement, "What we mean when we say 'green'":

“When we use the word 'green,' we're talking about social and economic justice and environmental sustainability. The green economy respects workers, communities and the environment, and uses the planet's resources carefully. It is built on the belief that every person has the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, earn fair wages, and live in a thriving community where residents can secure jobs and put down roots--values we can all share, regardless of political affiliation. We are working for a world where everyone has enough, where all communities are healthy and safe, and where the beauty and wealth of the Earth is preserved for all generations to come."

SustainabilityMeet the needs of the present without diminishing

opportunities for the future

A world view with a set of supporting infrastructure, technologies, institutions, ways of relating to each

other and to nature

Shallow Vs Deep Sustainability

Shallow Sustainability - Using efficiency and substitution to ameliorate the effects of the existing system with doing much to change the worldview the system is based on. Motivated primarily by economic value.

Deep Sustainability

Efficiency and substitution are in service to radical redesign based on a worldview that uses ecology as a metaphor rather than the machine, holism rather than reductionism, compliments science with many ways of knowing, and is grounded in an experiential and intellectual understanding of the unity that underlies the surface diversity of life.

Deep Sust Cont’d

• This worldview leads to a society that has an ethic of regeneration and renewal of human society and nature. Deep sustainability gives priority to ethical and social values while recognizing the necessity of economic viability.

Perennial Philosophy

• The first peace, which is most important, is that which comes from within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the great spirit, and that this center is really everywhere — it is within each of us.” Black Elk

““It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied together into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality . . . Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.” Martin Luther King

“Everything is so intimately connected with every other thing in creation that it is not possible to distinguish completely the existence of one from the other. And the influence of one thing on every other thing is so universal that nothing could be considered in isolation. We have already mentioned that the universe reacts to an individual action…Therefore, the great responsibility of right and wrong lies in the individual him [or her]self on the level of his [or her] consciousness.”—Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, from Science of Being and Art of Living p. 219-223

David Suzuki

• Suzuki on connectedness

TM: The direct experience of the level at which everything is connected

Permaculture: The intellectual exploration and practical application of the level at which everything is connection – A branch of applied Vedic Science

Beyond Sustainability to Thrivability:Permaculture

Permaculture is Deep Sustainability: Radical Redesign for Regeneration and Renewal - The creation of a new story (assign Korten audio)

Food Production

Surya Nagar FarmClimate responsive buildings

January

Febru

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March April

May

JuneJuly

August

September

October

November

December

0

500

1000

1500

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2500

Monthly Wind and Solar - Fairfield

WindSolar

Wind and Solar Have Same Annual Output

KWh

Rainwater Harvesting

Vermi (worm)composting sewage treatment

1956 Beverly, MassachusettsPassive Solar House

1981

1982-1997 Hampden, Maine Elements Power Company/Maine Energy Partner

Souadabsacook Stream Hydro PlantGenerated 700,000 - 1,000,000 kwh per year

Passive Solar/Superinsulated * Composting Toilet * Rainwater harvesting * solar hot water * Interior constructed wetland to treat waste water * Local Lumber * Captured waste heat from generator

*

1985 Hampden, Maine

Superinsulated house, R-40 double stud walls, R-60 roof

1992 - Carrizo Plains, Ca

1994Christensen ResidenceSun Valley Idaho

• Uncle Elmer• Dad’s Boat

1957 – The Uncle Elmer

1994 -1998Harmony

San Diego, California

Growing Food in the City Organic Hydroponics

1996- PresentHawaii

Surya Nagar Farm Hawaii - Kaimu, Big Island

This presentation prepared on solar powered computers

Green Leadership Hawaii

Hawaii 2015

University of Sustainable Living

Kauai and UH Manoa Talks

Jerry Konanui The Hawaiian Vandana Shiva

Ben katz

MUM SL Alumni Ben Katz and Robbie Fox

MUM Guerilla Salad Project 2003“Grow food around where you live, then the rest of the landscape can be returned to wetlands and wildlands and we will create a whole new continent for our grandchildren to explore”

- Bill Mollison

MUM Farms

Fairfood

MUM Farm

Aerial view – MUM greenhouses

Future Campus:SEED Center

Sustainable Education Enterprise Development

Sustainability Education and Enterprise Development (SEED) Center

Media/Community Radio

Sustainable Living ProgramMaharishi University of Management

The first four-year university program in Sustainable Living

Goal: Provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to help design, build, and maintain sustainable communities.

Established 2003, 110 students enrolled full time in 2008

What is Permaculture?

Permaculture is the design of productive human habitats that mimic the stability, diversity, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It seeks to provide a sustainable and secure place for living things on this earth.

Permaculture is Design

Goal of Permaculture

Reverse the CONSUMPTION model into a CREATION model.

Build the topsoil while growing bountiful crops Produce enough healthy food to feed the world Repair Devastated Lands – Regrow Rainforests Produce the energy we consume Create resilient communities and cities Improve everyone's quality of life Possibly retard/reverse global warming

We need a change in collective consciousness to make this a collective vision and a reality

We need a new story

Permaculture Education• Permaculture Design Certification course– First step toward becoming a permaculture design

professional– Bill Mollison owns the intellectual property rights

to the word “Permaculture”– Minimum 72 hours of instruction using a

curriculum based on the Designers Manual– Just the first step – need to apprentice with

experienced designers. – Decentralized, self regulating structure

Textbook

Course Fee: $65Inc Book, 3 day field trip/conference and all materials/handouts

Holmgren’s Permaculture Flower

Permaculture:A Connecting Discipline

How to organize a community for a positive, desirable transition away from fossil fuels?

Transition Towns MovementPermaculture Design Applied to Community Organizing

“I believe that a lower-energy, more localized future, in which we move from being consumers to being producer/consumers, where food, energy and other essentials are locally produced, local economies are strengthened and we have learned to live more within our means is a step towards something extraordinary, not a step away from something inherently irreplaceable.” —Rob HopkinsThe Transition Handbook

David Orr on Human Settlements I think there are four different models, which are not mutually exclusive. One would be what Gene Logsdon, in a book called The Contrary Farmer, has proposed. Rural areas with farms of, say, 20-25 acres would be intensively managed but basically would provide a second income. Logsdon's model is essentially a down scaling of the status quo; it's a kind of a mini-farm size.

Eliot Coleman, Four Season Farm, Harborside Maine

Lonnie and Eliot C

Orr on settlements cont’d

• In the second model, I think we're talking about reinventing agriculture. This model is based on the European farm village in which people live in a town that has a vital civic and cultural life. But farm lands lie outside the village. This model would be in fact a reinvention of a human community relative to a particular habitat, involving everything from food production to marketing. It would certainly be more diverse. You could imagine land owned collectively or cooperatively with outlets like local restaurants or direct marketing a variety of products to urban areas.

Register city image

Orr on settlements cont’d A third model involves re-ruralizing cities and moving agriculture in

novel ways into urban areas. Let me give you two different examples. You can see in virtually every large city, small groups doing urban gardening. What they've done is to move agriculture on a small scale into often blighted urban neighborhoods.

Another form is the ecological engineering being developed by John and Nancy Todd of the Ocean Arks Institute (see Healing Technologies in this issue). An example would be a city block under glass in which you use the waste water from local communities as the input to a series of human-designed ecosystems. While you're purifying the water, you're using the nutrient stream in the water, the nitrogen and the phosphorous, to grow trees, fruits, flowers, various kinds of plants and vegetables, and raise fish.

Gillis Growth Grove Kansas City, Missouri

Orr on settlements cont’d

Finally, there's a fourth approach. Paul Shepard, author of The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game, once described reintegrating hunting/gathering zones in and around cities. These zones work as wildlife corridors and also as places where people in adjoining towns can hunt and gather. I saw something like this near the town of Puschino south of Moscow on the banks of the Oka River. There was a biosphere reserve on the north side of the river, and they kept the river corridor relatively pristine. People would go out on the weekend with baskets and harvest the forest: a kind of modern age hunting and gathering.

Three things amazed me. One was how pretty the landscape was; the people there appreciated the beauty and they kept it beautiful. Second, I was impressed by how competent they were; the people knew plants and animals. They were natural historians. The third thing was how productive the land along the river appeared to be.

That's good land use planning, it's good food policy, it conserves resources and biological diversity, and it nourishes the spirit.

Permaculture Design Considers the Synergistic Relationship of:

• Agriculture - with an emphasis on perennial systems• Aquaculture• Forestry, Forest Gardens, Tree Crops, Agroforestry• Energy• Water• Earthworks• Buildings and the Built Environment• Restoration of natural systens• Urban Design and Planning - Ecocities• Transportation• Attitude• Invisible Structures- economics, access to land, banking and money

systems, right livelihoods, cooperatives, government, education, commons, intellectual property rights

• Equity and Social Justice • The beneficial synergies between all of the above

Bill Mollison

David Holmgren

1978 1979

1988 2002

“The ideal way in which to spend one’s time is in the perfection of the expression of life, to lead the most evolved life possible, and to assist in and celebrate the existence of all life forms other than humans, for they all come from the same egg.”

- Bill Mollison

Roots of PermacultureStout Fukuoka Nearings Fuller

George Washington Carver

Developed thousands of new uses for plants, including soap and ink from peanuts, a building wall system made from cotton stalks, and 75 products made from pecans.

He wanted farmers in the south to be able to get all their needs met from the farm without having to participate in the cash economy.

Carver went to Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa and graduated from Iowa State.

Carver was born into slavery.

• Indigenous Cultures• Tree Crops - J Russell Smith• Farmers of 40 Centuries - King• Sir Albert Howard• Aldo Leopold• Henry David Thoreau• Ghandi

Other work pre-dating Mollison and Holmgren:A few examples

Scott and Helen Nearing

“We are charged with designing the future,

not being victims of it”- R Buckminster Fuller

Inspiration for Designers

• “I look for what needs to be done. After all, that's how the universe designs itself.” - Buckminster Fuller

The Current Generation: Mcdonough Benyus Lovins Todd

Mcdonough Clip

Nature’s operating system / design principles

Wangari Maathai• Responsible for planting 30 million trees

through the Green Belt Movement• Saw trees as a way for to help women –

firewood, employment, shelter, supplement to diet, improving water availability

• Was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004• Other accomplishments:

– 6000 tree nurseries operated by women– Jobs created for 100,000 people– Educated Kenyan women about family planning,

nutrition, leadership development

"It occurred to me that some of the problems women talked about were connected to the land. If you plant trees you give them firewood. If you plant trees you give them food…I started out planting trees and found myself in the forefront of fighting for the restoration of democracy in my country." - Wangari Maathai

Youtube link

Wes Jackson(turn up sound)

Can we do this?What is the level of response needed?

• WW II PREP STATISTCS• 4 days after Pearl Harbor, auto industry ordered to stop

production of civilian vehicles– Fuel rationed at 4 gallons per week per car, dropping to 2 gallons in

1944– 35 mph speed limit, break it and loose your fuel and tire rations– Backed by marketing campaign

• Military spending– 1940: 1.9 % of GDP– 1943: 32% of GDP– GDP increased by 75%

• Campaigns to reduce meat consumption, for recycling, gardening• Dramatic increases in the level of taxation• England transition to feeding itself from backyard gardens in 1

year

“It is best to think of this as a revolution, not of guns, but of consciousness, which will be won by seizing the key myths, archetypes, eschatologies, and ecstasies so that life won’t seem worth living unless one is on the transforming energy’s side.” Gary Snyder quoted in Seeing Nature by Paul Krafelpap

A New Story

The changes we need to make for sustainability – stronger, more vibrant communities, rich social connections, a sense of purpose and meaning, less industrial work, renewable energy, ecocities, coproducing and making, organic local foods, connection to nature and to our own inner being - are also the changes we need to create a better world, the world of our best dreams and aspirations.

• “But in the end, the question is not, 'How do we use nature to serve our interests' It's 'How can we use humans to serve nature's interest?' Now, as a designer, I find that question really interesting” William McDonough

• “In higher states of consciousness, individual desire becomes spontaneously aligned with the need of nature, the need of the time”