Permacuture And The "Low-Energy Future"

Gas is at $4 a gallon and rising this is just the start . . . . .
Current projections show that we cannot maintain our current consumption of fossil fuel continue population growth and destroy the earth. Permaculture is scientific and spiritual look at sustainability and society. We will soon enter a post industrial society.

Here are Permaculture principles:
1. Observe and Interact
2. Catch and Store Energy
3. Obtain a Yield
4. Apply Self Regulation and Accept Feedback
5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services
6. Produce no Waste
7. Design from Patterns to Details
8. Integrate Rather than Segregate
9. Use Small and Slow Solutions
10. Use and Value Diversity
11. Use Edges and Value the Marginal
12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change

I am planning a American Permacuture/Sustainable community project and will update this thread further.

I could Dig on that... sounds like a pretty cool subject...

Ok i'm going to start with principle number one: Observe and Interact. Today we have easy access to information however there is a lack of actual interaction with the natural world. For example I can tell you everything I know about growing weed and you can follow my directions to the T and still kill all your plants. Why? Because today we lack the skills of Observation, Innovation, and Interaction with the natural world. You will learn more about farming or anything else by watching someone and doing it yourself then you will any book. So in the future we will need to broaden our thinking in order to survive just because something works does not mean it is right. Experimental learning has been cut off in todays society we must take back these skills in order to survive the low energy future. My plan is instead of classic classroom instruction for children provide them with an active experimental work environment. Show them how to garden, cook, ect as well as provide them with the information necessary to do so. Text books, television, the internet, ect only go so far. Meditation should also be taught in order to focus and calm the mind for better observation and interaction with the natural world.

Pretty interesting.. This seems like a trip, I'll go along for the ride! HAHA Maybe I can learn something

RON PAUL REVOLUTION

~PEACE~

Principle Two: Catch and Store Energy. Energy comes in many forms one of the most basic is food. Our current social-economic system provides this reliably by tapping the Earth's huge fossil fuel reserves. At the same time economic rationalism has led to the decline of large scale stores of food. This can be clearly seen in the example of hurricane Katrina after the disaster people were left without food and water and had to rely ENTIRELY on outside sources. In the future it will be essential to collect and store local energy. Farmland stores vast energy in the form of bio-mass, organic sustainable farming techniques will re-build soil carbon and restore mineral balances. Water will need to be caught and stored locally. Food, Power, Water, ect. Will need to be provided locally. These houses are an excellent example of this principle Earthship Biotecture » Putting Housing Back into the Hands of the People

NewGrowth said:

I am planning a American Permacuture/Sustainable community project and will update this thread further.

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Interesting... I had almost joined a self sufficient eco villiage but was put off by all the 'no tobacco/drugs' rule and the 'no guns'.. lmfao.. I'll go homesteading alone before I give up my lovelies..

I wonder how many people would actually be interested in putting together an 'herb friendly' self sufficient community..

HotNSexyMILF said:

Interesting... I had almost joined a self sufficient eco villiage but was put off by all the 'no tobacco/drugs' rule and the 'no guns'.. lmfao.. I'll go homesteading alone before I give up my lovelies..

I wonder how many people would actually be interested in putting together an 'herb friendly' self sufficient community..

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Well the funny part is I have been doing research and the major stopping point is the lack of hemp. Hemp is almost necessary for sustainable living in many places because it can provide so much. Tobacco requires very good soil to grow, guns are needed to hunt. Can you send me more info on the village you were looking at? Many of these places are misguided by religion or "moral" values these have been stopping points for sustainable living in the past. Many moral idealist have placed roadblocks and done more harm than good. This is not about morals its more about survival as a society.

Principle Three: Obtain a Yield. We must be able to harvest our natural resources however we can not continue to do so at the current rate. The definition of Yield must be modified and more factors must be considered while harvesting. Today we waste more than we consume in may cases partially because what we consider waste will not be in the near future. Soil structure must be rebuilt for fertility but at the same time we must provide ourselves with enough food to survive and enough surplus to share and store for emergencies. Most importantly we must ensure that the work being done is useful for obtaining food and resources.

NewGrowth said:

Well the funny part is I have been doing research and the major stopping point is the lack of hemp. Hemp is almost necessary for sustainable living in many places because it can provide so much. Tobacco requires very good soil to grow, guns are needed to hunt. Can you send me more info on the village you were looking at? Many of these places are misguided by religion or "moral" values these have been stopping points for sustainable living in the past. Many moral idealist have placed roadblocks and done more harm than good. This is not about morals its more about survival as a society.

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Communities Directory Online
You can find tons of them there, most of them currently trying to form... I could find nothing that would fit me personally tho..

Principle Four: Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback. The Earth creates a self regulating environment. We can see this clearly as the Earth responds to global warming with Ice melting and climate change. On a smaller scale if a species overpopulates the natural factors such as disease, lack of food, ect will bring a population back to sustainable levels. My favorite part of this principle is the idea of Bottom up action this means that local communities and individuals must react to the energy crisis on the individual level. Top down action (i.e large scale response from the elite and powerful minority) does not work in a low-energy future. Self reliance will be one of the most powerful political actions a person can take in the near future. Communities must regulate themselves and accept the consequences of their actions on the local level for a sustainable society to effectively survive.