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Urban Design Patterns in Melbourne
Biological Cleaning, Land, Retrofitting, Society, Urban Projects, Water Harvesting — by Dan Palmer
by Dan Palmer, Very Edible Gardens
As more and more people become aware of the many reasons to provide for more of their needs at home, we are finding more and more demand for permaculture design consultancies. We are currently doing two or three in Melbourne each week, and in this article I wanted to share some of the general patterns that are emerging as we go along.
To paint a picture of the average design brief we’re faced with, though the client group is diverse, including younger couples, older couples, single house owners, and young families, almost all our clients ask for some combination of the following:
- Intensive vegie gardens for salad green and kitchen herbs
- Larger vegie gardens for tomatoes, potatoes, corn etc (or the option of adding this in future)
- Water tanks to catch, store and redistribute rain water
- Fruit trees
- Chickens
- An open area for socialising / pets / children
- Simple greywater reuse systems
- Some natives
Posted on: July 4, 2009
Exxon Still Funding Climate Denial Groups
Global Warming/Climate Change — by Craig Mackintosh
I’ve often heard people state that climate change was invented by governments and corporations as a means of controlling and profiting from the populace – these are the climate change conspiracy theorists. While I think there is a very real danger, as I’ve expressed more than once, that if we don’t transform the way we live and how society functions in rapid fashion (i.e. finding alternatives to a consumption-based society and learning to work with, and benefit from, biological synergies) then things could deteriorate to the point where arbitrary control and draconian measures will become likely, at the same time the climate change conspiracy theorists have never explained why – if governments and industry are manufacturing evidence for climate change – these very groups have been spending millions funding people that spread climate denial misinformation. The Bush administration did its best to ignore and make light of the climate change issue, and its bosom buddy ExxonMobil, in particular, has been the lead player in providing the finance (watch ‘The Denial Machine’ video at bottom for more detailed info on this).
Last year Exxon-Mobil promised to cut funding to such groups, but The Guardian now reports that they have continued to fund climate skeptic misinformation right through 2008:
Comments (1)Posted on: July 3, 2009
Permaculture Volunteer Sought for Uganda Project
Aid Projects, Project Positions — by Clive Mullett
Would you like to volunteer at a Permaculture Food Security Project at a Primary School and Boarding House in rural Uganda?
Comments (0)Posted on: July 2, 2009
The Dam Letter
Comedy Break, Working Animals — by Craig Mackintosh
Who says we’re not getting out of touch with nature? Well, I think we are, and read on to see a bit of a comedic look at this.
The following two letters are said to be the actual correspondence between a Mr. Price of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, State of Michigan and a Ryan DeVries of the same state (enjoy the letters first, then stay tuned for why I say ’said to be’ at bottom — no peeking though):
Comments (2)Posted on: July 1, 2009
Life at Zaytuna – June 2009 PDC Begins
Courses/Workshops, News — by Craig Mackintosh
A lily blooms on the dam. Photos copyright © Craig Mackintosh
In between classes, students get to enjoy the beautiful environs at Zaytuna.
What better way to stimulate the mind on the topic at hand: how to work with nature.
This year we’re running less courses than usual, only because we hope to soon concentrate on the construction of several new straw bale student cabins that will improve facilities and enlarge capacity for subsequent courses. But, our scheduled June Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) Course has just got underway and is off to a great start.
Comments (0)Posted on: June 30, 2009
The Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, May 3, 2009
Society — by Paul Hawken
When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” No pressure there.
Let’s begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation… but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.
This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food—but all that is changing.
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Life at Zaytuna – Getting Rid of Wi-Fi
Health & Disease — by Craig Mackintosh
If you’re reading this, you’ll be living in an area where your body is the target of a great deal of electro-smog. Your computer, television and a myriad other electrical devices all create electrical fields that actually charge tiny particles in the air (allergens, bacteria, viruses and the like). These charged particles are far more easily embedded into human tissue – like the inside of your lungs – which can cause health problems.
The higher the electrical field the greater the danger, as the most charged particles hit the tissue with more speed. As they crash land, they become deformed, which makes them stick more firmly. – The Independent
And now newer wireless technologies are under the spotlight, as their health impacts are the cause of a growing concern as well. The cell phone and Wi-Fi industry is huge, and growing, but some countries, like Germany, have warned their citizens to minimise or eliminate their exposure to Wi-Fi and cell phones, while others like the UK scoff at the precautionary principle and fervently promote the technology instead.
Comments (4)Posted on: June 28, 2009
Monsanto Runs Into Wall. Yes!!
Consumerism, Food Shortages, GMOs, Health & Disease, News — by Craig Mackintosh
 Say NO to Monsanto, GMOs, and the patenting of life |
The frustration about this company – Monsanto – and others like it has been running higher and higher over the last few years. (The free flow of information on the internet is a wonderful thing in this regard – corporate-bought media is no longer our only news option….) I think it may well be the most hated corporation on the web and on popular user-driven sites like Digg and Reddit. I would personally take great pleasure in seeing their buildings worldwide bulldozed and their fields razed – leaving behind only stone statue memorials that celebrate the greed and stupidity of man.
Today, however, I can share a beacon of hope. Read on!
Comments (8)Posted on: June 27, 2009
Rosina Buckman – Living Smart on the Sunshine Coast
Demonstration Sites, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh
Rosina Buckman tells me she’s 72 years old. She looks honest enough, so I’ll take her at her word, but her youthful spirit and energetic stride did give me a moment of pause. And more than that – her urban homestead was overflowing with clear evidence of passionate and fruitful labours that belie her age. I’m not the only one that’s impressed either, as the Sunshine Coast Council have just presented Rosina with one of their 2009 Living Smart awards – she’s their ‘Edible Landscape Winner’.
Rosina, a New Zealander by birth, lives in Tewantin, a small suburb on the fringes of Noosa – a tourist hot-spot on the Sunshine Coast in south-east Queensland. This is a land of ululant lorikeets and cackling kookaburras. The bird life in particular seem intoxicated with life, and nature in general seems jubilant – either optimistic, or just plain carefree, in the face of all we humans are throwing at it.
And we are throwing a lot at it.
Comments (5)Posted on: June 26, 2009
Michael Jackson – Earth Song
Musical Interlude — by Craig Mackintosh
One of the most expensive music videos ever made was Michael Jackson’s ‘Earth Song’. Perhaps an appropriate listen today…. The rather dramatic footage was shot in four locations – the Amazon forest, a war zone of Croatia, Tanzania and New York.
Whatever people might say or think about Michael – he was part of the human family. His childhood and life is certainly one I would not wish to have and one I cannot imagine experiencing.
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The Oil Intensity of Food
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton, peak oil — by Earth Policy Institute
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
Today we are an oil-based civilization, one that is totally dependent on a resource whose production will soon be falling. Since 1981, the quantity of oil extracted has exceeded new discoveries by an ever-widening margin. In 2008, the world pumped 31 billion barrels of oil but discovered fewer than 9 billion barrels of new oil. World reserves of conventional oil are in a free fall, dropping every year.
Discoveries of conventional oil total roughly 2 trillion barrels, of which 1 trillion have been extracted so far, with another trillion barrels to go. By themselves, however, these numbers miss a central point. As security analyst Michael Klare notes, the first trillion barrels was easy oil, “oil that’s found on shore or near to shore; oil close to the surface and concentrated in large reservoirs; oil produced in friendly, safe, and welcoming places.” The other half, Klare notes, is tough oil, “oil that’s buried far offshore or deep underground; oil scattered in small, hard-to-find reservoirs; oil that must be obtained from unfriendly, politically dangerous, or hazardous places.”
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Stop Building Tanks
Economics, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society — by George Monbiot
Let’s divert the money spent on arms to addressing the real strategic threat.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom
What would we be doing now if we took climate change seriously? Last week the government released a report on the likely temperature changes in the United Kingdom(1). It shows that life at the end of this century will bear no relationship to life at the beginning. It should have dominated the news for days. But it was too far away, too remote from current problems, too big to see.
Over the past few months, Lord Giddens, one of the architects of New Labour, has been touting the hypothesis that people are reluctant to act on climate change until it becomes visible to them, by which time it will be too late(2). This thought, which has been common currency within the environment movement for at least 20 years, has been christened by this shrinking violet “Giddens’s Paradox”. It ranks among his other major discoveries, like the Giddens Postulate (people wear fewer clothes when temperatures rise) and the Giddens Effect (the earth goes round the Sun). But despite his outrageous expropriation, the point remains a valid one. We will resist taking radical action until we have no choice, whereupon it will have no effect.
Comments (0)Posted on: June 23, 2009
Life at Zaytuna – Rainy Days
Building, Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Regional Water Cycle, Swales, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh
 Photos copyright © Craig Mackintosh |
The area around Zaytuna Farm recently experienced the worst floods for many years (since 1974 they say) – then it dried out for a few weeks. And now, over the last five days, it’s been back to raining again….
When the floods were on, people commented to Geoff, asking how he was coping with the power outages. Geoff was blissfully unaware that there had been any (since Zaytuna runs off grid with solar).
The property is buffered in another way as well – the swales are great equalisers when it comes to water. They keep water flowing from the taps and keep the grass green long after a drought has hit and burnt off the neighbours’ fields, and they also ensure that when a flood strikes, the water is slowed down and sunk – thus avoiding rivers of water carrying away soil and more. To a great degree, the earthworks here not only drought-proof the land, but also flood-proof it as well.
Comments (2)Posted on: June 22, 2009
Europe’s Uprising Against GMOs and Patents on Life
GMOs, Health & Disease — by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
The unstoppable groundswell of opposition to GMOs in Europe, by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
The recent call for a moratorium on GMOs in Europe [1] (see Europe Holds the Key to a GM-Free World, 5th Conference of GM-Free Regions, Food & Democracy, SiS 43) reflects an unstoppable groundswell of opposition to GMOs from both European citizens and governments.
An online poll [2] on the question: “Should GMOs be banned in Europe?” conducted in April 2009 returned a 79 percent yes, 18 percent no and 3 percent don’t know. Days earlier, Germany outlawed the cultivation of Monsanto’s GM maize MON810, a surprising move that delighted campaigners. Germany became the sixth EU country to introduce a provisional ban on the GM maize, after France, Austria, Hungary, Luxembourg and Greece [3]. A source close to the EC said the German ban might bring a revision of the European legislation on GM crops. Germany also voted with the majority in March when the European Commission (EC) attempted to force Austria and Hungary to reverse their bans, and its ruling was overturned by a big majority [1].
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Home
Biodiversity, Consumerism, Deforestation, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Population, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh
The following documentary, ‘Home‘, is almost perfect.
As a photographer, I was totally engrossed in the imagery – mostly shot from above, and almost entirely in the magic hours of morning and evening light – as this production gives us a vision of this world we call home that is hard to forget. It also leaves one feeling like part of the human fabric – part of the larger human family that, when you come right down to it, all depends on our planet and its immense (albeit dwindling) diversity to supply our universal, basic needs.
As a writer, that has covered the many converging issues we’re now facing – water, soil, biodiversity, deforestation, peak oil, climate change, etc. – the facts shared are also on target and up-to-date. And, again, beautifully and graphically presented.
Why I say ‘almost perfect’ is because it is only the last ten or fifteen minutes where the documentary turns about in a bid to leave the viewer feeling optimistic before it’s all over. Here it truly fails. Ultimately, it graphically and beautifully tells the tale of humankind’s misguided and unsustainable attempts at finding satisfaction – but delivers only a warm, fuzzy, nebulous feeling of how we’re to retreat from the cliff edge we’re teetering over. Despite its shortcomings, however, I give kudos to all who put it together and for their willingness to freely distribute it to as many people as possible. It’s definitely a must-watch.
‘Home’ trailer
Watch the full documentary here
Also available in Arabic, French, German, Russian and Spanish.
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