Greening the Desert II – Final
Aid Projects, Biological Cleaning, Compost, Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, Fungi, Irrigation, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Salination, Soil Biology, Soil Conservation, Trees, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh December 11, 2009
The Greening the Desert II video I shared with you recently was edited in Jordan. Now that I’m back at my desk again I’ve had time to edit it slightly. I’ve added the original five-minute Greening the Desert clip in to the front of it, to ensure viewers have context for Part II (and we’ve also had requests for both to be made available together), as well as cut a few minutes out of Part II to keep it flowing a little better. You can not only watch online below and embed on your own websites (click for embed code at top right of video screen), but it’s also available for download, so those who’d like to have a ‘hard copy’ to circulate are welcome to download, burn to disk or transfer to USB key, etc., and circulate freely.
Download: You’ll see the option to download the 913 megabyte MP4 file at bottom right side of this page.
YouTube: The video can also be watched on YouTube, in four segments, here, here, here and here.
Greening the Desert II (including Part I) – Greening the Middle East
(Duration: 36 mins)
Tips for playing: If it’s slow to load, turn off High Definition (HD) on the player.
If you still have problems, click play (on low or high def) and then after it’s started,
click on pause. The video will then continue to buffer into your computer.
Play once fully loaded.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank Kelly Kellogg at this juncture. Kelly donated initial funding that enabled the purchase of the land for the Jordan Valley Permaculture Project site (aka ‘Greening the Desert – the Sequel’). But, upon watching the Greening the Desert Part II video, Kelly was inspired to donate an additional $20,000. These gifts are very encouraging to us as we try to solve problems at source (teach a man to fish…). Others who may feel inspired to donate to help us move this work forward faster can do so here.
A little background on the video follows:
Children in a school playground, Al Jawfa, Jordan Valley
When there’s no soil, no water, no shade, and where the sun beats down on you to the tune of over 50°C (122°F), the word ‘poverty’ begins to take on a whole new meaning. It is distinct and surreal. It’s a land of dust, flies, intense heat and almost complete dependency on supply lines outside of ones control. This is the remains of what was once called the ‘fertile crescent’. It is the result of thousands of years of abuse. It is a glimpse at a world where the environment – whose services provide for all human need – has all but completely abandoned us. This is a glimpse at the world our consumer society is inexorably moving towards, as our exponential-growth culture gorges itself at ever-increasing rates.
The original Greening the Desert video clip has been watched hundreds of thousands of times and has been posted to countless blogs and web pages in the datasphere. Although only five minutes long, it has inspired people around the globe, daring the lucid ones amongst us, those who can see the writing on the wall, to begin to hope and believe in an abundant future – a future where our survival doesn’t have to be based on undermining and depleting the very resources of soil, water, phosphorus, etc. that we depend on. The work profiled in that clip demonstrates that humanity can be a positive element within the biosphere. Man doesn’t have to destroy. Man can repair.
In the clip at top I introduce you today to Greening the Desert II. I shot the footage for this video last month (October 2009) and edited it on location in the Dead Sea Valley in Jordan – the lowest place on earth, at 400 metres below sea level. Much of it was shot in or near the village of Al Jawfa where I stayed, which is effectively a Palestinian refugee camp that has morphed over the decades since 1948 into something resembling a functional small town. It was first shown to delegates of the ninth International Permaculture Conference (IPC9) in Malawi, Africa at the very beginning of November and is now being released for general consumption. The video will take you to the original Greening the Desert site, letting you see its present condition after six years of neglect when funding ran out in 2003. You’ll also be introduced to our new project site – the Jordan Valley Permaculture Project, aka ‘Greening the Desert, the Sequel’ – and see some of the spin-off effects within Jordan from the influence of the original site; promises of much more to come.
The work we’re undertaking in Jordan is in accordance with what we call the ‘Permaculture Master Plan‘, where the project’s future is assured through funding from running educational courses. Project sites thus become self-sufficient, and self-replicating.
Geoff Lawton instructs students in a school yard in Jordan, one that PRI has
just created and begun the implementation of a design for, so its
many children can see, experience and learn permaculture first hand
Through this work we envision thousands of educational demonstration sites worldwide – all inspiring and teaching communities around them how to begin to tackle at root the massive challenges we now face after decades of short-term profit-based thinking has all but ‘consumed’ our planet and dismantled the social constructs that the human race has always depended on for its survival. Through this work we see desertification stopped in its tracks, and reversed. We see this century’s dire water issues getting resolved. We see productive work for millions in bypassing the irrelevant efforts of our ‘leaders’, to instead build a new kind of culture – a culture based on cooperative effort and learning. It’s a culture where its members have regained a sense of their place in creation, where they become land-based stewards of remaining resources; creating a culture where we at last find ultimate satisfaction – promoting and building peace and low-carbon, relocalised, community-based prosperity.
We have many such ‘Master Plan’ projects in various stages of development worldwide, and a steady stream of enquiries from people around the globe wanting to get involved and help widen this cooperative network. Perhaps it’s time you took a look at Permaculture? After all, do you have something more worthwhile to do?
Jordan Valley
A couple of things in the video sort of stuck out for me.
I forgot his name, but the guy that mentioned how evaporation is 4 times greater than rain fall so the swales must be heavily mulched.
The other thing was how the caretakers of the first greening the desert site reverted to burning the organic matter rather than using it as mulch or composting it. We can sit back and condemn them for burning what we all know is a valuable resource, but the same thing happens all over Australia and other “advanced countries” because thats what people know.
These guys need to have available a commercial mulcher to process their green waste. A 13hp chipper for them to share or hire would be a start for not much money, but a flail type shredder produces a far superior mulch and is more versatile, although more expensive. The accumulation of biomass can be sped up considerably when organic wastes from plants can be processed into usable mulches or broken up to be composted quickly. This saves water and accelerates the creation of more biomass. Has it been looked into as an option in Jordan?
Comment by Glen Novello — December 11, 2009 @ 11:09 pm
Just found this on youtube, it’s a succinct five minute capsule review of the Greening the Desert project(s) with highlights from Craig and Geoff’s recent trip to Jordan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Hfxeh3t6I
Comment by Kevin Clements — December 12, 2009 @ 3:18 pm
Hi Glen
yes we have a large flail type shredder on site, but is more the need for a desire for a truly sustainable result by local NGO’s, hence our move into our own design of the “Permaculture Master Plan” sustainable aid theming.
Comment by Geoff Lawton — December 12, 2009 @ 3:27 pm
Fantastic!
Comment by Anna Przychodzki — December 14, 2009 @ 12:00 pm
Keep up the good work everybody.
i got thinking about something regarding the Greening the Desert Project. Given that the Site is at a hydrologically advantageous low point in the landscape – once you’ve done the initial work to establish the system, plants and roots in the soil, the water table is so close that even if you had no rain, the system can thrive to some extent as long as the water levels water table are maintained.
There must be many sites where the situation seems hopeless, and yet the water table is only a matter of feet or metres beneath the surface ready to supply and sustain any permaculture system given suitable time, resources and permaculture (action). For example, in many places around the West Australian wheat-belt we are all told there is a salinity problem or excess of salt. The real problem seems to be just a lack of suitable vegetation and Eco-Logical or Permaculture systems or rather, the lack of suitable intelligence and application of it.
Many of our Agricultural, Mining and Forestry Praxis are destroying our ecological, social and economic systems and the natural bases upon which we rely. Our own sense of what is natural, harmonious and truly wondrous is slowly being eroded away and replaced by things of steel, concrete and convenience.
This loss of sensibility in my mind is one of the greatest tragedies of all.
Comment by Wayne de Flores-Butler — December 17, 2009 @ 2:45 pm
Listening to this video has trully inspired me and I now feel complelled to join the permacultrue idea. It really brings hope and a glim of light at the end of our devastating western cultural hole. Being only 16 it helps alote to know there is a solution and not just a plethora of problems to sigh at.
Comment by Stephane Kuziora — December 21, 2009 @ 11:55 am
Thanks Geoff,
Its nice to see the continuing story you are a part of in Jordan.
Dan
Comment by Dan HAlsey — December 24, 2009 @ 2:43 am
What I like best about all this is the Master Plan.
Well, no, what I like best is the ecological farming idea, of course, but that’s kind of obvious.
But the Master Plan… compared to, say, Monsanto, it’s like Linux vs Windows. And I’m a big fan of open source
.
Comment by Job van der Zwan — December 28, 2009 @ 7:27 am
This is such a powerful project. I am passing all of my Permaculture knowledge on to my 21-year-old cousin who has just entered the Masters Program in Horticulture at the University of Arkansas in the United States. Also, he will be seeing all of my DVDs over time, whenever he seems open to more new ideas. My plan is to gradually include some of his classmates and professors.
Thank you for sharing this information.
Comment by Barbara Worth — January 1, 2010 @ 5:17 am
To Geoff and Nadia
Wow this is awesome! It makes my heart sing to know that there are angels like you walking the Earth and empowering people to make a difference.
How amazing will it be to see our beautiful planet return to being a magnificent garden producing a truly vibrant way of life for all. To see thousands of people touch the Earth with love and create a future that we will look forward to with great anticipation. I so look forward to a time in the future when I can study with you to broaden my understanding of the principles of Permaculture and participate in the inspiring work that you are doing.
To all who are now contributing to this amazing project(dream)…thank you… you are truly inspiring. Together we can make an everlasting difference.
Comment by Norah Forrest — January 26, 2010 @ 10:05 am
Geoff, great video – you will be interested to know that I was able to achieve the same results in the Sudan ( El Obeid) in ‘69-’73. And then again in the Irbid Moffasat in Jordan in 75 – 77 when we doubled Jordan’s wheat yields in cooperation with the JCO and Dr Dawery, Jordan University. I was the one that started the vetiver system in the Pacific and it was so frustrating that I could not get vetiver for our Jordan project. With what you are doing vetiver hedges are the answer to maintaining fertility and conserving moisture, they build their own terraces etc. just take a walk through our website http://www.vetiver.org – we are a philanthropic organisation. I would appreciate having a ‘dialogue’ with you on a system of “Curvalinear farming” I have developed but am now too old now to develope in the desert – but it will work.
best of luck
John
Comment by john greenfield — March 3, 2010 @ 10:21 am
Hey
To the mulcher/burner discussioners,
why not incorporate a mycological treatment or edible mushroom segment into the mulching process? That way you neednt use a chipper and you would be gaining an extra yield of food provision per cycle.
Buddha Love
J-Spesh
Comment by Japo Spesh — March 8, 2010 @ 9:01 am
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