Community Buys Own Supermarket – Mullumbimby NSW, Australia
Community Projects, Consumerism, Ethical Investment, News, Society, Village Development — by Brian Hedge March 24, 2012
The small community of Mullumbimby in the Byron Shire of northern NSW, Australia, is currently in the process of determining their own food supply future by purchasing their local supermarket.
This movement, which is gaining momentum daily at an amazing rate, began by chance, fate, serendipity — call it what you will. Greg Dutton, president of the local community garden approached Richard Storie, the proprietor of the local IGA supermarket, about selling the community garden organic seedlings outside the store. During this conversation he quipped, "If the seedling sale goes well I’ll be back to buy the store". That’s a lot of seedlings. Nevertheless an idea was conceived and now after a five month gestation period a movement has been born.
Comments (4)Protection, Rights or Legislation – Many Strings to Our Legal Bow
Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, Consumerism, Economics, Ethical Investment, People Systems, Society — by Janet Millington October 6, 2011
If we can give legal personality to non-living entities such as corporations,
why not also give personality to living things like animals and trees?
by Janet Millington
Changes to the law have been made (or “discovered”) to facilitate and support trade(1), colonisation(2), industry(3) and the development of corporation(4). This development has been largely driven by the desire for growth and a healthy economy(5) since the Industrial Revolution. Our legal framework(6) centres on the person and property. Very few, major shifts have been made relying on purely altruistic reasons, but some steps have been made by using the rights of the person and their property to protect or rehabilitate those things(7) valued by humans. This protection might otherwise be considered a moral obligation or a fiduciary duty(8) towards something or someone without legal personality(9). In a human centred legal system, ownership of the object, its economic value to the person, is what affords it protection.
Comments (4)The Power of International Law to Create the New World – An Interview with Polly Higgins
Alternatives to Political Systems, Biodiversity, Community Projects, Consumerism, Deforestation, Economics, Ethical Investment, Global Warming/Climate Change, People Systems, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss, peak oil — by Maddy Harland August 18, 2011
Editor’s Note: At time of writing, Polly is on a speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand — check out dates and locations here.
Maddy Harland meets Polly Higgins, a barrister who is campaigning for the United Nations to adopt an additional crime against peace: Ecocide.
by Maddy Harland, editor of Permaculture magazine – inspiration for sustainable living
In my two decades working for Permaculture magazine I have met many fascinating and wonderful human beings but my recent meeting with the barrister and campaigner, Polly Higgins, was a turning point. She prompted a leap in my understanding of the power of law and our collective capacity to change the world overnight. I had heard of Polly’s campaigning work but I had not fully realised the far-reaching potential of international law. Polly deftly stretched my worldview. Bear with me if the subject of ecocide sounds grim… the outcome of these meetings was utterly inspirational.
What is Ecocide?
There are already four international Crimes Against Peace: Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes, and Crimes of Aggression. Polly says there is a missing 5th Crime Against Peace and that crime is Ecocide: the destruction of large areas of the environment and ecosystems. Obviously ecocide can be caused by severe weather events like tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, not directly attributable to specific human activity but there is another category: Ascertainable Ecocide. This is the destruction, damage or loss to the territory, caused by human activity – people, corporations, and nations. Activities such as nuclear testing, the exploitation of resources, mining practices like tar sands extraction, the dumping of harmful chemicals or the use of defoliants, the emission of pollutants or war. Examples of ascertainable ecocide affecting sizeable territories include:
Comments (11)Polly Higgins Speaking Tour (Australia, New Zealand): Eradicating Ecocide – Laws and Governance to Prevent the Destruction of our Planet
Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, Conferences, Consumerism, Courses/Workshops, Economics, Ethical Investment, Global Warming/Climate Change, People Systems, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor
Regular readers will know I’m keen to see society structured in a way that prioritises people and place over corporations and short-term, profit-centric, economic-growth-focussed idiocy. Whilst politicians are arguing over debt ceilings, corporate tax exemptions, how much more money to magic up and the impossibility of continuing economic growth whilst feigning action on our multi-faceted environmental and resource woes, Polly Higgins is urging a new set of precepts that would shift our present, shallow priorities and bring our ailing planet in from the cold.
Comments (7)Observations on Permaculture Aid and the PRI’s Project Aid Worker Training Course
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Consumerism, Courses/Workshops, Ethical Investment, Food Shortages, People Systems, Project Positions, Society, Village Development — by Steve Grace May 27, 2011
Interns at PRI’s Zaytuna Farm
There are few things in this life as disturbing as the suffering of another human being. Perhaps one might be the fact that we the privileged have become so desensitised to it, so selfishly removed into our own little worlds of such great importance. Is it not the responsibility of the privileged to ensure the basic elements of survival are provided for those less fortunate than ourselves? How can we continue to spoil ourselves with riches, when the knowledge of another’s pain is so obviously clear?
Comments (6)Time to Wake Up: Days of Abundant Resources and Falling Prices Are Over Forever
Consumerism, Economics, Ethical Investment, Financial Management, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Population, Society, peak oil — by Jeremy Grantham May 2, 2011
Editor’s Preamble: This is a first for me. Who would have thought I’d be posting a quarterly newsletter written by the Chief Investment Officer of a large investment firm? "Jeremy Grantham is a British investor and Co-founder and Chief Investment Strategist of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo (GMO), a Boston-based asset management firm. GMO is one of the largest managers of such funds in the world, having more than US $107 billion in assets under management as of December 2010. Grantham is regarded as a highly knowledgeable investor in various stock, bond, and commodity markets, and is particularly noted for his prediction of various bubbles." (Wikipedia). After reading this, you could be forgiven for thinking it was put together by someone like Dr. Albert Bartlett instead. But no…. When a stock guru starts telling his investors the same kind of things I’ve been sharing with you for years, then I’m only too happy to reinforce the message with his. How many of his peers are listening is the big question — I’m guessing not too many unfortunately. I think the underlying investment message I personally take from this is to put your all into natural capital, permaculture education and community building.
Introduction
The purpose of this, my second (and much longer) piece on resource limitations, is to persuade investors with an interest in the long term to change their whole frame of reference: to recognize that we now live in a different, more constrained, world in which prices of raw materials will rise and shortages will be common. (Previously, I had promised to update you when we had new data. Well, after a lot of grinding, this is our first comprehensive look at some of this data.)
Accelerated demand from developing countries, especially China, has caused an unprecedented shift in the price structure of resources: after 100 hundred years or more of price declines, they are now rising, and in the last 8 years have undone, remarkably, the effects of the last 100-year decline! Statistically, also, the level of price rises makes it extremely unlikely that the old trend is still in place. If I am right, we are now entering a period in which, like it or not, we must finally follow President Carter’s advice to develop a thoughtful energy policy and give up our carefree and careless ways with resources. The quicker we do this, the lower the cost will be. Any improvement at all in lifestyle for our grandchildren will take much more thoughtful behavior from political leaders and more restraint from everyone. Rapid growth is not ours by divine right; it is not even mathematically possible over a sustained period. Our goal should be to get everyone out of abject poverty, even if it necessitates some income redistribution. Because we have way overstepped sustainable levels, the greatest challenge will be in redesigning lifestyles to emphasize quality of life while quantitatively reducing our demand levels. A lower population would help. Just to start you off, I offer Exhibit 1: the world’s population growth. X marks the spot where Malthus wrote his defining work. Y marks my entry into the world. What a surge in population has occurred since then! Such compound growth cannot continue with finite resources. Along the way, you are certain to have a paradigm shift. And, increasingly, it looks like this is it!
Comments (6)Help Us Give You What You Want
Aid Projects, Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, Ethical Investment, Networking Sites, People Systems, Social Gatherings, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor March 3, 2011
Do you really understand what the Worldwide Permaculture Network is all about?
The WPN represents many months of work. Now is your chance to pitch in a little, and directly benefit with improved functionality and more capabilities. |
In a world seemingly gone mad, permaculture is reinvigorating countless individuals worldwide – giving them hope by giving them tools (knowledge) to equip them to live free, secure, healthy and happy. The Worldwide Permaculture Network (WPN) is an outgrowth of this trend. Indeed, the WPN itself becomes a giant toolbox, where all the members’ knowledge can be shared amongst each other!!
Scenario(s): Imagine if you’re living in, say, a residential urban home, and are looking at ways to increase your resiliency and sustainability. Then, imagine if you could search a database of thousands of like-minded souls, filtering the results to constrain them to just people in similar circumstances as your own – i.e. ‘urban’, ‘residential’.
Then, why not drop in a climate zone filter to get even more relevant results?
Comments (1)Tiny House Movement, Small House = Big Life
Building, Consumerism, Ethical Investment, People Systems, Society — by Peter Greg January 22, 2011
In the face of growing problems with climate change, and the unpredictable rumblings of the economy and housing challenges of the USA, there seems to be a wonderfully positive and exciting revolution/movement happening in the United States and in other places of the world: the Tiny House movement.
Comments (2)Organized Barter and Redistribution of Surplus
Community Projects, Consumerism, Economics, Ethical Investment, Financial Management, Markets & Outlets, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Thomas Fischbacher January 11, 2011
In chapter 14 of the Permaculture Designers’ Manual, Bill Mollison gives an interesting example of a restaurant (Zoo Zoo’s) that needed money for renovation but came up with a creative alternative to borrowing it at interest from a bank: they sold dated vouchers at a discount — e.g. an "a meal worth $10, redeemable in July" voucher for $8 — and thus raised money via a subscription system. (Vouchers were dated to prevent the problem of everybody showing up at the same time.) An interesting and maybe un-intended side effect of this was that these vouchers started to become "money" in the sense that people who had them but where short of cash started using them to pay one another for entirely unrelated economic activities (think piano lessons, hedge trimming, etc.). Evidently, these vouchers had a clearly visible value, and hence could be used to meet obligations between people who shared the belief in the value of these vouchers.
Comments (4)Worldwide Permaculture Network – Project Type Descriptions
Aid Projects, Bio-regional Organisations, Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Development & Property Trusts, Eco-Villages, Education Centres, Ethical Investment, Financial Management, Networking Sites, People Systems, Social Gatherings, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor January 4, 2011
Welcome to the new year everyone.
The first live, public launch of the Worldwide Permaculture Network is imminent. There are just a few things to tidy up, and then you can all ‘have at it’.
I could use your feedback on the below. Here you’ll find draft descriptions of the project ‘types’ that can be selected when you upload your various permaculture projects. (Each of these project types has a badge associated with it which will show on respective project profile sidebars.) Please feel free to let me know via comments if you have constructive observations for tweaks/improvements that could be made to the descriptions below. Thank you all in advance:
Comments (15)Cold-Hearted
Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, Economics, Ethical Investment, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by George Monbiot December 28, 2010
The level of excess winter deaths in the UK is higher than Siberia’s. This is why.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom
Were you to list the factors that distinguish civilisation from barbarism, this would come close to the top: that the elderly are not left to die of cold. By this measure, the United Kingdom is a cruel land. Although we usually have one of the smallest differences between winter and summer temperatures at these latitudes, we also have one of the highest levels of excess winter deaths. Roughly twice as many people, per capita, die here than in Scandanavia and other parts of northern Europe, though our winters are typically milder(1). Even Siberia has lower levels of excess winter deaths than we do(2). Between 25,000 and 30,000 people a year are hastened to the grave by the cold here(3) – this winter it could be much worse.
Why? Inequality. We have an economic elite untouched and unmoved by the ills afflicting other people. It survives all changes of government. Its need for profit outweighs other people’s need for survival. Here’s how our brutal system operates.
Comments (8)The Great Vampire Squid
Alternatives to Political Systems, Ethical Investment, Financial Management — by Marc Roberts December 9, 2010
A shameless, unasked for and completely unauthorised plug for the New Economics Foundation initiative.
Click for full view
Courtesy: Marc Roberts
We Won! (and are Winning)
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Ethical Investment, Networking Sites, News, Society — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor November 30, 2010
Do you remember my mentioning we were amongst the finalists for the Humanitarian Water & Food Award for 2010? Well, it seems we stole the show with our Jordan work and won first place!
Comments (26)The Humanitarian Water and Food Award announced the 2010 winner last night, at its first ever award event held at LIFE, Faculty of Life Sciences, Copenhagen.
The prize, 10,000 Euros and a copy of the Award Statuette, was handed over to Rhamis Kent, representing The Permaculture Research Institute (PRI) for their initiative “Greening the Desert“.
Representing the Selection Committee, Professor Alfred Opubor, commented that “the initiative brings us hope. With approaches that are easy to carry out, and replicable, PRI have clearly demonstrated we can produce food where it is needed in a sustainable way”. — Water and Food Award
Early Retirement Extreme
Consumerism, DVDs/Books, Economics, Ethical Investment, Financial Management, Society, peak oil — by Thomas Fischbacher November 8, 2010
Two issues keep on puzzling me about economics. On the one hand, it undoubtedly is an incredibly important subject. At present, my life pretty much depends on being able to buy certain things from a functioning economy and the same holds for just about everybody else. On the other hand, there seem to be a number of serious problems with deeply rooted beliefs about economics held my many professional economists. (This, then, also is one of the most important reasons why we are in a precarious situation in the first place – if people want "to save the planet", I like to ask "from what?". The answer seems to be: "from the consequences of an untenable economic ideology".)
So, developing a sane perspective on economics and in particular one’s own economic role certainly is an important goal. And no, I do not think management professionals who tell their students in their lectures that spending money on french brand name cosmetics is smarter than spending it on other cosmetics have anything to offer that I’d personally be interested in, thank you.
Comments (18)Letters from Sri Lanka – Sarvodaya’s Economic Development and Its Destination
Aid Projects, Alternatives to Political Systems, Bio-regional Organisations, Community Projects, Consumerism, Economics, Ethical Investment, Financial Management, Networking Sites, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 23, 2010
This is Part X, the final installment, of a ten-part series – If you haven’t already, please read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII and Part IX before continuing. This series is part of my work for the Sustainable (R)evolution book project.
Preamble: As I type, much of France is grinding to a halt as an enraged public strike against austerity measures that would impose restrictions on their lifestyles. This year we already watched placard waving, gold watch wearing, Greek protestors gnashing their teeth in their overspent, tourism-dependent country, and now the French are blockading fuel depots, torching cars, throwing rocks and threatening to bring the whole country to a standstill. Trouble is brewing in the UK and elsewhere as well as similar attempts to patch their disastrous economic situations are on the table, and let’s not even mention where the implosion already underway in the US will inevitably lead…. I can’t blame people for being mad. They’ve been told lies — given the "trust us, vote for us, we know what we’re doing" spiel and fed the immoral and impossible fiction of an American Dream to keep them as mere compliant labour and ‘consumers’. With their pockets beginning to suffer they’re awakening out of their apathy, but, in their protests, as they spit the dummy and throw their toys out of the cot, what are they really seeking to accomplish? As far as I can tell, they’re demanding a continuation of the status quo — they want to persevere with our credit based, unrestrained, consumer treadmill just a little longer. This also is wholly detached from reality. What if, instead of pulling down rather than building — just to usher in a new era of fascism as governments spend more on internal security than positive options like permaculture education — people were to objectively look at the situation we find ourselves in, learn from the mistakes of our past gorging on credit and finite resources, and determine to build an alternative, sustainable, cooperative, economy that has happiness, equality, health and natural capital as priority goals? We could then begin to replace our current leisure-oriented consumer system with an alternative that takes reality by the horns, and, en masse, urge our governments to incentivise and support it. We would aggressively propose, with a workable road map in hand, rather than aggressively protest without viable alternatives. We would transform present invisible structures through unity of purpose, defeating the system, rather than allowing the confusion born of our individualism to only strengthen the resolve of government. And should government fail to come to the party, we’d build a parallel economy regardless. In Sri Lanka, the world’s largest participatory democracy movement, Sarvodaya, has been quietly building such a parallel economy over the last few decades. We could learn something here….
All photographs © copyright Craig Mackintosh
