Liquid Democracy
Alternatives to Political Systems, Deforestation, Society — by Thomas Fischbacher September 2, 2010
 Isn’t it time to imagine a new world? |
Perhaps it is impossible to write an article about politics without evoking strong – and maybe quite emotional – thoughts and responses. One particular all-too-human reaction to a novel concept or idea about which we have a strong "gut feeling" (good or bad) is to construct logically-sounding reasons to justify our initial emotions. For this reason, I would like to ask readers who would like to comment on this article to sleep one night over their reply before they post it.
Politics is all about defining the legal environment that guides society. It is this framework that defines to a large extent what is illegal and what is not, what is profitable and what is not – hence what sort of economic activities will be pursued. Evidently, political decisions therefore have a major impact on how well societies manage their natural resources. Some would even claim that sustainability is exclusively a question of politics. While I personally would not subscribe to this idea, there have been a number of people who became professional politicians out of a strong inner desire to move their respective societies away from their suicidal paths. Across the globe, some quite prominent politicians invested a lot of personal energy into this – often to ultimately fail in resignation. One might think, for example, of the German politician Herbert Gruhl, originally a member of the conservative party, who, cancelling his membership due to irreconcilable differences on environmental issues, became one of the founders of the German Green Party. In 1992, the year before he died, he published a sequel to his 1975 best-seller (whose title would translate as "Plundered Planet"), which roughly would translate as: "Ascension to Nothingness – the Plundered Planet at its End". In the U.S., Jay Hanson seems to have played a similar role. Resignation clearly speaks out of the last lines of his article ‘requiem’:
Comments (2)Permaculture for Kids
Community Projects, Education Centres, Society, Village Development — by Paul Douglas August 30, 2010
Editor’s Note: Please welcome new contributing writer, Paul Douglas of Victoria, Australia!
During my two week immersion into permaculture design, Bill Mollison was asked by a student, "How do we go about teaching permaculture to our children?” to which Bill replied something along the lines of, “I don’t believe we should be teaching Permaculture to children. They already have enough on their plates in terms of responsibilities and such, so we shouldn’t overburden them with yet another subject.”
True enough, if you take permaculture as the full 72-hour course that we adults tend towards. But I approach the idea that teaching children permaculture is vitally important to the sustainability of life itself and needs to be taught to youths so that by the time they are adults, permaculture is no longer a subject, but a way of life that is as natural as breathing.
Comments (10)Letters from Sri Lanka – Sarvodaya and the Tea Plantation Challenge
Aid Projects, Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, Consumerism, Economics, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh August 26, 2010
Part IX of a series – If you haven’t already, please read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII and Part VIII before continuing. This series is part of my work for the Sustainable (R)evolution book project.
Preamble: Described as ‘the champagne of tea’, Sri Lankan tea is consumed the world over. Second only to Kenya in exports, Sri Lanka’s tea industry accounts for a full 15% of the nation’s GDP, generating about $700 million per year. Yet very little of this money is seen by the people actually producing it…. Tea plantation workers are trapped in low paid manual labour positions and live in miserable housing conditions, while people around the globe slurp on the fruit of their misery. Sarvodaya has its work cut out to try to assist, but they’re giving it a good try.
Sri Lankan tea plantation worker
All photographs © copyright Craig Mackintosh
Permaculture and Society – a Look at the Example of Detroit
Aid Projects, Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, Economics, Food Shortages, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh August 24, 2010
Rhamis Kent, friend and regular contributor to the PRI, recently gave a talk to Schumacher College in the south west of England. He starts with a look at the meltdown of Detroit’s once thriving manufacturing base, its dramatic consequences for the city and residents, and shares that the current state of affairs for the beleaguered city is a direct result of the economic model that’s been in place in the U.S. over the last century. Rhamis goes further, to share that this is, to one degree or another, the present trajectory of most of the world’s cities.
But, not stopping on the negative, Rhamis goes on to show some of the exciting movements within Detroit that these circumstances are giving life to. Out of necessity, people are working to increase their resiliency and quality of life – turning the problem of Detroit into a solution. Rhamis joins the dots between our socio-economic problems and the environmental catastrophes taking place, and begins to look through the lens of permaculture to see how we can turn things around by imitating natural systems to create low- to no-impact societies that don’t operate on the boom-and-bust model that present day Detroit is arguably the most striking example of.
Duration: 82 minutes
Part way through the talk Rhamis presents the following Urban Roots film trailer. I’ll put it below for convenience. To jump back to where the trailer below (higher quality) ends in the video above, click on 31:40 on progress bar above.
Comments (8)The Holistic Flower
Building, Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Economics, Energy Systems, Land, People Systems, Plant Systems, Society, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling, peak oil — by Oyvind Holmstad August 23, 2010
I’ve found a wonderful flower; I discovered it not long ago. Still, it’s not so much what I know about it that touches me, I’m just drawn to its colors. This flower is unique, it thrives in every country and climate, and adapts very well to the specific conditions of culture and place. Its colors, smell and form is therefore of unlimited variety and complexity, yet it is the same flower. It is the permaculture flower.
Some people think the permaculture flower is a remnant of the hippie’s flower power movement, or that it has something to do with New Age – just another consumerism idea to be sold to the confused and rich people of the middle classes. Oh no, the ‘flower power’ of the permaculture flower has real power. It has the power to reunite humanity with the complex systems of nature, so they can live in symbiosis, enriching each other. Nothing else possesses this power.
Comments (4)Making The Case for Earth Repair Work – Part III
DVDs/Books, Economics, Food Shortages, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton — by Rhamis Kent August 19, 2010
In addition to my last two posts (here and here), here are a couple of additional information sources to help make the case for major investment to be made into global earth repair/ecosystem restoration work.
The United Nations Environment Programme recently published a report titled "Dead Planet, Living Planet – Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration for Sustainable Development: A Rapid Response Assessment" (15mb PDF). What makes this document so useful and important is that it presents compelling arguments for performing this work that speak to the concerns of business & economics just as much as it does of those concerned about the state of our global ecology and environment. Doing so will prove to be invaluable in helping to attract funding in amounts befitting the vital importance of this work.
Below, I’ve excerpted portions of the report’s summary that are of particular interest:
Comments (4)Towering Lunacy
Building, Economics, Energy Systems, Food Shortages, Society, Urban Projects — by George Monbiot August 17, 2010
Green enthusiasm for vertical farms shows that no one is untouched by magical thinking.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom
No one is immune to it; in some respects it is the foundation of our lives. Magical thinking is a universal affliction. We see what we want to see, deny what we don’t. Confronted by uncomfortable facts, we burrow back into the darkness of our cherished beliefs. We will do almost anything – cheat, lie, stand for high office, go to war – to shut out challenges to the way we see the world.
I spend much of my time confronting one aspect of denial: the virulent repudiation of environmental constraints by those who admit no challenge to their vision of the world. But it pains me to report that denial and wishful thinking are almost as common on the other side of the argument. I find myself at odds with other greens almost as often as I find myself fighting our common enemies. I’ve had bruising battles over a long series of miracle solutions supported by my friends: liquid biofuels(1), hydrogen cars and planes(2), biochar plantations(3,4), solar electricity in the UK(5), scrappage payments(6), feed-in tariffs(7). But no green delusion is as crazy as the one I am about to explain. The idea itself might not interest you. But the insight it gives into the filtering techniques human beings use is fascinating. So please bear with me while I spell out the latest madness.
Comments (3)Power Trip
Comedy Break, Consumerism, Economics, Nuclear, Society — by Marc Roberts August 16, 2010
Click for full view
Courtesy: Marc Roberts
The UK Gov’t backtracks on cast iron commitments to environmental performance standards to make space for more dirty coal.
I can’t help thinking it’s a sweetener to bring the big energy companies on board for the stalled nuclear programme. Investors won’t commit unless the taxpayer guarantees their profits and underwrites the decommissioning costs.
Public debt for private profit, without so much as a mention of consumer restraint – all sounds depressingly familiar.
Comments (0)Permaculture “Your Way To Sustainable Living”
General, Society — by Geoff Lawton August 12, 2010
by Geoff Lawton, first published in Veritas Magazine.
Permaculture is a design science that applies design to the way humanity needs to supply itself with its requirement to live sustainably and in a way that actually enhances the environment. So, the principles of permaculture turn the footprint of humanity into the most beneficial footprint on earth rather than the most damaging footprint. And that’s how nature works.
Permaculture’s principles come from nature itself. So the principles of natural systems and ecosystems are the teachers of the principles of permaculture and in nature. There’s a continuous sort of balance in life, and all our traditional and symbols of heritage, symbolise balance.
Comments (6)The Caffeine Did It?
Comedy Break, Consumerism, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Society — by Craig Mackintosh August 11, 2010
Warning: Irony alert. People without a sense of humour should proceed with caution.
Some time ago the National Geographic did a piece on the connection between the introduction of caffeinated drinks into Europe and the Industrial Revolution.
It’s hardly a coincidence that coffee and tea caught on in Europe just as the first factories were ushering in the industrial revolution. The widespread use of caffeinated drinks—replacing the ubiquitous beer—facilitated the great transformation of human economic endeavor from the farm to the factory. Boiling water to make coffee or tea helped decrease the incidence of disease among workers in crowded cities. And the caffeine in their systems kept them from falling asleep over the machinery. In a sense, caffeine is the drug that made the modern world possible. And the more modern our world gets, the more we seem to need it. Without that useful jolt of coffee—or Diet Coke or Red Bull—to get us out of bed and back to work, the 24-hour society of the developed world couldn’t exist. – National Geographic
If this is so, then, of course, my incessantly wandering mind must put two and two together. If caffeine was an essential ingredient to bring about the Industrial Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution brought about widespread environmental destruction and climate change, then… that’s it… caffeine is bringing us to the brink of disaster!
Comments (1)Turning Estates into Villages
Building, People Systems, Social Gatherings, Society, Village Development — by George Monbiot August 10, 2010
How good planning can make us slimmer, fitter, safer and less lonely.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom
It took me a while to recognise what I was seeing. It was an ordinary campsite in Pembrokeshire: a square field with tents around the perimeter. But it had a curious effect on the children staying there. Young people who had seldom experienced daylight slowly emerged from their tents and were drawn towards the centre of the field. Bats and balls left on the grass mysteriously appeared in their hands. Children with no prior interest in sport started playing football, cricket and rounders. Little kids ran around with older ones. As children of all classes played together, their parents started talking to each other. It hit me with some force: we had reinvented the village green.
Source: Wikipedia
We are, to a surprising extent, what the built environment makes us. Academic papers show that many of the problems we blame on individual behaviour are caused in part by the places in which we live. People are more likely to help their neighbours in quiet areas, for example, than in noisy ones(1). A long series of studies across several countries, beginning in San Francisco in 1969, shows unequivocally that communities become weaker as the volume of traffic on their streets increases(2,3).
Comments (3)Anaerobic Indigestion
Comedy Break, Consumerism, Society, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Marc Roberts August 7, 2010
Click for full view
Courtesy: Marc Roberts
The Uk may have to import waste to burn as it builds more incinerators than we can use, whilst waste pickers in the majority world – the poorest of the poor – complain that their livelihoods as recyclers are being destroyed by incineration plans. Oh – and there’s a car that runs on shit.
Comments (2)Making The Case For Earth Repair Work – Part 2
Biodiversity, Deforestation, Development & Property Trusts, Economics, Ethical Investment, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, People Systems, Population, Rehabilitation, Society, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Village Development, Water Contaminaton — by Rhamis Kent August 5, 2010
Over the past couple of years, there has been quite a bit of attention paid to the purchase of massive amounts of agricultural land by rich countries and corporate entities in the developing world. Craig Mackintosh wrote about this on this site, as have many other very informative reports and press stories.
To summarize, there has been approximately US$100 Billion mobilized to purchase somewhere between 40 – 50 million hectares (roughly 100 – 125 million acres) of agricultural land worldwide.
Comments (6)PDC Interview, Part 5: Jarrod, Liz and James
Courses/Workshops, Podcasts, Society — by Harry Schnur August 3, 2010
Zaytuna Farm
Photo © Craig Mackintosh
Harry Schnur from Taipei, Taiwan, recently completed his PDC with Geoff Lawton at Zaytuna Farm.
He has two shows on the only English community radio station in the region and did a series of interviews for one of his shows during his time at the farm.
Below is part 5, an interview with PDC students, Jarrod, Liz and James. Click play to listen!
PDC Interview, Part 5 - Jarrod, Liz and JamesComments (0)
Whose Trees Are These?
Consumerism, Deforestation, Economics, Society — by Ernest Partridge July 30, 2010
Copyright by Ernest Partridge. Published here with permission of the author.
A few years ago, I taped a broadcast of National Public Radio’s "All Things Considered" for listening at a more convenient time later in the day. That broadcast contained a report by Alan Sapporin on the old-growth timber controversy. The logger’s remark which opens this essay is written exactly as I heard it. Unfortunately, this was neither the first, nor the last, time that I have heard such a remark. (EP)
"It’s here to be harvested, and God put it on this Earth to do that, and that’s the way it is."
For logger Archie Sawyer (not his actual name), these trees are for him. It is God’s will.
"The Earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof," saith the scripture. Not so, says Archie Sawyer, who claims, in effect, that the Earth is his, and that God gave it to him. Thus it would seem downright ungrateful, even sacrilegious, for him not to take it.
Comments (6)
