Permaculture+Revolution

[Under Construction - created 15.04.12 - update 12.08.12] toc ** Permaculture revolution ** //** Civilization is going to end, but with permaculture that's okay **// Whether it is a question of long run sustainability or simple survival, humanity faces unprecedented crisis that challenges our way of thinking and the very basis of society life organization. Let's pick only three past, current and future crisis : financial credit-debt crisis, global warming climate change and peak oil brought or are expected to bear an explosive situation with huge economic, ecological, social and human losses. We propose to seriously overcome them with permaculture, a simple approach to design systems as a whole, that require a change in the way of life, but no individual martyring or a decrease in well-being. This simple regenerative solution for a complex problem is a hope in time of change, that scale up from individual to community and large territories. "We can solve all world problems in a garden", now. You can do it as well, start permaculture and make your part of the change, just do it ! This article is both an overview of permaground.wikispaces.com wiki-based free manual and a standalone article that present permaculture, huge problems it solves, its benefits and how to implement it detailed through a simple example. =Permaculture as Crisis Response= (More details in Full Introduction)

**//Relations is what make atoms a world//** The root cause for current world problems is in fact one systemic disorder: a flaw or failure by design to take in consideration relations, flows, interactions and feedback loops (e.g. of money, energy, life) among world components (e.g. people, businesses, plants, ecosystems). Very often we simply build a system based on "an infinite growth on limited resources", a logical contradiction in terms, a system living beyond its means and digging its own grave. For global warming climate change, the flow of carbon continuously released from burning fossil fuels and deforestation is a flaw in our society design so critical that is now threatening global food security and the "[|ecosystem services] upon which human livelihoods depend that would not be preserved.[|[13]]". Agriculture is a more precise example of leaving beyond land means in a negative spiral that deeply destroy its fertility. Toby Hemenway explains the extractive nature of traditional and then industrial agriculture is bound by design to be ecologically degenerative. Riots of hunger, in the 21Ist century, in countries such as Morocco and Egypt, remind that remaining fertile lands are coming to an end, especially since pressured for the production of energy. Energy production and consumption is another example wrong energy flows. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen explains that "thermodynamics demonstrates that natural resources are depleted irrevocably". For David Holmgren, a permaculture co-founder, "the flows of energy production and consumption are insane. Seven years of solar power are consumed everyday in oil." "We'll have a serious energy descent", to learn to live again with a "solar budget". Economic and financial system is an illustration of interaction between flows of energy, money and debt. Money is a very important mean of exchange, but through private money creation (e.g. interest, fractional reserve) banks creatively takes a tax on the use of money, that all of us pay. With debt crisis in Europe today, this financial power turn into a political power, able to control nations. "Life is not all survival in a stable ecosystem." The logic of flows and interactions between energy, food and exchanges is chaotic, and thus inherently hard to take into consideration, but failing to do so, no surprise that we witness all types of unforeseen global consequences, in butterfly effect series. Fortunately, ecology and non-linear mathematics revealed some of the logic behind physical world chaos, life complexity and resilience. Hopefully, with permaculture, this complexity is put into design and practice, for the benefit of all. **//Permaculture or the art of building with relations//** Permaculture turn the problem of complexity and interactions into building a solution. Permaculture is a method for building food production and human living systems that are self-sustainable, relocalized and replicable, that recycle themselves in a positive spiral of growing fertility. Permaculture extends concepts from agroforestry, agro-ecology and other organic farming, such as polyculture, multi-cropping, companionship, but also integrate knowledge from other areas, such as water harvesting, green building and energy generation. Permaculture designs mimic natural ecosystems and combine elements into their best dynamics, such as mutualistic relationships, in which nothing is waste and everything is a resource. By minimizing waste, human labor and energy input, and maximizing final design synergy and positive outcomes, permaculture design result in extremely powerful complex systems that produce a high amount of food and materials with minimal input. [check if permaculture is properly defined]

**//Save you and save us, but not the world as you knew it//** Permaculture eco-systems are very productive with minimal work. Additionally, they benefit to our health, social and ecological environment, that can be seen as political empowerment. Permaculture idea of multiple mutually beneficial relations extends to humans, to self-cultivation of better humans, where people care for each other, as a solid ground to found a permanent and sustainable culture. Hemenway explains that with permaculture we can make the transition to a horticultural society regenerative and without social hierarchy, and save humans and our humanity. But he explains that we'll have to organize differently, we cannot keep most of our current extractive systems, including agriculture, individual transportation, cities, and by extension, civilization. [how it answer the challenges (financial, global warming, peak oil, arable land depletion)] "To implement and manage a constructed or natural system inevitably leads to a more revolutionary lifestyle, a more fulfilling and contented life, and a sense of one’s place in nature and the world". Permaculture aim to free people from the constraint of job and money for food, home and energy. Mollison, a permaculture co-founder, explain that "it is more effective to educate people to plan for themselves than to pay 'planners' unrelated to people conditions". It invites them to become peer-to-peer self-employed producer and self-reliant consumer, and maximize their "happiness and well-being through non-consumptive means—sharing work, consuming less, while devoting more time to art, music, family, culture and community". Permaculture is a simple approach that solves huge economic, ecologic and energetic problems we face today. It is actually doing it all around the world the same instant I am writing these lines and you reading them, get yourself involved, "the change" has already started. The rest of this article explains how in practice permaculture tackle such problems through a simple example, the forest garden. It describes in detail the analysis of systems and "Layers" natural pattern, the method to use it in design, and the implementation in your garden, expanded from small urban space to a large rural land, and finally, a case study of an existing example, the forest garden of Robert Hart. [] [] [] []

=Analysis : Nature Works In Layers= Layers

=Design Methods : Applying Pattern To Natural Culture= Application of A Pattern

=Designs and Techniques: Edible Forest Garden=

=Case Studies and Community= Jordan Site Rober Hart