Permaculture- Solutions for Healing Our Planet

[Dawn]

This thread is going to focus on what is working to shift our planet in a wonderful permanent way. I have just signed up for Geoff Lawtons 3 month Permaculture course... and there is still time for you to join me if you would like to. Meanwhile, I am going to share some of the wonderful information I am focusing on here on this thread. Please feel free to add your knowledge as well. Everyone who would like to focus in the solution to the degradation of our planetary ecosystems is welcome.

Here is a truly amazing film, which brought me to tears. It is a story about changing poverty and a desert landscape into a green and productive ecosystem within a 20 year period. Enjoy!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FYCARwFRN9g

Meanwhile, if you'd like to sign up for Geoff Lawton's course here is the link: http://members.permaculturedesigncourse.com/dashboard

And here is a link to a FREE permaculture course from another source:
http://www.permaculturedesigntraining.com/

[Dawn]

I have posted this before, but it is also really worth looking at. The Man Who Planted Trees, is based on a true story, but is entirely composed of hand drawn images. It is a beautiful and joyfilled film.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=v_7yEPNUXsU

Here is Geoff Lawton's classic documentary film, Greening of the Desert. It now has grown to a 4 part series.... and if you haven't seen it prepared to be amazed:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=xzTHjlueqFI

[Dawn]

So, what do you think about stepping out of being part of the most destructive species on the planet?

.... What if you decide to become a part of the most constructive and beneficial species on the planet?

...........What would happen if you made a decision to go into action as a positive influence?

.................... What if you focus on what you CAN do, despite all of the negative things happening on the planet?

...............................What if you begin to focus on how to make a difference?

INSTEAD OF WHAT YOU CANNOT CHANGE AND WHAT YOU CANNOT DO

[13th Warrior]

Indeed; close the loop and there is no waste, only surplus.

I really like the idea of aquaculture.

[sian]

Thought this video would fit into the theme of how we need to change our attitudes towards working with our environment rather than ignoring what mother nature has always known best.

A bitter sweet story leads to 'one' of the solutions which can/could be achieved/adopted by understanding the nature of NATURE in mimicking the balances we've long forgotten.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI#t=1233

[Dawn]

sian: A bitter sweet story leads to 'one' of the solutions which can/could be achieved/adopted by understanding the nature of NATURE in mimicking the balances we've long forgotten.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI#t=1233

Wow Sian! I spent the last couple of hours following up on the thread you left here for me. I have not been exposed to this information before and it is beyond amazing. It looks like I will have a great deal to learn about this topic. Basically it is the conscious discovery of how and why grazing animals heal the soil and grasslands and why there is desertification happening on all continents of the planet!

This goes hand in hand with the information I've spent a lifetime looking at and coming back to over and over again. Raised as a vegetarian with a vegetarian 'Nazi' father, I have now changed my view. Dad used family mealtimes as an opportunity to lecture on the horrors of animal slaughter and the vile nature of meat eating humans. When I was a little girl vegetarianism was not yet popular, so my Dad's view, and our lifestyle was quite unusual. Now, at a time when many people have moved into the belief that being a vegetarian is the road to healing themselves and feeding the hungry... I have moved into another perspective. I know, from my reading, that grass fed animals (even pastured chickens and eggs) are the route to glowing health. My body is (to my surprise) a meat eater, whether I think it should be, or not. My wonderful body, made from the elements of the earth she lives and walks on, is healthier if she gets a fair amount of grass fed animal products. Commonly available feed lot finished animals make her ill... but the natural grass fed and raised animals add to her vitality. Grass fed meat, milk, and eggs have the same healthy fats as wild caught salmon and are wonderful human food. Ah well, I digress.

The connection you have given to: http://www.savoryinstitute.com .......
Is where a big part of the answer to returning the health and biodiversity of our planet can be found. And it is being found through the conscious use of grazing animals. It turns out that our grasslands are becoming deserts because there ARE TOO FEW grazing animals. I guess we are headed, as a culture, into famine over the entire planet ... but here is the road out of the issue.

I am still glad that I am learning about permaculture.... but this other thread of information about how to heal desertified grasslands is extremely important. On my knees in gratitude to you for opening my eyes to this!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5LHoh-OKUfU

[Erich]

Hello all,

I study and use these techniques on a small farm here and can attest not only to the power of the practices, but the awareness and/or intelligence that develops. That sounds a bit pompous. What I am trying to say is permaculture has been a way for me to learn many other things, particularly in biology and science in general. If you ever felt what you learned in high school was BS, Mollison's book/ideas will affirm this and help you see how simple it really is. Farming done well is not a huge amount of back-breaking work.

At first, permaculture can seem hippy-ish or perhaps only related to farming, but this is not the case, really. Mollison's book is a primer on the creational design system we all live in!

If anyone wants to work here for a while and see first hand what I mean you are welcome.

Erich

[Dawn]

Erich: At first, permaculture can seem hippy-ish or perhaps only related to farming, but this is not the case, really. Mollison's book is a primer on the creational design system we all live in!

If anyone wants to work here for a while and see first hand what I mean you are welcome.

Erich, what a delightful post! Where are you in the world?

I did not realize, until I took yesterday's permaculture classes, that a conference in the 1970s pointed out that soils were failing worldwide. Global famine was predicted to arise in about 2014-2020.

Avalon members spend a lot of time thinking about DUMBS and the retreats the global elite have been setting up for themselves. Everyone has been looking at potential alien inventions and wars.... but maybe the elite are simply preparing for the upcoming famine years. If this is true then they have given up on finding or implementing a solution.

The solution is not a reduced human population, strangely. The solution appears to be to open our eyes to what our agriculture and grazing policies are doing. Our very foundational beliefs about agriculture are not correct. Who knew, for example, that grasslands are failing and dying because the numbers of animals on them needs to be increased by 300-400%? And have TPTB truly realized that as people become rich and well fed, their fertility drops? Have they realized that the poorer a human population becomes the more their birth rate increases, as the species responds to a perceived threat of extinction? So all this talk of population reduction... would actually become a reality on a planet filled with abundant people.

Everything I am learning points to solutions which actually work, and will balance and heal the earth's ecological systems.

It also appears that a 10-20 hour work week can be expected as a side effect of a permaculture lifestyle. That leaves a lot of time for relaxing, developing community, and being creative.

[aviators]

Share this here.
Permaculture Keynote - S. California Permaculture Convergence - Paul Wheaton

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6vZPTPIHO8w