permaculture Archives

Bookshelf

Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life

19th June 2019

David R. Montgomery writes: Conventional wisdom says that fertile soil is not renewable. That’s not really true. Fertility can be improved quickly through cover cropping and returning organic matter to the land. Soil-building is about getting the biology, mineral availability, and organic-matter balance right, rolling with the wheel of life instead of pushing against it….

Masanobu Fukuoka

Bookshelf

The heritage of 20th century science for the 21st century: A list and an invitation

29th January 2018

Some of the most celebrated scientific ideas and books of the 20th century may not be useful for us in this century, while lesser-known works of the past acquire new relevance. Here, then, is a selection of such works, along with an invitation for readers to critique and contribute their own suggestions to this list….

ALTERNATIVES

To embrace the transition, we must go beyond ‘environmentalism’

29th December 2017

Erik Lindberg writes: In contrast to a conflictual and adversarial approach to activism, which aims at victory over those who stand in the way of progress, the Transition model and the community spaces it creates, open doors for the sort of narrative whereby we accept responsibility and move forward with recognition of our collective errors….

ALTERNATIVES

Narsanna Koppula: The man behind the upcoming Permaculture Convergence

8th November 2017

Narsanna Koppula, a pioneer of permaculture in India, founded Aranya Agricultural Alternatives, with an aim to provide alternate solutions to the present chemical agricultural practices. Later this month, Aranya, which has impacted thousands of farmers in Telangana and Andhra, is playing host to the International Permaculture Convergence, the biggest event on the permaculture calendar globally….

ALTERNATIVES

How to grow a food forest that will feed you everyday

22nd August 2017

From Down to Earth Magazine: What does it take to design a permaculture kitchen garden? In this video, permaculture practitioners Rosie and Peter Fernandes, based in Assagaon, Goa, recount their experience of growing a food forest designed to meet their cooking needs round the year. They are now taking their model to the wider community….

ALTERNATIVES

Obituary: Peaceful warrior: Permaculture visionary Bill Mollison

27th September 2016

Australian educator, author and co-inventor of Permaculture, Bruce Charles ‘Bill’ Mollison, died on the 24 September 2016. He has been praised across the world for his visionary work, and left behind a global network of ‘peaceful warriors’ in over 100 countries working tirelessly to fulfill his ambition to build harmony between humanity and Mother Earth….

ALTERNATIVES

Permaculture and Primitvism: Two alternatives to the technological destruction of nature

2nd August 2016

Gaurav Sangwani writes: Permaculture tries to utilise the existing elements in the land to take human freedom further, with a far lower ecological effect. Primitivism is the perennial belief in the need to go back to where we started, the lost Golden Age of freedom and guiltlessness which is at the heart of all the world’s religions….

ALTERNATIVES

Sustainability – The Simpler Way perspective

16th July 2016

Ted Trainer writes: Following is an outline of the case, firstly that present ways are grossly unsustainable and secondly that the solution must involve far lower rates of production and consumption and GDP, frugal and self-sufficient lifestyles in small, localized, and largely self-governing communities, in a zero-growth economy which is not driven by market forces….

ALTERNATIVES

Christopher Alexander’s neglected challenge to Permaculture

15th July 2016

Dan Palmer writes: Christopher Alexander is a radical architect and writer respected by permaculture practitioners. According to him, a whole is created by putting together parts. The parts come first: and the form of the whole comes second, but “it is impossible to form anything which has the character of nature by adding preformed parts.”…

CLIMATE CRISIS

News update

10th December 2014

Guess What Happened The Last Time The Price Of Oil Crashed Like This Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse blog There has only been one other time in history when the price of oil has crashed by more than 40 dollars in less than 6 months. The last time this happened was during the second half…

ENERGY

News update

23rd January 2014

US Army colonel: world is sleepwalking into a global energy crisis A conference sponsored by a US military official convened experts in Washington DC and London warning that continued dependence on fossil fuels puts the world at risk of an unprecedented energy crunch that could inflame financial crisis and exacerbate dangerous climate change. From Guardian Earth…