Our world reads like a math equation gone bad — the basic needs and bottomless desires of eight billion people on one side, increasingly scarce water, food, and energy on the other. Even people who do not love and appreciate math see the conflict here. Environmental destruction, war and economic collapse seem inevitable to force balance. These are the bodings of the Math of Doom. Before you blow your money on guns and survival supplies, please consider a cheaper, happier solution: permaculture.
Permaculture, if forced to a definition, is a design methodology based on observations of natural systems.
Permaculture stands to fundamentally change the math behind global resource depletion.
Permaculture may be best explained in terms of water, though it applies to energy, waste, materials . . . nearly any resource.
Our current mentality treats water reductively and linearly — we think about water acquisition, use, and disposal as separate, discrete processes, carried out in rigid order. We struggle to acquire each gallon as if it is dammed, pumped and piped from afar. Once we have it, we can use it only once. If we don't decide to defecate in our hard-won water, we use it for washing, flushing, drinking, irrigating, and then immediately drain it away. Usually this one use contaminates the water and it must be treated. Rain is viewed as a nuisance — disposed of as quickly as possible. This kind of math — where one quantity (a resource) is perpetually reduced and another quantity (waste) perpetually increases — will lead to catastrophe and the Math of Doom shall prevail.
In a permaculture design, domestic water use imitates nature.
An Herb Spiral, a technique of permaculture, creates microclimates and minimizes water use. Mulch conserves water and supresses weeds. Photo by Kate Burlason
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A great deal, if not all needed water, is acquired free of cost, free of energy use, free of infrastructure. An average lot in San Luis Obispo receives 33,000 gallons of rainwater each year, no pumping, damming, piping required. Some water is held in the soil, limiting irrigation needs.
Cisterns (constructed with nominal investments of energy and material) can hold even more water for household use. Composting toilets and drought tolerant landscaping eliminate some need for water and produce fertilizer. The little water used for cooking and washing can be used more than once in greywater systems that irrigate vegetable beds or orchards, which in turn purify the water. Here, there are no inputs to deplete, no outputs requiring treatment. The amount of water used by our home is returned in full and unspoiled to nature with no net reduction in that resources' availability. The Math of Doom evaporates as a puff of linear thinking.
One of several basic permaculture principle at play here is 'Integration.' Overall, permaculture formalizes twelve principles handy in creating systems that imitate nature. Using the principle of integration, we look at seemingly separate systems, such as rain, washing, and irrigation, and try to connect the outputs of one system with the inputs of another. The goal is not to create a system that merely recycles, i.e. puts out a gallon of clean water for every clean gallon put in.
Moreover, permaculture design actually 'puts out' more than is 'put in' — rain that would have flowed into a gutter is used to clean, grow food, create wildlife habitat, or grow trees that shade and cool a home. Don't worry, permaculture does not purport to harness some invisible energy source or violate the laws of thermodynamics. It merely uses natural processes and inputs — sunlight, plants, animals, water, soil, and air — in more elegant arrangements than we've managed with our reservoir to sewer-treatment thinking. Applying the principle of Integration and other permaculture principles to our homes will help us reduce our resource use, maximize the productivity of our time and land, and ultimately could lead to a more connected, purposeful, and happy life!
Whether you are a professional looking to integrate the rich insights of systems thinking and biomimicry into your field or just someone interested in saving money, time, or the planet, permaculture has something to offer everyone.
Many of the concepts of permaculture can be learned in books, or for the truly perceptive, simply by observing natural systems over time. But to really speed understanding and inspiration, Permaculture Design Courses (PDCs) are taught around the world. These courses offer a solid foundation, a network of supportive, knowledgeable teachers and practitioners, and abundant examples of permaculture techniques in action.
The good news is that you don't have to journey far to find a Permaculture Design Course. I'm currently working with local permaculture enthusiasts — Tree Lees, Jim Cole, Alex Vincent, and Josh Carmichael — to offer a low-cost, flexible Permaculture Design Course in our county. It's low-cost — an almost unheard of $500 for an internationally recognized 72 hour certification where most courses are $1500 - $3000. It's flexible to the needs of busy people, taught on alternating weekends between April and August of 2013. It's local — every one of the 10 sessions is held at a different exemplar location, making it like 10 field trips. We will draw on local expertise beyond our core team — professionals, professors, and local practitioners will help teach the course to provide diverse perspectives relevant to our location.
Our PDC is as much about learning permaculture techniques as it is about changing thinking. We hope you will build lifelong connections with people, places, and organizations in our county that will enrich your life and give you the resources you need to truly begin living sustainably.
For more information about the SLO Permaculture Design Course, contact us by email at SLO Permaculture or call Greg at (805) 242-6301.
Additional Resources
SLO Permaculture Guild
Donella Meadows' Twelve Leverage Points for Influencing a System
Hybrid Drivers Drive More
The Path to Lithium Batteries: Friend or Foe?
Wikipedia: Permaculture
Resources
Orfalea Foundation's Garden Program
American Gardening Statistics
