Joe Polaischer R.I.P. March 3, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Permaculture , add a commentI only just noticed on David Holmgren’s website the sad passing on Feb 14th of Permaculture Elder Joe Polaischer.
Originally from Austria, Joe was founder, with his partner Trish Allen, of Rainbow Valley farm in New Zealand. I had the pleasure of meeting Joe at the International Permaculture Convergence in Croatia in 2005. I was struck by his charisma and breadth of knowledge which was infectious and inspiring.
Right: Joe and Trish (on right of picture) Ljubljana 2005
After the conference he traveled with some of us back to Ljubljana. He regaled us with tales of his very colorful life and expressed amazement at the extensively wooded countryside in Slovenia. The last time he had been in this part of the world was over 40 years earlier when he had run away from home at the age of 18 over the Alps into what was then Yugoslavia. Seemingly in those days there were many goats and few trees. The story goes that the then dictator, Tito, had ordered the removal of effectively all the goats from the countryside, allowing the impressive regeneration of the woods- a story I often recount to express the rapid ability of the trees to come back.
He also had stories from the war time in Austria when he was a young boy on his father’s farm. Previously wealthy people from the city would come begging for food. His father would let them stay for a day- but no longer. On one occasion he saw the visitors throw jewels onto the table offered as a fee to let them stay where there was food a while longer. the young Joe, not having seen such shiny things before reached out to take them but was told sharply by his father, “No! Don’t touch them! They are filthy!” The lesson was, anything that hadnt been earned by the sweat of the brow on the land was not to be trusted, a lesson that Joe embodied in his permaculture life.
You can read David Holmgren’s obituary here
Powerdown TV Show March 2, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Peak Oil, Powerdown , add a commentI have not been posting very regularly recently and part of the reason is that I have been very busy moving into the now (mainly) finished timber cabin. I am delighted to have moved into this cosy space. Warm, functional and full of light it promises to be a very comfortable and appropriately-sized living space.
Some of my first visitors were the crew from Cultivate who came down last week to interview me for the forthcoming TV show that will accompany the Skilling Up for Powerdown Course.
Right: Davie, Eoghain, Rob in the Cabin.
This innovative 10-week course is the brain child of Cultivate’s Education Officer Davie Philip who has been putting it together over the last year or so as a community learning resource. Davie has just started running it in Dublin for the third time, and it has also been trialled in Kinsale. When finished, it will be a groundbreaking resource for community self-learning on issues of community responses to peak oil and Climate change and will include a book and DVD-rom with a short film specially made to explore each chapter of the course. (more…)
The Transition Handbook March 1, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Peak Oil, Permaculture, Powerdown, community , 3commentsBook Review
The Transition Handbook From oil dependency to local resilience Rob Hopkins Green Books 2008 Pbck; 240pp The transition Handbook is available from www.transition culture.org
“The concept of energy descent, and of the Transition approach, is a simple one: that the future with less oil could be preferable to the present, but only if sufficient creativity and imagination are applied early enough in the design of this transition.”
-Rob Hopkins, The Transition handbook
The publication of the much anticipated Transition Handbook marks the latest landmark in what has become the fastest growing environmental movement since CND in the 1960s: the phenomenon that is sweeping the UK, the Transition Towns movement. (more…)
Pedal Power February 15, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Renewable Energy , 1 comment so farI had the pleasure of visiting the Cork Community Bike project in Cork City the other day where I found Garrett Blake and Rob in the workshop. 
Both have been to the inspiring Maya Pedal Project in Guatamala which has created a great range of pedal powered machines including grinders, mills, pumps and generators. This is exactly the kind of appropriate and sustainable, empowering technology we should be focusing on more, rather than putting all our faith in high-tech solutions such as thin-film solar
Garrett, who has a Masters in Sustainable Energy from UCC, founded the project three years ago to promote training and facilities for bikes and pedal powered machines in Cork. From their website:
“Cork community bikes is developing a do-it-yourself bike workshop for the community to use. Our work aims to salvage unwanted bicycles from the waste stream, repair them and resell them. We work with local schools and youth groups promoting the use of bicycles and sustainable transport . We want the workshop to be a centre of training and a social focus for anybody with an interest in bicycles in the cork city.”
I had a go on their pedal-powered dynamo which can be used to power sound systems at festivals. This is something I could really do with, having limited power at home, for charging batteries. A good dynamo with a fit pedaler can generate something in the range of 100watts, enough to run a laptop computer for example.
Another good site with info on pedal powered dynamos can be found here.
Pedal power is of course a key part of any post-oil society and it is great to see projects like this springing up providing such tools and skills. All power to their pedals.
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Monbiot on Population February 1, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Environment, Human Ecology, Overshoot, Peak Oil, Population , 8comments[Update: See John Feeney's excellent response to Monbiot here.]
A few people have pointed me to George Monbiot’s recent article on population in the Guardian. While it is welcome that Monbiot addresses the issue I wanted to reply because I found it really disappointing, failing to join the dots and in some ways misleading.
The main thrust of the article is that some environmentalists complain the issue of population is ignored- perhaps for political reasons- even though it is the “number one environmental problem” and Monbiot sets out to discuss whether this is in fact true. The basic issue in this debate is, can we really give out as it were about the large populations of the developing world when over-consumption in the West is in fact having a bigger environmental impact? (more…)
Back to Nature #5 Consciousness for Sustainabiltiy January 27, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Human Ecology, Overshoot, Permaculture, Science and Rationaltiy , 4commentsConsciousness for Sustainability
The discussion of the “Back to Nature” series has been looking at developmental models of human behaviour, with a view to seeing what light, of any, such approaches can shed on the perplexing question:
Why do so many people seem to be in denial, or to be unable to grasp the reality that the human ecological footprint has far exceeded the carrying capacity of the earth, and that energy depletion, climate change and general environmental degradation will inevitably result in the end of our current way of life?
In this concluding part of the series we will have a look at some of the general implications of this model for achieving sustainabiltiy and try to find an answer to the question: Can we really go Back to nature? (more…)
Back to Nature #4: The Trouble with Green January 13, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Geo-politics, Human Ecology, Science and Rationaltiy , 2commentsThe Trouble with Green
“Here’s the point: you look out there, at the environment, and with your senses you can plainly see the wonderful, glorious, empirical world of nature. And of course you want to help save nature from destruction, not only because nature is beautiful, but because your own existence depends in many ways on a healthy environment. So you say, stop doing those things that are destroying nature! Stop polluting the oceans, stop dumping toxic wastes into our rivers, stop using fluorocarbons that create an ozone hole, stop burning carbon fuels that pollute the atmosphere and cause global warming- instead let us live in accord with nature, let us adopt energy-efficient production, use renewable resources, practice natural capitalism’ and in all ways honour Gaia. “Congratulations, you have just bought into the world of Flatland. And it is flatland that above all else is destroying Gaia. And thus your very efforts to save Gaia are destroying Gaia”.
-Ken Wilber, Boomeritis (2002)
Last week we looked at the story of the cultural and psychological evolution of human consciousness through the Spiral Dynamics model.
We stopped at Green- the environmental stage that has emerged as a significant cultural form in the last few decades in many western countries, influencing politics, social movements and heralding a New Age of transformation and care for all people and All Beings.
Green however, although representing much advancement in terms of ecological and social awareness over the previous stages of Blue and Orange, has failed to recognize that these earlier stages are necessary for the emergence of green in the first place. The Green belief of the dawning of a new Age of renewal and Global Consciousness cannot be realized because to reach Green requires a developmental process that must include and value all the stages and all their values in some way. (more…)
Back to Nature #3 The Evolution of Consciousness January 6, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Geo-politics, Human Ecology, Science and Rationaltiy , 1 comment so farThe Evolution of Consciousness
Part 1
In “Back to nature #2” I explored Deep Ecology and the idea that the response to the environmental problems we face should be to in some way “go back to nature” because “nature knows best”. I questioned this idea on the grounds that some versions imply an anthropocentric stance, projecting human feelings, consciousness and motives onto the non-human world in a way that seems more intended to fulfill our own psychological needs rather than actually healing our relationship with nature.
In this post, I want to explore an alternative: that rather than try to return to an earlier form of consciousness, that our consciousness itself – our way of understanding and relating to the world- is evolving.
What follows should be seen as a Story of the Evolution of consciousness. It is based on one particular model that has become popular in recent years- Spiral Dynamics, which I first came across in the writings of Ken Wilber. I do not endorse either the theory as a whole nor Wilber in particular, but see it as a tool that I think is worth consideration for anyone interested in the question: “Why aren’t more people interested in sustainabilty and protection of the environment?”
I am freely interpreting this version to make a story and adapting it . I am not claiming to attempt rigorous accuracy, but the basic idea does I feel have many different kinds of evidence to support it. The important thing is the implications such a view would have for seeking solutions to current global problems, and considering how it differs from the “return to nature” story.
In Spiral Dynamics, cultural “memes” or stage of development are colour coded, so I am referring to each stage with the same colours.
Enjoy reading it and make of it what you will. (more…)
Pizza Oven! December 31, 2007
Posted by Graham in : Food, Green Building , 3commentsI am proud to present the brand new Earth Oven recently completed at Derryduff.
Just last night Sherry and Andy joined me for the first trial run pizza making session, which was a great success and resulted in much happy chomping. We also enjoyed sitting around the ultra-hot oven for some hours afterwards and watching the remarkable patterns of the flames inside curling around the oven while discussing the finer points of Quantum Theory. (more…)
The Last Christmas December 24, 2007
Posted by Graham in : Environment , 2commentsGuest writer Andy Wilson editor of Sustainability Magazine has kindly sent me this piece expressing his thoughts on Christmas:
The Last Christmas – A True Story?
Every Christian knows of the Last Supper, in which Jesus joined his disciples for the last time before being betrayed. The festival of Christmas, in which a billion or more people worldwide will ‘celebrate’ – if that is the right word - the birth of Christ, appears to have begun about 300 years after the death of Christ. Possibly, the Christian movement had gathered sufficient momentum by this time for it to require distinctive festivals of its own. It is probably no coincidence that the time of year chosen coincided with the much older pagan festival of the winter solstice, and this no doubt helped the new religion gain acceptance among the non-believers. (more…)
