What will it take to create truly permanent-cultures?

[Shantree Kacera]

From my years of observation, It seems that we as the human species, in our western civilizations in particular, have shaped a culture that is mostly ignorant of the destruction it is responsibility to others and to the planet. Like immature children, our scrutiny is fixed upon too many of the interferences and amusements of our 'made-up world' instead of seeing the cause and effects that our way of living is having on the 'real-world'. The present times we are living in are intensely hopeful for our culture to wake up. They are asking us simply to discern the effects of our lifestyle choices, to step into our cultural adulthood, and with the wisdom of our emerging maturity, take the necessary strides essential to find a way to adjust what needs shifting, heal what desires healing, and make the pledge to leave the world in healthier condition when we leave it. We as a species are being strongly invited to take accountability for creating more permanent-cultures (permaculture) upon the one world we all live upon.

 

What can be created through the use of permaculture design?

• We can build topsoil and fertility while growing nourishing food instead of losing it, which usually occurs with our present industrial farming systems.
• We can provide the homes, clothing, buildings and energy we need from mostly local sources without waste.
• We can transform our suburbs and city neighborhoods into sustainable and genuinely satisfying communities.
• We can restore damaged lands and ecosystems;
• We can produce affluence, resiliency and security wherever we live;
• We can embrace (and employ) just about everybody in this 'job' of preserving and enhancing the quality of life on this planet;
• We can renew our local economies and environments by sensibly and exquisitely cultivating most of our own food instead of shipping it in.

• And, quite conceivably, we can impede or reverse climate change.

Seem implausible?  Sound idealistic?  Maybe so. 

However it is none-the-less likely, a choice, that we as individuals can move towards should we make this decision.

The purpose of permaculture to give participants the observational skills, the knowledge, practical information and wisdom to support them become better suited and empowered in being a part of this global transition from an energy and resource consumptive culture towards a more permanent, sustaining and nourishing one.