Thursday, April 17, 2014
Permaculture guilds are an extension of a common gardening technique called companion planting. Companion planting is used in home gardening to increase the yield a certain area produces in a season. While permaculture guilds are almost exclusively used in permaculture, companion planting is more widespread.
In the past 50 years more resources have been consumed than in the entire history of the human race-that is, over the preceding 200,000 years. Consumerism, economic rationalism and trade for trade's sake have run riot in a world environment conceding and acquiescing to corporate aspirations and global market manipulations, at the expense of the environment and social justice, particularly over this past decade since the mid-nineties.
The paradigm shift required to live within our footprint will demand that we radically contract into a conserver society, get over our 'Affluenza' quick smart, and embrace frugality as a moral obligation. If we don't get tough on ourselves, the world will get even tougher on us as the consequences of inaction or insufficient action take their toll. The future is most certainly in our hands in a more profound way than ever before in history.
This would include the ecological processes of plants, animals, their nutrient cycles, climatic factors and weather cycles and integrating these into the design as well as being inter-dependent on each other. Within a permaculture system, work is minimised, "waste" is made into a resource, productivity and yields increase and environments are restored using principles that can be applied anywhere, on any scale, from one individual home to entire regions.
While there are many small things we can do immediately through behavioural adjustments and becoming more aware consumers, the paradigm shift to become an effective agent of change demands a degree of knowledge, skills, and practical ecological savvy that has been seriously neglected in our education systems. There is so much to learn, and little time to waste.
In the past 50 years more resources have been consumed than in the entire history of the human race-that is, over the preceding 200,000 years. Consumerism, economic rationalism and trade for trade's sake have run riot in a world environment conceding and acquiescing to corporate aspirations and global market manipulations, at the expense of the environment and social justice, particularly over this past decade since the mid-nineties.
The paradigm shift required to live within our footprint will demand that we radically contract into a conserver society, get over our 'Affluenza' quick smart, and embrace frugality as a moral obligation. If we don't get tough on ourselves, the world will get even tougher on us as the consequences of inaction or insufficient action take their toll. The future is most certainly in our hands in a more profound way than ever before in history.
This would include the ecological processes of plants, animals, their nutrient cycles, climatic factors and weather cycles and integrating these into the design as well as being inter-dependent on each other. Within a permaculture system, work is minimised, "waste" is made into a resource, productivity and yields increase and environments are restored using principles that can be applied anywhere, on any scale, from one individual home to entire regions.
While there are many small things we can do immediately through behavioural adjustments and becoming more aware consumers, the paradigm shift to become an effective agent of change demands a degree of knowledge, skills, and practical ecological savvy that has been seriously neglected in our education systems. There is so much to learn, and little time to waste.
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Find out more information on Permaculture, please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=209kJD-M3_A
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