[Pil-pc-oceania] PPP: Bill's second andf final installment

[Ian Lillington]

Thanks Russ for mentioning George Monbiot and the others in your last post.  There have never been more clear writers and thinkers on sustainability.

My work with a sustainability group in Central Vic [MASG] and the work of many other groups are all heading in the same direction.  I'm quite proud of MASG website and Janet's recent post shows some great work there [Cooroy] as well.  (Masg's site is at http://masg.org.au - we post a weekly 2 sides of A4 which is highly valued by our 500+ members and I am able to feed in useful info from the oceania list serve).  today in our small country town we had three highly experienced speakers who addressed packed meetings at a primary and the high school.  Sustainability Victoria and the EPA are only too pleased to help, with $$ and other resources.

what we are all on about is very similar:  the global problems are well known and we have to do the hard graft at the local level to bring about change.  I am very optimistic at the moment because there are so many groups basically pulling in the same direction.  They are labelled in many ways [localisation, relocalisation, down-sizing, sustainability, sustainable futures and transition]. 
Now I see that there are some in the UK who are voluntarily rationing their carbon ("craggers - UK Guardian" http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/0,,2143337,00.html 

When i look a bit closer they are all very similar to what we have tried to achieve through permaculture groups.  Let a thousand flowers bloom.

On Monday 20th I am talking to members of Permaculture North (Sydney) and in Sept I am talking to Permaculture Melbourne members at their AGM and Permaculture Assoc of SA members at their AGM. I will be raising questions about how permaculture as a movement needs to relate to the current upsurge.  I plan that we have quite a structured set of discussions ahead of the convergence next easter and hope that others are planning to take a similar approach.  

However, after reading all the posts about a PPP I am clear that don't have any interest in it.  I prefer to be part of the great upsurge of interest in sustainability, and to work with all those who are helping the cause, without needing to divert any of my energy into party politics.  There are so many debates and decisions we DO need to have – about permaculture’s peak body, about the role of accredited training, about how to get/keep permaculture’s ethics and principles as part of this upsurge.

Perhaps when 500 people have signed up to register as members, we could resume postings about a PPP on this list.  Meanwhile I politely request that the PPP enthusiasts set up their own web site and list-serve/blog and carry on the debate there.  

Meanwhile I may have to increase my use of the delete key

Ian Lillington
14 aug 07