[Pil-pc-oceania] IPC8 in Brazil - Some personal highlights -1. Think-tanks

Sat Aug 25 19:44:10 EST 2007

Hi  Rosemary,

Thanks for this very interesting (to say the least) news from abroad.

It is gratifying that people overseas have begun to adjust their thinking to the difficult times to come.

The sea here has risen about 15cm over the last 40 years. Five island commmunities have already evacuation plans in place. Thursday Island people have been negotiating with mainland indigenous comunities in Qld.  Canada has agreed to take people from Vanuatu. 

It is to be hoped that further rises will not occur.  It is feared, however, that we humans will not ba able to contain projected rises in CO2 emissions. 

Either way, the focus on bioregional self sufficiency is everywhere a critical part of future survival strategies. 

Infrastructure at sea level may well be lost, and that would include the two thirds of the worlds nuclear power plants that are located in cities of 1.5 million or more.

Whilst people may, or may not, be able to adjust, I fear for the oceans which I fear will suffer.  Among the reasons for this is the likelihood that further increases in CO2 are rendering the oceans (which normally have alkaline Ph) acidic.  On top of that, increases in marine pollution from drowned city coastlines would be catastrophic.

Any serious moves to attempt to counter such outcomes are a credit to the wider pc movement, which has always been renowned for its visonary insights.  

Thank you for these updates.

[Could you please place the topic of each email in the heading...otherwise they will be harder to identify at will].

Thanks
Deb
Adelaide

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rosemary Morrow 
  To: pil-pc-oceania 
  Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2007 5:41 PM
  Subject: [Pil-pc-oceania] Fwd: IPC8 in Brazil - Some personal highlights -1. Think-tanks

  Begin forwarded message:

    From: Rosemary Morrow <rowe at lisp.com.au>
    Date: 25 August 2007 6:02:23 PM
    To: pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org
    Subject: Re: IPC8 in Brazil - Some personal highlights - 1. Think-tanks

    Hello Everyone:

    I wonder if it would be relevant for me to write a few paragraphs each week about the actions and ideas from IPC8 which I found particularly interesting.  I'm giving you a taste with the following and will not continue if you feel it's not for you or not appropriate.  I'm going to keep them short and will enter into longer discussions with anyone who wishes to contact me on my email.    But I hope they will provoke some discussion amongst us all.

    Warmly,

    Rowe 

    1.    A PERMACULTURE THINK TANK

    In preparation for IPC8 Scandinavian permaculturists,  primarily teachers, from Norway, Sweden and Denmark  held a live-in weekend in March this year to discuss what they thought were the issues of most importance to them, and to bring that thinking as papers,  to Brazil.   They seemed to be the only group at the conference which concentrated on climate change and what it would mean for their countries and, they also looked at early permaculture ideas to see how they had weathered  and where they felt they should be going with permaculture in the future.

    They brought papers to hand out,  but didn't present them in sessions and this is a summary of their ideas.  I've added some information given to me in informal chats by Tony Andersen, one of the permaculture 'elders' who is weathering extremely well well with good food and whisky. I have them as computer documents and could send the full manuscripts to anyone who requests them. They were prompted by the following:

    “In 1984 Bill Mollison said that permaculturists had ten years to make a difference. This was Plan A. Given the stunning decline of the planet’s ecological equilibrium in the last few years most would consider it ludicrous to suggest that we have. However there are more than a few who feel strongly that perhaps we may claim to have set the stage to make a difference.”
    – Ali Sharif, www.ipc8.org, Director’s Blog, 2006.

    They looked at Bill Mollison's Plan A and then a Plan B in terms of the rate of  environmental deterioration.   Plan A they felt was now out of date and that Plan B needed to be implemented as fast as possible.    Plan B focusses on working together and locally in powerful ways.  Plan B stresses the urgent need for repair and regeneration not simply of conservation present systems.   It is almost a fourth ethic - repair, renew, regenerate water, soils, food and energy, now.   The Nordic group focussed on the Oeresund region. 

    Plan B they state is for permaculture as conditions became more critical - for whatever reasons, drought, peak oil, climate change - choose your disaster.   Plan B entails consciously targetting neighbourhoods and groups as the units of strength, not individuals,  and then through permaculture design work on the issues.   This has implications for courses and how we teach them.   It centres in on localisation (call it bioregionalism perhaps) and direct action through groups.  Perhaps the climate change groups being formed in many places in Australia are vehicles for this.  Restitution of landscape is fundamental.

    I took this idea a bit further.   It occurred to me that eco-centres and eco-villages could focus as local centres of knowledge and skills.   For example, they do not need to have the seedbank but they need to know where the local seeds, and other such critical information and skills, can be found.  They would function as emergency centres in the case of disasters.   

    Tony told me that in Scandinavia, the Danes, in particular are looking at floating villages, perhaps boat villages with floating gardens and, tall buildings plugged deeply into bedrock as the other main living units for their populations.  

    Also, in their "10,000 trees paper,  they propose that the 10,000 trees planted per person message is primarily for coastal areas which are likely to be inundated permanently, however they also see it as a global strategy - see the last  edition of the Permaculture Activist on climate change..    Huge littoral forests would be planted to mitigate the force of wind and waves breaking over coastal lowlands.   

    This is a type of disaster planning which is pro-active for a defined region and not difficult to implement..

    Some of these ideas are to be taken to the European Community and to the UN where Tony will make representation next year.

    Importance of Think Tanks:     
    1.    Local permaculture Think-tanks look at the bigger regional  picture and permaculture theory and practice to see how it meets future needs,  and then develops plans that can be put to local, state or federal governments.    It would be good if each state or regional could do this for IPC9.   Is it possible?   Who are our thinkers?
    2.    They come  with ideas for special treatment of areas such as low coastal zones.   For example,  I  realised that every country, not land-bound  needs  littoral permaculture plans, as we need the riverine plans and this should be part of our permaculture thinking and, of course,  it is just as important as water harvesting on a huge scale in dry or drought areas.  The mass movement of people from their homes should i think be avoided as much as possible.

    What do you think?
    1.    Should we hold think tanks and then present the results at APC9?
    2.    What are the  local regions Australia of Australia and the south Pacific which would need regional permaculture plans - and if restoration is to start - what should it be?
    3.    Where do we feed in our findings?
    4.    How does this information affect our teaching curriculum?

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