[Pil-pc-oceania] 2020 Reflections
Bruce Zell
bruce at permaculturenq.com.au
Tue Apr 15 09:05:22 EST 2008
Fantastic Janet Go well All
Cheers
Bruce
-----Original Message-----
From: pil-pc-oceania-bounces at lists.permacultureinternational.org
[mailto:pil-pc-oceania-bounces at lists.permacultureinternational.org] On
Behalf Of Janet Millington
Sent: Tuesday, 15 April 2008 7:59 AM
To: pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org
Subject: [Pil-pc-oceania] 2020 Reflections
Hi John and All,
Exciting news from Bega. Taking up the Transition Town initiative by
Permaculturist Rob Hopkins has been a huge springboard for Permaculture
Principles to be utilised (almost as common sense) by council and now state
government planners here in SE Qld.
Sonya Wallace and I were invited to meet with the office of Andrew McNamara
regarding his Oil Vulnerability Mitigation Task Force. Yes, they are aware
of the problem but have no solutions. They now know we do and are keen to
work with us. The people we met will be coming to our Future Ready Expo.
It is all go.
So John I hope it all starts to mushroom for you down there. Well done for
seeing the potential in the Transition Town movement. If we can help in any
way give us a yell. We do have some good experience now and if we can help
fast track your work we are only too pleased as this is why we did
it......to replicate and quickly.
Steady and slow solutions are relative.....just because it all falls into
place and moves in relatively quick time, as opposed to the 30 years it took
to get to this point, doesn't mean it is not a valid slow and steady
solution. I won't slow this down for anything....we are on a roll and we
should go as quickly as we can.
Regards
Janet
-----Original Message-----
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Today's Topics:
1. exploiting the cacophony of narcissism (Andrew Leahy)
2. Polyculture. (Champagne)
3. 2020 Reflections (Champagne)
4. Re: exploiting the cacophony of narcissism (David Arnold)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:25:36 +1000
From: "Andrew Leahy" <alfski at gmail.com>
Subject: [Pil-pc-oceania] exploiting the cacophony of narcissism
To: "permacultue discussion list"
<pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org>
Message-ID:
<865444070804130625k55eef6a3t30004380b7c5fe2d at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
For those involved in community activisim, getup.org, open-source, social
networking, online communities, this will ring true.
Here is Thomas Homer-Dixon speaking to students on March 20th 2008 in
Toronto.
http://www.ecoshock.net/eshock08/ES_080404_Show_LoFi.mp3 (14Mb - 1hour
audio recording)
I can recommend listening to the whole thing, but if you want to bypass the
_downer_ converging catastrophies of civilisation stuff then, skip to about
30 minutes in. The part which relates particularly to what people have been
discussing on this forum recently starts at 36 minutes. I've transcribed a
bit of it below...
"We have a serendipitous development on this planet right now, at the very
moment that human kind faces the most serious challenges it has ever faced
in it's history.
We happen to have in place a rudimentary infrastructure for species-wide
democracy.
The Internet.
At this moment it's nothing more than a venue for a cacophony of narcissism.
Everybody is blogging at each other and retreating into their Facebook
communities.
But it has incredible potential.
We've exploited perhaps one percent of the possibility.
The trick is making people smarter collectively than as they are as
individuals.
Smarter than the sum of the individuals in the group.
What tends to happen with human beings, most of the time, is the larger and
larger the group becomes the more stupidly we behave.
Up to the population of the whole planet, where we have as much intelligence
as a protozoa in a petri dish.
Gobbling up all the resources and pooping up the petri dish.
In certain places, with certain types of behaviour, human beings can be a
lot smarter collectively than they are as individuals.
One area that exemplifies best is the open-source phenomenon.
I believe open-source may turn out to be the most important social
development of the last century.
If we use the things we've learnt about open-source to solve some of our
critical challenges - planning for the future, dealing with energy decline
and climate problems.
Developing essentially what I would call an open-architecture democratic
practice.
Creating global assembly's for the mobilisation of people and problem
solving.
Not just a thousand or 10 thousand. But a million, 10 million or even
hundreds of millions of people coming together.
Involved in collective complex problem solving.
Now, this is not a trivial problem to solve, the devil is in the details of
how you structure something like this.
But of all the things I Iook at around the world.
All the possible routes to solving this problem.
All the possible routes to mobilising as a political support and movements
that we need to face these challenges.
This is the one that ultimately that sounds most plausible to me.
And we can all start in our own ways, in creating that mobilisation, in
creating those networks and developing our plans for the future."
Cheers, Andrew
--
Fact: To manufacture a 3 tonne car requires 50 tonnes of raw material.
Fact: In your lifetime you will eat 50 tonnes of food and produce 3 tonnes
of poo :)
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Message: 2
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 05:54:31 +1000
From: Champagne <brogopg at bigpond.net.au>
Subject: [Pil-pc-oceania] Polyculture.
To: pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org
Message-ID: <480264F7.70107 at bigpond.net.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Hello everyone,
I've been invited back on our regional SouthEast ABC radio to host a
weekly half hour segment on specific permaculture matters for 6 weeks.
The topic I want to concentrate on is polyculture systems. Integrated
plant, animal and aquaculture systems that are designed '
permaculturally' with a commercial outcome, rather than a household
self-reliant system.
I'd really appreciate some contacts this list may have of people to
interview. Is there a CSA anyone knows of that fits the bill?
kind regards
John
Mumbulla Bioregion.
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:13:51 +1000
From: Champagne <brogopg at bigpond.net.au>
Subject: [Pil-pc-oceania] 2020 Reflections
To: pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org
Message-ID: <4802778F.1060505 at bigpond.net.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Thanks David,
Having read the article by Michael Lardelli on the Energy Bulletin web
site, its a sad but true reflection of how Governments operate. In the
article I noted the Queensland State Labor Minister Andrew McNamara
having an understanding of Peak Oil and lobbying his colleagues about
its importance.
Another politition with an understanding and I guess a bit more clout,
is our local Labor Federal Member for Eden Monaro, Mike Kelly.He
defeated the Liberal Garry Nairn and has been appointed as Secretary to
the Minister for Defense. Mike Kelly has a military background and
resigned due to opposition of Australian involvement in Iraq. Kevin Rudd
personally head hunted him and pulled a lot of strings behind the scenes
to get him up as Labors candidate for Eden Monaro.
During the election campaign, Mike Kelly held a meeting in Bega to show
the film -'Crude Awakening'. I couldn't believe it.....so went along. He
spent a lot of time in the Middle East and understands global oil
politics very well.He began his introduction with the words - ' I may be
a naive future politition about to shoot himself in the foot, but this
issue of Peak Oil is really important." He went on for the next 15
minutes straight off the cuff, no notes with an intimate knowledge of
the problem.
He showed the film then asked for questions. Raising my hand
immediately, asked the obvious one, ' so what ideas do you have to solve
this problem". In typical political speak, he waffled on a bit but gave
nothing concrete. I introduced myself to him after the event.....let him
know I'm a permie...told him about BEND and that as a movement we have
focused on this issue for 30 years.Even invited him to attend my next
PDC...wishful thinking.
My thoughts are that they know there is a grave looming problem and its
in their interest to focus on Climate Change and not Peak Oil. With an
agenda of continued economic growth, they have no solutions and it would
scare the pants of the Australian public if they officially announced
the reality of Peak Oil.
While permaculture in Australia fumbles its way to having a
representative national voice, we do have power at the grassroots. We
can all lobby where we live...at council level, state and federal. We
can continually write Letters To The Editor in our local papers to force
the issue to bubble to the surface.
Yes David, it is frustrating that after 30 years of solutions worldwide,
no invitation to the 2020 summit yet a one year wonder - Get -Up, have
several representatives going.It says a lot about politics in this country.
Anyway.....The Bega Valley is holding its own Ideas Forum on the same
day as the Canberra event inviting 100 folk to participate and I have an
invitation. Australians 2nd Transition Town .....look out!
kind regards
John
Mumbulla Bioregion.
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:21:48 +1000
From: "David Arnold" <arnold.vt at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Pil-pc-oceania] exploiting the cacophony of narcissism
To: "permacultue discussion list"
<pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org>
Message-ID:
<a93afbf30804131421m4063a4ffv1831bd03f360a19 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Andrew's post included this statement from Thomas Homer-Dixon.
"I believe open-source may turn out to be the most important social
development of the last century, if we use the things we've learnt about
open-source to solve some of our critical challenges - planning for the
future, dealing with energy decline and climate problems.
Developing essentially what I would call an open-architecture democratic
practice."
I agree. For an example of the organisational ideas that open source has to
offer, see Donovan Baarda's organisation tips below. These are from May
2005, not 10 hours ago as it says. Have a look at them, they are concise,
simple, and powerful.
I previously posted these to the list about two years ago. I think they
have a lot to offer us.
Dave
<http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/src><http://minkirri.apan
a.org.au/Wiki/FrontPage><http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/c
ontents><http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/RecentChanges><http://minkirri.ap
ana.org.au/Wiki/FrontPage/issuetracker><http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/Us
erOptions><http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/HelpPage><http://minkirri.apana
.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips><http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationT
ips/subscribeform><http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/backlin
ks><http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/diff><http://minkirri.
apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/manage_change_history_page><http://minkirr
i.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/editform><http://minkirri.apana.org.au/W
iki/externalEdit_/OganisationTips?borrow_lock=1><http://minkirri.apana.org.a
u/Wiki/OganisationTips#subtopics><http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/Oganisat
ionTips#comments><http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/WirelessNode><http://min
!
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MinkirriProjects><http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/showAcce
ssKeys>
home <http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/FrontPage>
contents<http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/contents>
changes <http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/RecentChanges>
preferences<http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/UserOptions>
help <http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/HelpPage>
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ymode=full&zwiki_showhierarchy=1&redirectURL=http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wi
ki/OganisationTips>
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splaymode=minimal&zwiki_showhierarchy=&redirectURL=http://minkirri.apana.org
.au/Wiki/OganisationTips>
subscribe <http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/subscribeform>
backlinks <http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/backlinks>
diff<http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/diff>
edit <http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/editform>
[image: home] <http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki>
OganisationTips<http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/backlinks>
last edited 10
hours<http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/diff>ago
by
*DonovanBaarda*
These are some of
DonovanBaarda<http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/DonovanBaarda>'s
tips on operating organisations learned over the years of involvement in
APANA and various
OpenSource?<http://minkirri.apana.org.au/Wiki/OganisationTips/editform?page=
OpenSource>projects.
They may or may not apply to non-Volenteer organisations, but some
of them probably do.
1. *To get people to contribute, you need to lower the barriers to
contributing.* Every little minor requirement, like required aproval
or keys to gates, is sand in the gears. It is easy to get precious about
a
project and only allow people unfettered access after they have proven
themselves trustworthy or reliable enough. However this usually results
in
no-one contributing. Also see point 3 for why allowing incompetant people
to
do things can be good.
2. *The person who does something gets to decide how it gets
done.*The act of doing
*is* authority. The doers get rewarded with the authority to get it
done. This both requires and contributes to point 1.
3. *Someone doing something badly is better than no-one doing it at
all.* If people see something being done badly and care, they will
help do it better, but until someone starts doing it, it just never gets
done. This is the consequence of point 2; in order to have any authority
to
say how something gets done, you have to be one of the people doing it.
4. *If you want something done, do it yourself.* Give notification,
and just start doing it. Other people will probably start helping,
particularly if they feel you are doing it badly. It is very rare that
someone will do something just because you complain that it needs doing.
5. *Silence is consent.* People will only speak up if they have
serious concerns about something. If they approve, they will usualy do so
silently by not interferring. Either that, or they don't care.
6. *Silence can only be consent if people feel informed.* They don't
actually have to know about it, but they have to be able to easily find
out.
Pinning proposals on a notice board or posting to a mailing list a week
before doing something is usually enough.
7. *If you feel like you are out of the loop and things are being done
behind your back, it usually means there is no loop, and nothing is
getting
done at all.* see point 4
Hmmm. not sure, but I think 5. and 6. should be combined into *Silence is
consent provided people feel informed.*.
subject: ** *(1 subscribers)*
On 13/04/2008, Andrew Leahy <alfski at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> For those involved in community activisim, getup.org, open-source, social
> networking, online communities, this will ring true.
>
> Here is Thomas Homer-Dixon speaking to students on March 20th 2008 in
> Toronto.
>
> http://www.ecoshock.net/eshock08/ES_080404_Show_LoFi.mp3 (14Mb - 1hour
> audio recording)
>
> I can recommend listening to the whole thing, but if you want to bypass
> the _downer_ converging catastrophies of civilisation stuff then, skip to
> about 30 minutes in. The part which relates particularly to what people
have
> been discussing on this forum recently starts at 36 minutes. I've
> transcribed a bit of it below...
>
> "We have a serendipitous development on this planet right now, at the very
> moment that human kind faces the most serious challenges it has ever faced
> in it's history.
> We happen to have in place a rudimentary infrastructure for species-wide
> democracy.
> The Internet.
> At this moment it's nothing more than a venue for a cacophony of
> narcissism.
> Everybody is blogging at each other and retreating into their Facebook
> communities.
> But it has incredible potential.
> We've exploited perhaps one percent of the possibility.
> The trick is making people smarter collectively than as they are as
> individuals.
> Smarter than the sum of the individuals in the group.
> What tends to happen with human beings, most of the time, is the larger
> and larger the group becomes the more stupidly we behave.
> Up to the population of the whole planet, where we have as much
> intelligence as a protozoa in a petri dish.
> Gobbling up all the resources and pooping up the petri dish.
> In certain places, with certain types of behaviour, human beings can be a
> lot smarter collectively than they are as individuals.
> One area that exemplifies best is the open-source phenomenon.
> I believe open-source may turn out to be the most important social
> development of the last century.
> If we use the things we've learnt about open-source to solve some of our
> critical challenges - planning for the future, dealing with energy decline
> and climate problems.
> Developing essentially what I would call an open-architecture democratic
> practice.
> Creating global assembly's for the mobilisation of people and problem
> solving.
> Not just a thousand or 10 thousand. But a million, 10 million or even
> hundreds of millions of people coming together.
> Involved in collective complex problem solving.
> Now, this is not a trivial problem to solve, the devil is in the details
> of how you structure something like this.
> But of all the things I Iook at around the world.
> All the possible routes to solving this problem.
> All the possible routes to mobilising as a political support and movements
> that we need to face these challenges.
> This is the one that ultimately that sounds most plausible to me.
> And we can all start in our own ways, in creating that mobilisation, in
> creating those networks and developing our plans for the future."
>
>
> Cheers, Andrew
>
> --
> Fact: To manufacture a 3 tonne car requires 50 tonnes of raw material.
> Fact: In your lifetime you will eat 50 tonnes of food and produce 3 tonnes
> of poo :)
> _______________________________________________
> Pil-pc-oceania mailing list
> Pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org
> http://jasper.cmsarchitects.com/mailman/listinfo/pil-pc-oceania
>
>
--
David Arnold
Permaculture Designer
4446 Murchison Rd
Violet Town VIC AUS 3669
03 5798 1679
arnold.vt at gmail.com
www.youtube.com/murrnong
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