Excerpts from the Sixth International Permaculture Conference & Convergence (IPC6), Perth, 1996
Conferences — by Peter Cope March 15, 2013
In 1996 the 6th International Permaculture Conference & Convergence (IPC6) was held in Perth, Western Australia. Approximately 300 delegates from around the world attended over a period of approximately 10 days and much information was exchanged and many friendships were made. The event was recorded and edited into a 90-minute documentary and has finally been uploaded to the net so we can all enjoy the stories that came from the conference.
The documentary commences with an excerpt from Professor Ian Lowe’s Walter Murdoch Lecture (@ 1:15) given at Murdoch University a week prior to the conference and continues with interviews and excerpts from the keynote speakers.
Comments (1)Get Ready for International Permaculture Day, May 5, 2013
Community Projects, Conferences, Courses/Workshops, Presentations/Demonstrations, Social Gatherings — by International Permaculture Day March 6, 2013
International Permaculture Day is approaching fast and it’s time to think about how you will celebrate it this year and help support and promote the event. International Permaculture Day (IPD) showcases the practices of permaculture to the public. Businesses, groups and individuals show permaculture in action – through markets, demonstrations, films, ‘open houses and gardens’, and local events in city and country. Last year we held the very first international day with some 125 events in 26 countries — take a look at the amazing diversity of celebrations that took place worldwide: www.permacultureday.org/eventcategory/australia/?etype=past
IPD 2013 promises to be an even bigger, bolder and better day this year and will have the theme of Grow Local! to highlight the benefits of going local, including growing your own food. As with last year, we’ll be interviewing leading permaculturalists and bioneers. Please add your events to the IPD calendar and sign up for regular updates on our website and social media channels:
Comments (0)Economics of Happiness Conference March 15-17 2013, Byron Bay, Australia
Alternatives to Political Systems, Conferences, Economics, Society, Village Development — by Bronwyn White February 20, 2013
The Economics of Happiness is a 2011 documentary film directed by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steven Gorelick, and John Page, and produced by the International Society for Ecology and Culture. The film has been widely acclaimed and received numerous awards but most pertinently it has linked a number of cutting edge thinkers across the globe who are building the groundswell to see the wisdom from The Economics of Happiness film translated into action. The second of three international conferences will be taking place from 15-17 March 2013 in Byron Bay, Australia and you are invited!
The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, an unholy alliance of governments and big business continues to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, people all over the world are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they’re starting to forge a very different future.
Comments (0)South East Asian Permaculture Convergence, 19-22 November 2012, Hong Kong
Conferences, Courses/Workshops, Social Gatherings — by Idy Wong September 3, 2012
We are pleased to announce the launch of the South East Asian Permaculture Convergence official website.
We are very glad to have Rosemary Morrow (Rowe) being the patron of this important permaculture event for the region — please click here for a warm welcome from Rowe.
This first convergence for the region is a call, and a place, where South East Asian permaculturists will have rich opportunities to hear from some of our best people, to learn what we have been achieving, experience innovations, what our thinkers are thinking, and our activists have been doing, and to celebrate permaculture history in our region. We will be able to share discussions, experiences and questions, and to build our network for future contacts and support. We treasure the opportunity for organizing this meaningful event, and we would welcome every permaculturist joining as a participant, a speaker, or to run a workshop, and/or as a supporter. We will constantly update the programme, so please revisit the website regularly.
We would be grateful for your help to spread the news.
Comments (0)What is a Permaculture Convergence?
Conferences, Courses/Workshops, Presentations/Demonstrations, Social Gatherings — by Evonne Smulders July 30, 2012
A permaculture convergence is an opportunity to connect with other permaculture designers, folks living the permaculture lifestyle and people new to permaculture.
It’s a platform to have those burning questions answered in a safe supportive environment. A convergence creates an opportunity for the whole family to spend the weekend being inspired and gearing down from our crazy hectic everyday lives. If you have made a beneficial discovery yourself, a convergence allows you to bring it to the group for support and feedback. Mostly, a convergence is an opportunity to step back and take a look at your own life and choices you would like to bring to fruition.
Comments (0)Geoff Lawton Speaks at TEDx in the UAE
Conferences, Presentations/Demonstrations — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 9, 2012
On March 31, in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, Geoff Lawton gave a TEDx presentation. This has just been uploaded to YouTube:
For more background on some of the before/after images used, please see:
- Hope for a New Era: Before/After Examples of Permaculture Earth Restoration – Solving Our Problems From the Ground Up
- Zaytuna Farm Video Tour (Apr/May 2012) – Ten Years of (R)Evolutionary Design
- Greening the Desert II
Ordeal: Mulling the Meaning of Rio+20
Conferences, Consumerism, Society — by Albert Bates July 6, 2012
Leaving Rio de Janeiro, site of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, we mulled the meaning of what we had witnessed, but could hardly put it any better than Charles Eisenstein in his excellent summary, Why Rio+20 Failed:
Comments (2)You know folks, I’m a bit worried about my 16-year-old son, Jimi. When he was 13, he grew three inches. When he was 14, he grew five inches. When he was 15 his growth slowed to three inches, and no matter how much I feed him, now he isn’t growing at all past his current six-one. Could someone please tell me how to achieve sustainable growth for my son, so that he can keep getting bigger forever?
PiNZ Newsletter Wraps Up APC11
Conferences, Courses/Workshops, Presentations/Demonstrations — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor June 29, 2012
Permaculture in New Zealand (PiNZ) have put out their latest newsletter, and this one gives a good report on the activities and outcomes of the 11th Australasian Permaculture Conference (APC11) held in Turangi, in New Zealand’s North Island.
Download the newsletter here (1.1mb PDF).
I attended myself, and recorded a few of the talks. In case you missed them, I’ll list them below:
- APC11 Presentation: Susan Krumdieck – Sustainable Transport and Urban Design
- APC11 Presentation: Permaculture Disaster Response to Japan’s 2011 Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster, by Toru Sakawa
- APC11 Presentation: Albert Bates on Biochar
- APC11 Presentation: Regenerative Agriculture, A Case Study – by Dan Palmer
And the second embedded video in the following post is another:
Comments (0)Hope for a New Era: Before/After Examples of Permaculture Earth Restoration – Solving Our Problems From the Ground Up
Aid Projects, Alternatives to Political Systems, Biodiversity, Community Projects, Conferences, Consumerism, Deforestation, Demonstration Sites, Food Forests, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Plant Systems, Population, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Trees, Urban Projects, Water Contaminaton & Loss, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor June 28, 2012
If you aren’t in a reading mood, and/or just came to look at the before/after photographs, click here to jump down the page.
Loess Plateau, Early September, 1995
Loess Plateau, Early September, 2009
Rio+20 has been and gone, and, in the big scheme of things, has achieved little, or worse. With this post I’d like to take the opportunity to jot down some thoughts, and images, that might help us shake off disappointment, disillusionment and despair, and give us something we can all consider, adjust and rally around. Our ‘leaders’ are taking us ‘down the garden path’, but, unfortunately, in the proverbial, rather than literal, sense. It’s truly time to forge new beginnings, create new economies, and to prioritise natural and social capital with the goal of restoring ecological and social health.
Comments (15)The Mendacity of Hope
Biodiversity, Conferences, Consumerism, Deforestation, Economics, GMOs, Global Warming/Climate Change, Population, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by George Monbiot June 23, 2012
The summits which promise to save the world keep us dangling, not mobilising.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom.
Worn down by hope. That’s the predicament of those who have sought to defend the earth’s living systems. Every time governments meet to discuss the environmental crisis, we are told that this is the “make or break summit”, upon which the future of the world depends. The talks might have failed before, but this time the light of reason will descend upon the world.
We know it’s rubbish, but we allow our hopes to be raised, only to witness 190 nations arguing through the night over the use of the subjunctive in paragraph 286. We know that at the end of this process the UN secretary-general, whose job obliges him to talk nonsense in an impressive number of languages, will explain that the unresolved issues (namely all of them) will be settled at next year’s summit. Yet still we hope for something better.
This week’s earth summit in Rio de Janeiro is a ghost of the glad, confident meeting 20 years ago. By now, the leaders who gathered in the same city in 1992 told us, the world’s environmental problems were to have been solved. But all they have generated is more meetings, which will continue until the delegates, surrounded by rising waters, have eaten the last rare dove, exquisitely presented with an olive leaf roulade. The biosphere, that world leaders promised to protect, is in a far worse state than it was 20 years ago(1). Is it not time to recognise that they have failed?
Comments (2)What Will Rio+20 Bring?
Alternatives to Political Systems, Biodiversity, Conferences, Consumerism, Economics, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Village Development, Water Contaminaton & Loss, peak oil — by Samuel Alexander June 21, 2012
In a few days the international community will be meeting in Rio de Janeiro, to hold the most significant environmental conference since the Rio Earth Summit of 1992. As the planet’s ecosystems tremble under the weight of overconsumption, this conference surely provides one of few remaining opportunities for governments to take environmental issues seriously.
Will the world’s leaders dare to think beyond the growth paradigm that lies at the root of our environmental crises? Will they be bold enough to constrain the overconsumption of natural resources or even acknowledge the problem of stagnating oil supplies? Sadly, history provides little grounds for confidence. What is more likely is that the conference will simply warm the climate further through an exchange of hot air disguised as genuine commitment.
Comments (0)Rio+20: What Ecovillages Offer
Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, Conferences, Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Economics, People Systems, Population, Presentations/Demonstrations, Society, Village Development, peak oil — by Albert Bates
It is the start of Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, and the Global Ecovillage Network has a strong contingent here from all over the world. We have erected a dome at the People’s Summit in Cupala dos Povos (Flamingo Park) and are providing a “Speaker’s Corner” for ecovillages, Transition Towns, Occupy, and others to strut their stuff. So what is it that ecovillages and permaculture bring to this discussion?
The late philosopher Ivan Illich, in his 1974 book, Energy and Equity, observed that conventional wisdom would have it that “the well-being of a society can be measured by the number of years its members have gone to school and by the number of energy slaves they have thereby learned to command.” This conventional wisdom would seem to be now widely shared by both non-governmental organizations and UN intergovernmental agencies working on issues such as education, the rights of women and minorities, and indigenous peoples. Illich challenged it.
“The energy crisis focuses concern on the scarcity of fodder for these slaves,” he said. “I prefer to ask whether free men need them.”
Comments (3)APC11 Presentation: Permaculture Disaster Response to Japan’s 2011 Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster, by Toru Sakawa
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conferences, Food Shortages, Nuclear — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor May 17, 2012
At the recent Australasian Permaculture Conference (APC11) held in Turangi, New Zealand, one of the highlights for me was hearing Toru Sakawa’s tale of permaculture aid work in very unusual circumstances. I say unusual, as the triple woes of having an earthquake and tsunami followed by a nuclear disaster is somewhat unprecedented. Some parts of Japan were suddenly left without food, fuel, water and many other supports that we generally take (a little too much) for granted, and efforts to help oneself were restricted for many by the need to stay inside, out of radioactive harms way.
It was inspiring to hear Toru share how he and his peers did their best to help people in coastal areas, and how permaculture played some part in enabling them to do so. Toru and his friends, with fuel supplies cut, made their own biofuels from waste oil, and used it to transport their permaculture produce, and other supplies, to the people who needed it. They also brought people back to care for them, and to give them time away from the more radioactive areas.
It should help remind us what permaculture is really about; that being to not only create permanence, but also resiliency against abrupt shocks to the system, and the compassionate care of the people around us.
Comments (0)APC11 Presentation: Regenerative Agriculture, A Case Study – by Dan Palmer
Conferences, Presentations/Demonstrations, Rehabilitation, Soil Conservation — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor May 11, 2012
Dan Palmer, of VeryEdibleGardens (VEG), gives an interesting look at the basis of Regenerative Agriculture, and how it applies in practice — sharing his experiences consulting for a 10-acre property about 2.5 hours northeast of Melbourne, Victoria.
Comments (1)APC11 Presentation: Albert Bates on Biochar (Video)
Conferences, Courses/Workshops, Fungi, Presentations/Demonstrations, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Structure — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor May 3, 2012
Albert Bates talks about biochar at APC11 (Turangi, New Zealand)
Photo © Craig Mackintosh
I’m personally unsure about biochar. This is not because I have anything significant to say against it (at the small, localised scale, at least), but rather just because I find it hard to promote a technique I’ve never, myself, seen developed and applied in real-world circumstances. Albert Bates‘ presentation was very interesting, as you’ll see, and Albert is obviously well versed with the topic, but like most conference situations, it’s rather impossible to talk and also showcase the practical application — and this gap in my own knowledge and experience is one that I’d dearly love to see filled! It would be excellent to receive on-the-ground reports from Albert and others who are working with biochar systems and who have tangible data to share on its EROEI, its general impact and benefits — and, of course, on how to actually make the stuff! (Those interested in sharing their biochar experiences can send photos and text to me on editor (at) permaculturenews.org for potential publishing.)
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