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David Holmgren on Peak Oil, Energy Descent and Permaculture.
Ecological Options Network (EON), YouTube
David Holmgren is co-originator (with Bill Mollison) of the permaculture concept and author of the recent book, PERMACULTURE: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. He talks about the need to move beyond the lulling hope that ‘green tech’ breakthroughs will allow world-wide ‘sustainable consumption’ to the recognition that dwindling oil supplies inevitably mean a mandatory ‘energy descent’ for human civilization across the planet. He argues that permaculture principles provide the best guide to a peaceful societal ‘powering down.”
(18 July 2007)
Recommended by Rob Hopkins who writes at Transition Culture:
Regular readers will know that I often state, at every opportunity, that David Holmgren’s book, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability is the greatest book of the past 15 years. The EON Network have just posted an interview with David, recorded a month or so ago, in which he explores the whole concept of permaculture as a response to peak oil. David is, for me, the person from whom I have learnt the most about all of this, so this film is a bit of a treasure, and I think you’ll find it fascinating.
Online permaculture talks: “The Era of Post Carbon Transition” (video)
Tim Winton, Permaforest Trust
Screencast presentation called The Era of Post Carbon Transition.
It was done as part of a Certificate 4 in Accredited Permaculture Training at Permaforest Trust’s (a not-for-profit organization) sustainability education centre and demonstration farm.
We have changed the focus of the permaculture training to creating ‘Post Carbon Professionals’- people trained in hands-on permaculture and community development who can act as catalysts in grass roots adaptation to energy decent, climate change and related limits to growth.
The Permaforest Trust is focusing on creating educational resources for post carbon work. The Screencast mentioned above is part of a planned series of open source educational content we are calling our ‘Low Fi is the New Hi Fi’ series.
Screencast links can be seen here at www.permaforesttrust.org.au/talks-and-presentations . In the Low Fi is the New Hi Fi’ folder there is are links to a four-part screencast titled “Energy Fundamentals- an energy primer for post carbon sustainability”. We hope to get the whole course online this coming year.
The plan is to create enough of this sort of material along with other supporting links, open source content, other content on our site, support forums, project templates, etc. so that people can give themselves a basic post carbon education online.
It seems to me that awareness raising of impending energy descent is reaching critical mass (in large part due to the great work at EnergyBulletin, Global Public Media and others) and we are now moving into the earlyish stages of creating scaleable resources for motivated folks to use in transition. This is how Permaforest Trust sees its work in the scheme of things
(July 2007)
A wealth of lecture material.
In 2005, we linked to a presentation Tim gave, in which he mentioned the hydrocarbon twins: peak oil and climate change. -BA
