Welcome to 2011

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The first day of the Permaculture Design Course is a day of evidence, the evidence to act, the whys and wherefores, the real motivating factors behind the inception of Permaculture. In 1981 Bill Mollison wisely told us that we already had more evidence than we needed for the task at hand; the destruction of forests, soil, water and air systems were proof enough of an eco-system in serious decline.

In the first two months of 2011, there have been floods, earthquakes, cyclones and a spate of other natural disasters around the world. These natural phenomena have been accompanied by social and political upheavals, protests, demonstrations and other examples of discontent on the international stage.

Trying times indeed for our friends the climate change sceptics, the emperors new clothes spring to mind for some reason. It’s actually pretty easy to be sceptical about humans being wholly responsible for climate change; it’s the deforestation, underground nuclear testing, resource depletion and the myriad of other unpleasant activities we get up to and the effects thereof, that aren’t so easy to dismiss. It is difficult to 'prove' that we’ve changed the weather, but interestingly no one is asking to see the hard proof that we've cut down most of the trees on the planet, the functions of which are intrinsically connected to the climate.

There is no doubt that Permaculture is for many a lifeboat of a sort, although nobody seems to know who is at the helm, those on board don’t really mind, as any direction is better than the one we, as humans, are collectively sailing toward. We already have all of the necessary knowledge and the wheels of technology at our fingertips to create positive change. As we move ever closer to 2012, with the rumbles of encroaching chaos in the distance, the only real question is how much time do we actually have to make those changes?

No time like the present to get that garden growing!

Thanks for those wise words PM, we all need to be reminded every now and then.

We do indeed, lets just hope that in the future it will be the bad old days of the current destructive paradigm that will serve as a reminder.

we live in hope :rolleyes: