CD
with 28
magazine articles,
conference papers,
public lectures,
book reviews and
other works by David
Holmgren provide
a deeper insight
into the thinking
behind the permaculture
concept and its
many applications.
Holmgren
Design Services
David
Holmgren (co-originator
of the Permaculture concept)
& Su Dennett 16 Fourteenth
St, Hepburn, VIC 3461
Ph: int+ 61 (0)53 483 636 http://www.spacountry.net.au/holmgren/
This
book builds on the
extraordinary success
of the permaculture
concept and global
permaculture movement
(over the last 25
years), to provide
a more cerebral
and controversial
contribution to
the sustainability
debate. David Holmgren
is an ecological
pioneer destined
to have a major
influence on permaculture's
evolution.
"If
the 'Permaculture
Principles' that
David Holmgren discusses
in this extremely
important book were
applied to all that
we do, we would
be well on the road
to sustainability,
and beyond."
Professor Stuart
B Hill (Foundation
Chair of the Social
Ecology University
of Western Sydney)
Are
there ways to live
within nature's
limits while providing
a secure future
for our children
and justice for
everyone? We think
so. Read this book.
The
sustainability debate
has shown a deep confusion
about the processes and
systems which support
life and humanity. The
lack of conceptual tools
to incorporate previously
ignored environmental
"givens" into calculations
used by economists and
decisionmakers is painfully
obvious. There are no
simple answers to the
complex question of costs,
benefits, and sustainability.
However, there is a natural
currency we can use to
measure our interdependence
on our environment and
assist us to make sensible
decisions about current
and future action.
That
currency is energy.
Energy
Laws
The energy
laws governing all natural
proceses are well understood
and have not been challenged
by any of the revolutions
in scientific thinking
during the 20th century.
These laws are called
the first and second laws
of thermodynamics.
First
Law: the law of conservation
of energy. Energy is neither
created or destroyed.
The energy entering the
system must be accounted
for either as being stored
there or as flowing out.
Second Law: the law of
degradation of energy.
In all processes some
of the energy loses its
ability to do work and
is degraded in quality.
The tendency of potential
energy to be used up and
degraded is described
as entropy, which is a
measure of disorder which
always increases in real
processes.
These
laws are taught in every
science course, but, in
a manner typical of our
fragmented society and
culture, are completely
ignored in the way we
conduct our economic life
and relationship to the
natural world. The laws
of thermodynamics are
widely seen as true, but
not very useful theoretical
ideas. The second law
has always represented
a fundamental threat to
the modern notion of progress.
More traditional and tribal
views of the world are
in keeping with the second
law. For example, the
ancient Greek idea of
the universe being used
up by the passage of time
is very pessimistic to
the modern mind.
Over the last 20 years
work by ecologists and
some economists has attempted
to apply the energy laws
in more practical ways
to understand the global
environmental crisis and
develop useful conceptual
tools for creating a more
viable and durable basis
for human life. The work
of ecologist Howard Odum
provided a theoretical
framework and conceptual
tool which was critical
in the development of
the permaculture concept.
In the 1970's there was
a flurry of research in
this field but it declined
along with oil prices
in the 1980's. Odum was
one of the leading ecologists
who developed a systems
approach to the study
of human/environment interactions.
He uses energy as a currency
to compare and quantify
the whole spectrum of
natural and man-made elements
and processes.
Odum's
ecosystem approach:
Analyses
ecosystem elements
and processes in terms
of energy flows, storages.
transformations. feedbacks,
and sinks.
incorporates non-living
and living elements
of the natural environment.
and
incorporates human
systems and economies
as an integral part
of the natural world.
David
Holmgren, co-originator
of the permaculture
concept, has made
a valuable contribution
to ecological design
by documenting the
planning and construction
of his 1 hectare
homestead in Victoria,
Australia. This
large-format book
details his site
analysis using zone-and-sector
and other permaculture
tools, land use
history, microclimate
and soil types,
and other criteria
that guided his
home-site selection,
planting strategies,
water systems, and
passive-solar design.
Idealists
may quibble with
Holmgren's decisions
to use nearby grid
power (off-grid
systems being far
more expensive),
small engines (indispensible
to all farmers),
and a farm truck
(the only vehicle
shown in the book),
but these choices
point to the real
value of the work:
what happens when
sustainable design
is attempted in
the real world.
Holmgren is honest
about where he compromised
and where he held
fast. What distinguishes
his efforts from
a typical back-to-the-land
farm is the use
of sophisticated
design tools that
reduce energy use,
conserve soil and
water, emphasize
perennial species
and natural materials,
and apply patterning
tools to the overall
design. One look
at the design and
implementation and
it will be obvious
that permaculture
design offers a
far better toolkit
than conventional
methods. Reviewed
by Toby
Hemenway
Energy
Quality And Embodied Energy
The second
law of tbermodynamics
is based on the concept
of energy quality. Examination
of tbe natural world from
stellar processes through
to living systems shows
differing forms of energy
have varying potential
to do work or drive processes.
Since all forms of energy
can be converted into
heat, energy can be defined
as:a quantity that flows
through all processes,
measured by the amount
of heat it becomes (the
calorie is the unirtof
measure of heat energy).
Dispersed heat is the
most dilute form of energy;
it is no longer capable
of doing work.
All real processes involve
a net degradation in energy
quality. However, a proportion
of the total energy flow
can be upgraded into more
concentrated forms of
energy capable of driving
other processes. This
creation of order produces
remarkable results, most
notably life, but includes
such non-living phenomena
as rare mineral ores and
human-created systerns
such as the built environment,
culture, and information.
However this order is
always at a cost of a
net degradation of energy.
The whole evolution of
the Gaia (the living earth)
is a small expression
of order arising out of
the massive energy degradation
of the sun's thermonuclear
process.
There are thermodynamically
fixed relationships between
four forms of energy ranging
from low- to high-quality.
These and similar relationships
between energies of differing
qualities are fundamental
to a correct understanding
of the energy basis of
nature and human existence.
The efficiency of conversion
of sunlight to wood (via
the processes of photosynthesis)
is 8:8000 or 0.1 percent.
The apparent inefficiency
of this process is due
to the very low quality
of dilute sunligbt falling
on the earth's surface.
However 3,800 million
years of evolution have
optimized this energy
harvesting process and
any technological "improvement"
is highly improbable despite
frequent claims to the
contrary.
Many kinds of high-quality
energy are required for
complex work. We tend
to think of the energy
requirements of a process
only as fuel, ignoring
human work and contribution
of materials. These often
involve more energy than
the fuels. In running
a motor car, the fuel
is about 60% of the total
energy consumed.
Odum goes on to explain...
"The energies involved
in the long chain of converging
works supporting processes
such as educational activities
is very large. The total
energy required for a
product is the embodied
energy of that product...
The embodied energy of
a book is very large compared
with the heat energy that
would be obtained if the
book were burned. For
clarity in energy accounting,
embodied energy should
be expressed as calories
of one type of energy
such as solar equivalents
or coal equivalents."
Many energy studies done
by apparently qualified
persons and taken seriously
by policymakers fail to
take account of the simple
fact that a calorie of
low-quality energy cannot
do the same work as a
calorie of high quality
energy. Consequently completely
erroneous conclusions
are frequently reached.
Such problems have afflicted
both high- and low-tech
proposals. Nuclear power
may be the greatest exarnple
of an energy "source"
which actually uses and/or
degrades more humanly
usable energy than it
produces. Solar, wind,
and biofuel technologies,
while appropriate for
the use of already embodied
energies will never sustain
high-energy industrial
culture without fossil
fuel subsidy.
Computer technologies
may similarly be appropriate
to make use of manufacturing
and network capacity already
in place but are in reality
very energy expensive
due to the very large
embodied energy.
Significance
Of Odum's Work
Energy
Basis for Man and Nature
is an accessible text
on Odum's work written
for high school and undergraduate
students with only minimal
matbs and science. It
is a very important book
which should be read and
understood by all permaculturists.
Without that understanding
it is very easy to be
misled into developing
and proposing systems
of land use, technology,
and lifestyles which will
consume rather than produce
energy storages useful
in providing for current
and future human needs.
It provides a way of integrating
information about natural
systems from the local
and global scale, technology,
environmental impact,
and social and economic
processes. The energy
accounting and systems
diagrams provide a unique
tool for understanding
and decisionmaking more
in tune with the rules
of the natural world.
Odum's work shows exactly
how and why it is impossible
to avoid those rules in
any case without the need
to resort to moral injunctions.
High-energy industrial
society is revealed as
a quite natural response
to fossil fuel abundance
but maladapted in every
way to a low energy future.
Agriculture
And Forestry
If
there is a single most
important insight for
permaculture from Odum's
work it is that solar
energy and its derivatives
are our only sustainable
source of life. Forestry
and agriculture are the
primary (and potentially
self-supporting) systems
of solar energy harvesting
available. Technological
development will not change
this basic fact. It should
be possible to design
land use systems which
approach the solar energy
harvesting capacities
of natural systems while
providing humanity with
its needs. This was the
original premise of the
permaculture concept.
While available solar
energy may represent some
sort of ultimate limit
to productivity it is
other factors which primarily
limit it.
Maximum
Power Principle
Along
with the two established
laws of thermodynamics,
Odum's work is based
on a third principle,
the Maximum power principle,
which explains that
the system that gets
the most energy and
uses it most effectively
survives in competition
with other systems.
Odum states, "Those
systems that survive
in competition among
alternative choices
are those that develop
more power (rate of
energy flow) inflow
and use it to meet the
needs of survival."
They do this by--
1.
developing storages
of high-quality energy
2.
feeding back work
from the storages
to increase inflows
3.
recycling materials
as needed
4.
organizing control
mechanisms that keep
the system adapted
and stable
5.
setting up exchanges
with other systems
to supply special
energy needs, and
6.
contributing useful
work to the surrounding
environmental systems
that helps maintain
favorable conditions,
e.g.. micro-organisms'
contribution to global
climate regulation
or mountain forests'
contribution to rainfall.
The
Maximum power principle
is contentious and has
led some to criticize
Odum's work as "biophysical
determinism" with no
room for human values.
While this systems view
is only one way of understanding
the world, the last
two characteristics
of successful natural
systems allow plenty
of scope for co-operative
approaches and higher
human values. The predictive
power of Odum's methodology
in assessing the chaotic
changes in the world
over the last 20 years
suggest that it is a
very useful way of thinking.
In permaculture we should
use these points as
a checklist for sustainable
systems.
Mollison
Within
the permaculture movement,
Odum's work has not
been widely recognized
(and confused with the
work of another American
ecologist, Eugene Odum)
even though it confirms
permaculture's concern
with sustainable use
of natural systems as
the foundation of any
permanent culture.
Mollison makes only
passing reference to
Odum in Permaculture:
A Designers Manual and
goes on to suggest "the
concept of entropy does
not necessarily apply
to living, open earth
systems with which we
are involved and in
which we are immersed"
This could be wrongly
interpreted as meaning
we can design our way
out of any problem and
that natural systems
can sustain the continuous
free lunch the affluent
world is used to.
In the last few hundred
years we have dug millions
of years worth of sunlight
(fossil fuels) out of
the ground to create
global industrial culture
and economy. The most
productive sustainable
systems imaginable may
be able to provide for
the needs of five or
even 10 billion people.
However they would never
sustain large-scale
cities, a global economy,
and Western material
affluence even if all
the conventional energy
conservation strategies
were to be adopted.
This is a bitter pill
to swallow for Westerners
raised on the notion
of material progress.
This does not mean that
the energy conservation
strategies promoted
for years by Lovins
and other energy optimists,
and progressively being
adopted, are not incredibly
important In fact they
are essential to make
best use of what we
have.
The transition from
an unsustainable fossil
fuel-based economy back
to a solar-based (agriculture
and forestry) economy
wilt involve the application
of the embodied energy
that we inherit from
industrial culture:
This embodied energy
is contained within
a vast array of things,
infrastructure, cultural
processes and ideas,
mostly inappropriately
configured for the "solar"
economy. It is the task
of our age to take this
great wealth, reconfigure
and apply it to the
development of sustainable
systems.
Mollison almost in passing
points to three guidelines
we should observe in
this task.
The
systems we construct
should last as long
as possible and take
least maintenance.
These
systems, fueled by
the sun should produce
not only for their
own needs, but the
needs of the people
creating and controlling
them. Thus they are
sustainable as they
sustain both themselves
and those who construct
them.
We
can use non-renewable
energy to construct
these systems providing
that in their lifetime,
they store or conserve
more energy than we
use to construct or
maintain them.
These
are very important points,
but how should be assess
whether we are following
them, particularly the
thorny question of use
of non-renewable energies,
raw and embodied. I
apply the following
perspectives (derived
from Odum) as a primary
sustainability test
to all land use systems
before considering any
more detailed aspects
of costs and benefits.
All terrestrial ecosystems
must work to slow
the inexorable effects
of gravity in progressively
degrading the physical
and chemical energetic
potential expressed
in uplifted catchment
landscapes.
Eventually
everything ends up
in the oceans until
the next uplift (with
the few but important
exceptions of onshore
winds, migrating fish,
and birds). Water
and nutrients are
the key forms of chemical
energetic potential
while the landform
itself is the key
expression of the
physical energy potential.
Soil humus and long-lived
trees are the key
energy storages which
terrestrial ecosystems
use in the never-ending
fight with gravity.
The basic argument for permanent
agriculture: how to feed and house yourself in any
climate with the least use of land, energy, and repetitive
labor. Supersedes Permaculture One and Two
Holmgren's
Sustainability Test
Does the system
work to catch and store water and nutrients for as long as
possible and as high as possible within its catchment landscape?
How does it
compare with the performance of pristine natural systems as
well as wild and naturally regenerated ones (weeds included)?
It is possible
for managed productive landscapes to collect and store energy
more effectively than pristine systems by the careful use
of external, often non-renewable energies.
The use of bulldozers to build well-designed
dams capable of lasting hundreds of years in well-managed landscapes
is an excellent example of appropriate use of non-renewable energies.
Even structures and processes which do not meet this condition
(possibly the windmills) can be justified because they save the
use of greater quantity of non-renewable energies or because they
make best use of already embodied energy in existing plant and
equipment. Most of our managed rural landscapes, especially farms,
fail miserably on the water and nutrients test. Erosion, salinity,
acidification, and stream and groundwater nutrient pollution are
some of the symptoms. In addition, use of non-renewable energy
as an annual rather than development input is generally very high.
(The embodied energy of artificial fertilizers is extremely high).
Wild Productivity
On
the other hand consider the amazing
productivity happening right before
our eyes from
with unmanaged systems.
Many parts of rural Australia are
supporting far more kangaroos than
sheep with less damage to the land.
These herds could provide a huge meat
surplus even as they maintain healthy
and wild populations.
Forests are even more efficient
at catching and storing water and nutrients than sustainable pastoral
systems. In the high rainfall areas of coastal Australia regrowth
forests of native and (in some places exotic) species are developing
future timber resources at a greater rate than all the more deliberate
efforts at reforestation combined. Simple practices of thinning
could greatly improve the future resource value of these forests.
Any systems which call improve soil and water values, and require
little or no fossil fuel energy to develop and maintain, and provide
resource yields largely by the application of human labor and
skill. should be seen as our greatest assets.
Urban
Landscapes
Urban systems are dearly massive
net losses in terms of energy and soil and water values. In addition
the bulk of the physical and information outputs of energy transformation
processes in cities s further undermining the social and ecological
basis of any sustainable future (e.g.. advertising and consumer
culture).
On the other hand, consider the
vast suburban landscapes. much has been said about the inappropriateness
of existing suburbs in an energy-conserving future. However, few
urban planners have seriously considered how we might adapt cities
to a low (solar) energy as opposed to simply energy conserving
future. Despite all their disadvantages, the low-density nature
of suburbs makes them incrementally adaptable to a low-energy
future. Passive solar retrofit of buildings for residential/commercial
enterprise is relatively easy, while intensive garden agriculture
and urban forestry can make use of reticulated, runoff, and waste
water to create our most productive systems.
The
Limits To Productivity
Mollison claims
very high productivity from permaculture systems which are
neither labor- nor capital- (energy and materials) intensive.
This productivity can be attributed to the information intensity
of permaculture expressed through interactive design processes
and incorporation of genetic resources from access the globe.
The focus on human and biological information is in accord
with a much wider mainstream recognition of the increasingly
pivotal nature of information systems (even if the information
in this case takes the form of a bioregional species collection
and a designer/gardener with a basket and secateurs).
Capital inputs
to establish sustainable systems may be confined to a brief
intense development phase. Human effort is required over much
longer periods, possibly a lifetime before it declines (or
more correctly evolves) into a careful and quiet stewardship.
Much has been
made by Mollison and others of the low labor requirements
of permaculture. This may be true compared to the labor required
by traditional sustainable systems (such as those in China)
operating near the limits to human carrying capacity. However,
permaculture systems will never be highly productive on very
low levels of labor input (such as that required to maintain
a well-designed ornamental garden of local native plants).
The search for systems which continually reduce human effort
is also a recipe for human alienation and the technological
fix.
Whether the significant
gains from the application of design skills and genetic resources
can continue to build productivity above that made possible
by inputs of non-renewable energies during establishment and
the use of appropriate traditional (agri)cultural skills remains
to be seen.
Odum suggests
that all information systems have a high embodied energy
cost. We should assume that (at the material level at
least) productivity of sustainable systems will not be
vastly different from traditional examples from the past
This may be a very uncomfortable realization for all of
us raised on the mythology of material progress and human
invincibility.
Energy Scenarios
If net energy availability were
to increase (through some optimistic/horrific realization of biotechnological
dreams or some other current technological fantasy) then She Maximum
Power Principle suggests that nothing would stop humanity transforming
itself beyond recognition. This would be necessary to absorb and
use that energy while pushing back the environmental debt yet
again as has been done on a much smaller scale in previous millennia.
In such a case, permaculture would be buried in the debris of
history, while most existing human culture and values would be
swept aside by an avalanche of change.
On the other hand, if net energy
is declining, as more people have come to realize is the case,
then attempts to maintain materialist culture based on growth
economics are counterproductive, irrespective of any moral judgments.
The permaculture strategy of using existing storages of energy
(materials, technology, and information) to build cultivated ecosystems
which efficiently harvest solar energy is precisely adaptive.
A definitive measure of
the limits of oil presents modern society with an
ultimatum of profound gravity. Helps break denial
of the energy crisis. Extremely important.
The world is about to run
out of cheap oil and change dramatically. Within the
next few years, global production will peak. Thereafter,
even if industrial societies begin to switch to alternative
energy sources, they will have less net energy each
year to do all the work essential to the survival
of complex societies. We are entering a new era, as
different from the industrial era as the latter was
from medieval times.
In The Party's Over, Richard
Heinberg places this momentous transition in historical
context, showing how industrialism arose from the
harnessing of fossil fuels, how competition to control
access to oil shaped the geopolitics of the 20th century,
and how contention for dwindling energy resources
in the 21st century will lead to resource wars in
the Middle East, Central Asia, and South America.
He describes the likely impacts of oil depletion,
and all of the energy alternatives. Predicting chaos
unless the U.S. -- the world's foremost oil consumer
-- is willing to join with other countries to implement
a global program of resource conservation and sharing,
he also recommends a "managed collapse"
that might make way for a slower-paced, low-energy,
sustainable society in the future.
Conclusion
The critical issue
of the last 20 years of environmentalism has been that of
net energy availability to humanity. Permaculture has always
been predicated on the assumption that net energy availability
is declining after probably reaching a peak sometime in the
1960's. Misjudgment of the timing and precise nature of energy
decline by Mollison and myself along with other environmentalists
in the 1970's can be attributed to the enormous energy already
embodied in industrial systems and culture. This embodied
energy has fueled continuing rapid adaptation by industrial
society to new emerging conditions. The apparent capacity
to do more with less and other consequences of high embodied
energy have lulled most observers into a belief that humanity
is largely independent of energy constraints.
The complexity
and severity of environmental and economic crises make it
more imperative than ever before that we have a common currency
for understanding the changes around us and assessing the
available options.
To
summarize...
Reduce,
Reuse, Recycle (in that order).
Grow
a garden and eat what it produces.
Avoid imported resources where
possible.
Use
labor and skill in preference to materials and technology.
Design,
build, and purchase for durability and repairability.
Use
resources for their greatest potential use (e.g. electricity
for tools and lighting,
food scraps for animal feed).
Use
renewable resources wherever possible even if local environmental
costs appear higher (e.g. wood rather than electricity
for fuel and timber rather than steel for construction).
Use
non-renewable and embodied energies primarily to establish
sustainable systems
(e.g. passive solar housing, food gardens, water storage,
forests).
When
using high technology (e.g. computers) avoid using state
of the art equipment.
Avoid
debt and long-distance commuting.
Reduce
taxation by earning less.
Develop
a home-based lifestyle, be domestically responsible.
On
the other hand consider the amazing
productivity happening right before
our eyes from
with unmanaged systems.
Many parts of rural Australia are
supporting far more kangaroos than
sheep with less damage to the land.
These herds could provide a huge meat
surplus even as they maintain healthy
and wild populations.
The Party's Over: Oil, War,
and the Fate of Industrial Societies
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