Sustaining Nature, Nurturing Society, and Ensuring Equity: Principles of Permaculture (Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share)
The holistic approach of permaculture offers a promising solution for creating a sustainable and resilient world for future generations. This design system, first described in 1978 by Australian ecologists Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, aims to mimic nature and create good relationships between elements, ensuring energy is kept in the system, not lost.
Permaculture fundamentally rejects the industrial growth model of the global North, which has used up too much of the Earth's resources. Instead, it advocates for a new way to share and use resources for a better future.
At the heart of permaculture are three core ethics: Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share. Earth Care involves taking care of and rebuilding natural resources like air, soil, and water. People Care goes beyond providing for basic needs like food, water, and air, encompassing joy, community, and fulfillment. Fair Share acknowledges global imbalances, with the rich parts of the world using too many resources and the poor parts having too few.
Grassroots initiatives like the NorCal Resilience Network are growing across the country, focusing on self-reliance and sustainable living. These initiatives help build resilient communities, fostering a sense of connection, empowerment, and shared responsibility. The Transition Town Movement, which started in 2005 in Kinsale, Ireland, shows how permaculture is changing communities, businesses, and finance to support fair shares and sustainable development.
Social Permaculture has grown over the last 20 years, demonstrating how permaculture is being applied in various aspects of society. Ecovillages, cohousing, and the Transition Towns movement show how communities can work together to live more sustainably. By choosing to consume more mindfully, we can help the planet, as permaculture teaches us to live in harmony with nature, benefiting both the environment and our health.
The idea of fair shares in permaculture highlights the big problem of uneven resource use worldwide, with the rich using too much and the poor having too little. Fair share in permaculture is about using less and sharing more, aiming to balance the world's resources and meet the needs of all living beings.
The power of community collaboration drives permaculture's success. Together, people can do more than alone. As more people need permaculture experts, using these ethics can lead to a fairer and regenerative world, one that balances human and environmental needs carefully.
The permaculture ethics push for a big change in how we think and act, helping us focus on the planet's health and our own. By adopting permaculture's holistic approach, we can create a sustainable and resilient world for all future generations.
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