All 18 entries tagged Permaculture

Diary of a Permaculturalist 16: Avaaz vs. the Amazon (Jungle)

Follow-up to Diary of a Permaculturalist 16: Palm Oil from George Ttoouli, Warwick Writing Programme

Avaaz have set their sights on rallying people again oil company Chevron. Sign the petition here.

Oil giant Chevron is facing defeat in a lawsuit by the people of the Ecuadorian Amazon, seeking redress for its dumping billions of gallons of poisonous waste in the rainforest.

But the oil multinational has launched a last-ditch, dirty lobbying effort to derail the people’s case for holding polluters to account.

George Ttoouli : 09 Feb 2010 09:00 |  Tags: Creative Writing Permaculture |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Diary of a Permaculturalist 16: Palm Oil

Writing about web page /ttooulig/entry/diary_of_a_1_2_3_4_5_6_7_8_9_493/

Link from a while back on Unilever suspending palm oil purchases from a particular company. Interesting that they aren't stopping the purchase entirely.

Unilever, which consumes 4 per cent of the total global supply of palm oil for use in products including food spreads, ice cream and toiletries, said it was suspending future purchases from PT Smart, part of the Sinar Mas group over its environmental practices.

Another article I found while digging around points to General Mills, responsible for, among hundreds of other products, Cheerios, is accused of causing deforestation:

RAN says that at least a hundred General Mills products, including goods sold under Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Stovetop Hamburger Helper and Toaster Strudel brands, contain palm oil or palm oil derivatives. RAN is calling for General Mills to commit to buying only responsibly-sourced palm oil.

It would be handy to have a list of products that contain elements grown on lands annexed from rainforests, but that kind of information ain't throwing itself up at me easily. Probably could be sourced from placing like the above-mentioned RAN - Rainforest Action Network - in the US. Trouble is, while the corporations exploiting these resources are globalised through financing, the action networks are localised. I've no idea if there's any kind of hub for international communications for this kind of thing - any thoughts welcome.

George Ttoouli : 27 Jan 2010 09:00 |  Tags: Creative Writing Permaculture |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

Diary of a Permaculturalist 15: 100 Months: A letter from Mario Petrucci

Follow-up to Diary of a Permaculturalist 14: Greenpeace Scales Parliament from George Ttoouli, Warwick Writing Programme

Mario Petrucci emailed the other day, with a sound a wonderful perspective on the current state of climate change. He kindly gave me permission to pass it on in full, below.

If you're busy, scroll down to the ten points he lists in the middle, and if you're feeling the urgency as well, copy, paste and post on your own blog.

And while I'm in utopia-mode: wouldn't it be nice if every website in the world added a sidebar menu link to ways of reducing carbon? This is a good link. At least for starters. I'm on approx 5 tonnes/year, and it gives a range of suggestions for cutting that to a recommended 4 tonnes.

And bear in mind also that the '100 months', while a contested figure, was released last year. So if you agree with it, we've more like 84 months to act. Or seven years.

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100 months: a letter from Mario Petrucci [ecologist, physicist, writer]

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has estimated we have just 100 months left before Climate Change is irreversible. What they mean is that we'll probably not be able to contain CC, thereafter, at 2deg above pre-industrial levels. That could prove pretty serious.

As a scientist and ecologist, I can assure you that such vast alterations to global systems may well be much more catastrophic and rapid than our science predicts. What's just about certain, now, is that we're already past the point of getting off 'scot free'. On an unimaginable scale, it's Russian Roulette we're playing.

A key problem, for me, is that awareness can only be part of the response. Many of us are strongly informed on Climate Change and would do much more if we could - but we have commitments, families, difficult jobs to maintain, and so on. Also, some of us may have reservations about the whole issue, eg the possibility of CC itself becoming big business manipulated by powerful interest groups, or a sense of unease over who that 'we' in the political rhetoric might turn out to be. And, somewhere deep down, secretly, I find it easier to hope that the 'authorities', companies and NGOs are getting on with it. Meanwhile, another part of me is somewhat resigned to the powerful historical evidence of ongoing human folly.

But I've come to realise that fear, apathy or skeptical reticence have (for me) now become luxuries in this context. If you feel the same, may I propose some of the following actions, which don't take very long at all and could, if enough people got on board, who knows, begin to swing it...?

1. Share any news/ information you have on CC with colleagues and friends - everyone 

2. Make CC a frequent topic of conversation, even at dinner parties and at work 

3. Include CC as a major issue in any suitable talks, lectures and readings you give 

4. Educate and prepare (but not frighten) our teenagers with regard to the issues (though many of them are already far ahead of us in terms of willingness to respond...) 

5. Be alert to any opportunity to raise CC in the ordinary turn of daily events

Most importantly, seize on anything that can systemise the political and economic pressure for change, anything that acts as an amplifier for the individual will...

6. Lobby your MP; raise CC with anyone knocking on your door for a vote; ask them about 'Transition Towns', energy, or how they might encourage local initiatives over big business 

7. Mention CC as a core concern in any relevant questionnaires you fill in (local council, etc) 

8. Join Green organisations to swell their numbers and coffers (along with Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, CND, etc. there are many reputable organisations such as 'Scientists for Global Responsibility') 

9. Transfer some savings to genuinely eco-aware banks; buy eco-friendly products 

10. Invest, if you can, in wind companies and other alternative energy initiatives, or in local consortiums such as 'The Good Fuel Co-op' (ironically, some of these may well become important ventures in the future (if there is one) which will reward the canny investor)

Many of you, I'm sure, will already be doing much of this; if so, apologies for the distraction. I just feel that, somehow, acting for the future has to made easier. And I believe, on good days, that the post-carbon world needn't be a terrifying, brutal place.

It seems to me that my little boy was only just born, and already he's 11 months old. 11% of that IPCC deadline. No deadline is definite, of course: there may be much more time than that; or much less. Which is why I've overcome my reticence in sending this out. If you agree with the message, please feel free to forward this e-mail to your e-list. It might just be the prompt someone needs; and maybe it will start something that spreads beyond our control (in a good way, for once).

Probably, you're hellishly busy. I know I am. Then give the 10 steps just 10 minutes? 10 minutes, let alone 100 months, can be a long time in politics, or to a species. Please, redouble your efforts. The time for mere awareness has passed.

George Ttoouli : 25 Jan 2010 09:00 |  Tags: Creative Writing Permaculture |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Diary of a Permaculturalist 15: Music for Worms

Follow-up to Diary of a Permaculturalist 14: Greenpeace Scales Parliament from George Ttoouli, Warwick Writing Programme

Just saw notice of this event on email:

Music for Worms

Emily Death will be performing a short concert entitled "Music for Worms" from 6:30pm to 7:30pm on Wednesday 11 November in the Mead Gallery.

For more than 40 years, Darwin conducted experiments to identify the characteristics of earthworms. His experiments included playing music to worms – particularly the bassoon – to assess their ability to hear. In the year of Darwin’s bicentenary, Emily Death will play a short concert of music to the earthworms on show in the Mead Gallery to see if their response to music is any different to that of their nineteenth century forebears.

This event is free of charge.

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This has made me very happy.

I suppose I should make some de-tangentialising comment about attending in order to determine the perma-response of worms to cultural phenomena such as the bassoon.

George Ttoouli : 10 Nov 2009 17:55 |  Tags: Creative Writing Darwin Music Permaculture Worms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Diary of a Permaculturalist 14: Greenpeace Scales Parliament

Follow-up to Diary of a Permaculturalist 13: Notes towards an essay onNecessary Rot from George Ttoouli, Warwick Writing Programme

Not, as I'd have hoped, a case of Greenpeace covering Parliament in fishscales, which might have made (some, allegedly) MPs stink for real, rather than simply metaphorically. From their open letter to Parliament:

Dozens of Greenpeace volunteers scaled the walls of the Palace of Westminster yesterday and spent the night on the roof to welcome you back from your summer break. The threat of climate change is so grave that it requires radical action and we believe that what we are doing here today is necessary to send a clear message to the country's politicians. If we don't change the politics and take real action here and internationally we will lose our chance to save the climate.

Read the open letter in full.

George Ttoouli : 12 Oct 2009 13:10 |  Tags: Creative Writing Permaculture |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

Diary of a Permaculturalist 13: Notes towards an essay onNecessary Rot

Follow-up to Diary of a Permaculturalist 12: Poet in an Allotment from George Ttoouli, Warwick Writing Programme

I've been thinking about the idea of necessary rot in language.

A recent article in New Scientist talks about the idea of brain patterns working along the lines of 'self-organised criticality' - as if the sporadic, restrained moments of random brain acitivty we experience are essential in some way to memory. Perhaps a step further - to creativity, to inspiration, to our ability to make associative leaps between themes, ideas, concepts.

It might seem precarious to have a brain that plunges randomly into periods of instability, but the disorder is actually essential to the brain's ability to transmit information and solve problems. "Lying at the critical point allows the brain to rapidly adapt to new circumstances," says Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg from the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany.

Sure enough, the team found that each neuron triggered on average only one other. A value much greater than one would lead to a chaotic system, because any small perturbations in the electrical activity would soon be amplified, as in the butterfly effect. "It would be the equivalent of an epileptic seizure," says Beggs. If the value was much lower than one, on the other hand, the avalanche would soon die out.

At some level I can't deny this function works in the way I write poetry. I was having this conversation with a poet I exchanged a few pieces with. She pointed to the fact that my poetry seemed to work more at the level of sound than at the level of meaning. I had to confess, when she pointed to a few words in particular, that I often use words I don't know the meaning of, until I've used them. Words I've heard here or there, picked up on in passing, but sound right, first of all, before 'meaning right'.

I remember a conversation, long long ago, with Peter Carpenter (of Worple Press), who I bumped into at the Poetry Library. He was writing an article about Geoffrey Hill and specifically, at the point I met him, researching Hill's 'pitch' of certain words. He gave me an explanatory article to read which I have typically interpreted in my own special way.

'Pitching' words is about trying to syntactically position a word in a way that is completely fresh, unusual, e.g.:

A pet-name, a common name. Best-selling brand, curt graffito. A laugh; a cough.

That's from part II of Geoffrey Hill's Mercian Hymns. Delightful in itself. In this instance, one phrase that attracts me as 'pitched' is "curt graffito". It might well refer to the short, punchy phrasing of the graffito - which in itself is odd because who uses the singular of that word anyway? Graffiti is like sheep, isn't it? One word graffiti, many word graffiti? But no, he's etymologised it. So 'curt' not only evokes 'cort' - short - but alongside the singular 'graffito' there's a sense of cur-curse-cut. And the sight rhyme from laugh to cough; what's that? Has someone written 'fuck' on a wall somewhere? Probably.

But you're forced into the roots of the word, into the etymology. By pitching 'graffito' as singular, it evokes the Greek etymology (graphos - to write), and 'curt' evokes a Latinate etymology by association. Pitch. There you have it, explained as clearly as I can manage. (If Peter ever reads this, hopefully he'll provide a reference to the article that explained it far better than I have.)

Coming back to rot: perhaps what Hill is doing, metaphorically-speaking, is rotting away (or cutting away the rot of) language's contemporary, immediate meanings. It's an excellent way of learning how precious language really is and how precious (as in, rare) the attention of someone who can read language in this way can be. Hooray for Hill.

But something catches in the throat. Is it really so considered? Is it really so calculated? Where are the accidents of gene-combinations that allow a species to thrive? Where is the life emerging from the rot?

Spontaneity, decay, failure - these are all parts of natural selection. Meanings you didn't intend, which your reader has found for themself, these are all important parts of the ecosystem of meaning. Chekhov was often praised for allowing this 'self-organising criticality' into the short story for the first time. A main character could step out onto a street and suddenly be run down by a carriage and killed. Life's often cruel (but necessary, and sometimes kind) randomness had to happen in fiction also, or else fiction couldn't be realistic.

(Referring now to Biomimicry.) In a polyculture, in a given year, a harvest might see one in four, or two in four dominant species flourishing, while one in four, or two in four, might do particularly badly. This is not to say that the next year these species will be continually successful. Only that not all things are perfect all the time, that organising systems can try to understand the nature of nature might well be able to assess trends over twenty, or fifty years (and data of this nature (I know I'm using this word too much, but bear with me) barely stretches back to the 1970s) that might identify an ecosystem's balance or imbalance, but there's always the risk of making short term deductions.

As with Hill's 'pitching' of words, a long view is needed in nature that accommodates the self-organising criticality of these systems, the randomness that is gently reduced in impact over time, so that anomalies are identifiable and accountable. Living with a poem, a story, until it's meaning sinks in, changes enough time until it settles.

Right, enough sketchy synthesis for now. Regular broadcasts unlikely to resume until October, but that means more gestation.

George Ttoouli : 05 Aug 2009 10:00 |  Tags: Creative Writing Permaculture |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

Diary of a Permaculturalist 12: Poet in an Allotment

Follow-up to Diary of a Permaculturalist 10: Save Keresley Greenbelt from George Ttoouli, Warwick Writing Programme

I was really delighted to see Jay Bernard's latest blog over at My Place or Yours. As part of a mentoring scheme getting new poetry voices out in the community on unusual residencies, Jay was dropped into an allotment back in November and has been drawing inspiration from the garden and residents and various aspects of nature. Also this little bit of information:

I spoke to a woman who is a don at Oxford and who encouraged me to try and make changes within the university. ‘The food is crap, highly subsidised, unhealthy,’ she said. ‘I really think organising something around food would be a good move as there are so many implications. You could start with a garden, start with something small, and let it grow. The thing is, you don’t want to have the chefs and the university administration against you. There’s nothing worse. But you can really show them that changes can be made, things can be done.’

I had an email exchange with Liz Dowler at Warwick about a similar project, at the recommendation of the VC, last summer. The loose idea was to try and create a teaching space that was also a communal garden, producing food that went directly into student & staff stomachs. The idea is a bit of a pipe dream, from my perspective. Someone will need to take responsibility for managing a space like this throughout the year, so it  doesn't help to have teaching falling between October and March. It makes you wonder if there shouldn't be agricultural qualifications offered that run from March to September, during the main growing seasons, with the ground left fallow, or sown with clover, to enrich the topsoil again, during the colder months.

That said, I'm still interested in geographically specific permaculture systems. Where The Land Institute in the US has been researching harvestable prairie, or parts of northern Asia now have rice growing in permaculture systems ('doing nothing' farming), I've never been quite sure if there are any geographically dominant systems that the UK can adopt, though orchard farming combined with small-scale husbandry has cropped up in a few places I've looked.

Really, the idea of a taxonomic, abstract model is a bit pointless, though that always seems to be the way to get widespread interest. By all accounts, you have to look at what you've got, first of all, then see how to go about creating a self-sustaining ecosystem within it, which can provide resources. Still, a part of me can't help thinking that what's missing for the amateur enthusiast like me is a book that tells you how to set up a low maintenance system in your back garden, but I'd be the first to confess that I'm coming at this as a poet and, like Jay, I'm more taken by the bizarre little details about potatoes "conditioning the soil". Personally, I'm less taken by the urge to pick up a spade and get muddy.

You can read more of Jay's blogging here.

George Ttoouli : 09 May 2009 11:00 |  Tags: Allotments Jay Bernard Permaculture |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

Diary of a Permaculturalist 11: Smithfield Accused of Causing Swine Flu

Follow-up to Diary of a Permaculturalist 3 from George Ttoouli, Warwick Writing Programme

I wrote some while back, after reading about animal waste processing in Paul Roberts' 'The End of Food', about pig lagoons and the dangers of mass scale animal farming. Well, guess where the finger is being pointed for causing the recent swine flu? Here is a recent email received from Avaaz (please click the link to sign the online petition):

Dear friends,

Evidence is emerging that traces swine flu to giant factory pig farms that are dirty, dangerous, and inhumane. Sign the petition to the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization to investigate and regulate these threats to our health:

No-one yet knows whether swine flu will become a global pandemic, but it is becoming clear where it came from – most likely a giant pig factory farm run by an American multinational corporation in Veracruz, Mexico.(1)

These factory farms are disgusting and dangerous, and they're rapidly multiplying. Thousands of pigs are brutally crammed into dirty warehouses and sprayed with a cocktail of drugs -- posing a health risk to more than just our food -- they and their manure lagoons create the perfect conditions to breed dangerous new viruses like swine flu. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) must investigate and develop regulations for these farms to protect global health.

Big agrobusiness will try to obstruct and scuttle any attempts at reform, so we need a massive outcry that health authorities can't ignore. Sign the petition below for investigation and regulation of factory farms and tell your friends and family and we will deliver it to the UN agencies. If we reach 200,000 signatures we will deliver it to the WHO in Geneva with a herd of cardboard pigs. For every 1000 petition signatures we will add a pig to the herd:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic

Last week the flu was all that we talked about -- Mexico has been nearly paralysed and across the world leaders halted air travel, banned pork imports and initiated drastic controls to mitigate the spreading virus. As the threat shows signs of subsiding the question becomes where it came from and how we stop another outbreak.

Smithfield Corporation, the largest pig producer in the world whose farm is being fingered as the source of the H1N1 outbreak, denies any connection between their pigs and the flu and big agrobusiness worldwide pays huge sums of money for research to argue that biosafety is ensured in industrial hog production. But the WHO has been saying for years that 'a new pandemic is inevitable'(2) and experts from the European Commission and the FAO have cautioned that the rapid move from small holdings to industrial pig production is in fact increasing the risk of development and transmission of disease epidemics. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that scientists still do not know the extent that infectious compounds produced in factory farms affect human health.(3)

Studies abound of the horrific conditions endured by pigs in concentrated large-scale operations, and the devastating economic impact on small farmer communities of bloated large-scale operations.(4) Smithfield itself has already been fined $12.6m and is currently under another federal investigation in the US for toxic environmental damage from pig excrement lakes.(5)

But even with all of this damaging evidence, a combination of increased global meat consumption and a powerful industry motivated by profit at the cost of human health, means that instead of being shut down - these sickening factory farm operations are propagating around the world and we are subsidising them (6). In the wake of this swine flu threat, let's hold industrial pig producers to account. Sign the petition for investigation and regulation:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic

If we resolve this global health crisis boldly by reassessing our food consumption and production, and urgently calling for an inquiry into the impact of factory farms on human health, we could put in place tough farm practice rules that will save the global population from future animal borne lethal pandemics.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic

in hope,

Alice, Pascal, Graziela, Paul, Brett, Ben, Ricken, Iain, Paula, Luis, Raj, Veronique, Milena, Margaret, Taren and the whole Avaaz team

(1) Biosurveillance report tracing the disease to the Smithfields farm: http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico-timeline-of-events.html
Reports on the link between the Mexican factory farm and the flu:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-fg-mexico-flu28-2009apr28,0,1701782.story

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-blamed-on-industri-09-05-01

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227063.800-swine-flu-the-predictable-pandemic.html?full=true

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/swine-flu-outbreak----nat_b_191408.html

(2) WHO pandemic information
http://www.euro.who.int/influenza/20080618_19

(3) FAO, EC and CDC reports on the risks of industrial farming on public health
FAO and CIWF and http://www.cdc.gov/cafos/about.htm

(4) CIWF and PETA video reports of the disgusting conditions for animals in factory farms and the disease ridden manure swamps:
CIWF and PETA

(5) Reports on Smithfield's animal welfare and environmental damage
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/new-report-highlights-the-trouble-with-smithfield-article03132008

http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithfieldJan08.pdf

(6) Reports on UK tax payers subsidising factory farms http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/5225298/Taxpayers-forking-out-700-million-for-factory-farming-in-England.html

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ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva. Call us at: +1 888 922 8229 or +55 21 2509 0368 Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages!

To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to info@avaaz.org. You can also call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US) or +55 21 2509 0368 (Brazil) If you have technical problems, please go to http://www.avaaz.org

George Ttoouli : 06 May 2009 10:57 |  Tags: Permaculture Swine Flu |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Diary of a Permaculturalist 10: Save Keresley Greenbelt

Follow-up to Diary of a Permaculturalist 9 from George Ttoouli, Warwick Writing Programme

I recently received notice of the following petition from Keresley Parish Council:

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To:  Coventry Council

Save our Greenbelt!

We the Undersigned, are in strong opposition of any intrusion by development within the Green Belt in the Keresley Area

• Coventry Council wants 3000 homes built on Green Belt land in Keresley
• This land is in the Ancient Forest of Arden, used by Henry XVIII, the Romans, and stone age hunters,.
• It is a treasure of the city with beautiful woods, flowers,& wildlife, recreational, educational and historical value
• It is much used and loved by children, walkers, pets, and families, and is easily accessible to all.
• Building here would greatly aggravate traffic and environmental problems – out of town suburban development is an outdated unsustainable idea

This petition is circulated by Keresley Parish Council. Information: Sandra Camwell 76 332622, merle@waitrose.com, Signatures must be collected by 6 May, very latest. The Consultation closes on 7 May and we want to present your views to Coventry Council

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

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Much better would be to recycle old, vacant homes, as promoted by charities like the Empty Homes Agency. The cost of redevelopment is often weighed up against the private management approach to new housing, though. The greenbelt can be sold off (money in), planning applications sold to the purchasers (money in) new homes developed by private investors who can sell on for profit (money in for them too) and new buyers (after they've paid any duties - money in, again) get properties on the edge of a park. Lovely.

Meanwhile, vacant properties, particularly old ones, are considered below environmental standards, but I've never actually seen the costs of restoring a property (and by costs, I don't just mean money, I mean  placed alongside the environmental, energy, etc. costs, raw materials and so on) to EC standards against building from scratch. The Empty Homes Agency does have some interesting publications however, including these articles here, especially the first listed (as of today, anyway), 'New Tricks with Old Bricks'.

Specifically in the summary:

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new homes fall into two distinct sources: “embodied” CO2 given off during the housebuilding process, and “operational” CO2 given off from normal energy use in the house once it is occupied.

The new homes each gave off 50 tonnes of embodied CO2. The refurbished homes each gave off 15 tonnes.

Well-insulated new homes eventually make up for their high embodied energy costs through lower operational CO2 but it takes several decades - in most cases more than 50 years.

And so on. Great stuff. Go sign the petition! And maybe we should see about arranging some poetry walks through Keresley greenbelt.

George Ttoouli : 27 Apr 2009 17:00 |  Tags: Anti Narrative Change Management Ecofeminism Narrative Patrick D Murphy Permaculture |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

Diary of a Permaculturalist 9

Follow-up to Diary of a Permaculturalist 8 from George Ttoouli, Warwick Writing Programme

"Pluralistic humanism has run its course. What may have once encouraged individual growth and intellectual diversity for some components of culture is now producing a laissez-faire attitude that truncates the debate over cultural values through nonjudgmental or 'undecidability' postures...

"the most fundamental relationships are not resolvable through dialectical synthesis: humanity/nature, ignorance/knowledge, male/female, emotion/intellect, conscious/unconscious. And these paired terms are not even actually dichotomous or dyadic but only indicate idealized polarities within a multiplicitous field,such as that of planet, thought, sex/gender, perception, and mind... While human forces are always at work centralizing, quantifying, and coding phenomena, other human forces are always challenging and breaking up such reductions and constructions in order to sustain themselves."

(from Chapter One: Prolegomenon for an Ecofeminist Dialogics, in 'Literature, Nature, and Other' by Patrick D Murphy, pp3-4 (New York, 1995))

Yeah baby, dig that boundless discipline of life.

The supposed polarisation of these concepts actually creates hazards in the attempt to surmount the real problems attached to these issues. How can I be a man in the modern world? Or a woman? How does humanity learn to live with nature? Is humanity a part of nature? Mostly, these are redundant questions in the scheme of survival. We need to ask, "How do we survive?"

Similarly, story-telling, when presented through a dichotomy of narrative and anti-narrative, implies elements in opposition. As Murphy points out in his Prolegomenon, it's better to think of these concepts in relation to Bakhtinian notions of centripetal and centrifugal forces. There's the mainstream of creative praxis, filtered from experimentation and tradition. There are the centripetal forces, applying pressure to the conventions of narrative, 'anti-narrative', or so we call it, but in fact it's all part of the same set of 'story' or 'creative language'.

How does story survive in a permacultural fashion? By recycling. Oral traditions more acceptably contain updates, revisions, relativistic tellings according to the times as they are a-changing. The notion of an enduring text, one that doesn't change - the eternal, immortalising poem - is nonsense. Corruptions set in, new editions, no matter how small. Shakespeare's play texts are never 'definitive', and the stagings diversify and diversify.

Poets regularly revise poems after they've been published - in magazines, but also their own books - revisiting earlier work, from the perspective of the altered self. Some of these may change so drastically that only the echo of the former poem remains, while others might simply see a line, or a layout, shift. Ditto our relationships to concepts of nature and humanity, the interplay of elements in ecological systems.

Murphy points out, "Ecology as a discipline means, fundamentally, the study of the environment in its interanimating relationships, its change and conservation" (4). All the change management theory I've touched upon, however, is to do with managing brief periods of change between periods of stability. I know there are theories to do with a similar Bakhtinian sense of change management - gradual change, constant but non-seismic shifts to maintain a good balance between growth and stability.

That seems to be the right way to go solving the current issues of permaculture, from what I've been reading: learning to respond faster, to react to weather changes to produce positive outcomes. I think I need to do some more library digging. (Any recommendations welcome,of course.) So much reading I want to do, so little time.

George Ttoouli : 23 Feb 2009 09:00 |  Tags: Anti Narrative Change Management Ecofeminism Narrative Patrick D Murphy Permaculture |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem