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Ancient Organic Revival
We excitedly received a few packaged products from Essential Living Foods, anxious to try them out on our American palates. These were powdered forms of what is referred to as the "Lost Crops of the Incas"--a purple corn extract, Aji Amarillo...
CO2, Global Warming, and Pollen-Allergies
CO2, Global Warming, and Pollen-Allergies Thomas Ogren The benefits of added organic matter to the soil have long been known and are usually attributed to increased nitrogen, greater water-holding capacity and an increase in activity of soil...
Earthquakes and Tsunamis
Tsunamis Tsunami - a seismic sea wave - means in Japanese "harbor-wave". It is also misleadingly called "tidal wave". It is an ocean wave caused by an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 on the Richter scale (or greater) that occurs less than 50 kilometers...
Environmentally-Friendly "Earth Homes"
Environmentally-Friendly "Earth Homes" by Lady Camelot What are "Earth Homes?" Earth homes are houses that are basically constructed from the earth. Some earth homes are built from adobe, mud, straw or even underground as an earth-sheltered home....
Since Katrina, the Environment Is Front-Page News
Ever since the end of August, when Hurricane Katrina devastated
the major American city of New Orleans and the coastlines of
Louisiana, Mississippi, and parts of Alabama, the consequences
of environmental degradation have been front-page...
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Sustainability Today
Sustainability Today
Achieving a sustainable lifestyle today is of paramount
importance for the health of future generations. The devastation
of our natural environment by individuals and corporations who
carelessly pollute the water and air, clearcut forests, and
destroy topsoil and natural habitats is in many cases
irreversible. Those of us living an urban or suburban lifestyle
may just be beginning to feel the repercussions of our
industrial lifestyle in the form of climate change. However, the
perpetuation of anti-environment practices is sure to cause
consequences that we cannot even imagine.
The world in which we live is a system in which all elements
interrelate and coexist in a harmonious balance of creation and
destruction. Nothing exists or functions in isolation.
Everything is interconnected and every act affects the future of
countless other elements. This concept, also known as systems
thinking, is easy to see when observing an ecosystem, especially
when the harmony of that ecosystem is disrupted. The extinction
or reduction of one species rebounds through the entire food
chain, causing havoc on the lives of the rest of the species.
A sustainable lifestyle is one that seeks to harmonize with the
elements of the natural world. We can use the forces of nature
to our advantage, without abusing them and causing as little
disturbance to the natural environment as possible. One such
example is harnessing the energy of the sun. Solar energy can be
captured in a variety of ways. The most basic way, passive solar
energy, refers to the type of construction
materials used and
their placement. For example, a house designed to face the south
allows the heat of the sun to warm the house all day long. Add
to that other passive solar features such as thermal mass and
the house is already well on its way to energy-independence.
Industrialism and the Information Age have provided our society
with the tools it needs to reverse our current path of
environmental degradation. Solar panel technology and the
multitude of other inventions for collecting the energy of the
sun are constantly improving and becoming more affordable. We
may also gather energy from the wind, water, ground and even our
own waste products.
The key to becoming sustainable as individuals and as a society
is our own willingness to change and to be creative.
Permaculture is a design system that guides us to build and
manage sustainable living and working environments in which all
of the elements overlap and interrelate to create a functioning
whole. Combining our knowledge of ecological principles with our
earth-friendly technology we have only to succeed in achieving a
more sustainable lifestyle today, and a brighter future for our
children and grandchildren.
About the author:
Dayna Schueth works as a permac
ultural design consultant in Boulder Colorado and South
America.
She teaches people how to become sustainable and create
sustainable gardens that can feed entire families.
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