Integral Sustainability Education
Permaculture Program
Permaculture
Permaculture is a design system of sustainable systems.
It was developed in Australia by Bill Million and David Holmgren in the 1970's.
The base of the PC is the understanding that most human designed systems in this time are unsustainable and are leading to an intense erosion of all life supporting systems on earth.
(Like the systems in the ocean that produce oxygen and forests providing oxygen and habitat for biodiversity, collapsing of furtive soils leading to more deforestation more fertilisers more pulsation of water, leading to more pollution of the air, global warming leading to more consumption of Fossil fuels in order to air-condition our homes leading to more global warming leading to fluids droits and so on…)
Permaculture is based on the understanding that:
1- Nature is a sustainable system (For example forest is fertile and the more biomass there is per space the more thriving it is, it keeps on thriving unless it is cut down again and again)
2- Some principles in Nature make it sustainable and can be copied into human design systems. For example:
* Recycling - No garbage - every byproduct of a creature is a resource for and other creature.
*Diversity - there are almost no fields with just one type of plant, and no fields with a mass epidemic disease. Diversity = Stability.
* Cooperation instead of competition, there is basic competition for survival but no patterns of elimination of the other species. Observing Nature we will recognise that few plants growing together are faster and more healthy than one type growing alone..
* Small intense units work better than big masses, when a herd is too big it is naturally splitting, when an ant colony grow, some members are migrating to create a new one...
We realize that Nature is very efficient and energy is circulated in the Natural cycle of life with almost only no additional external energy (apart of solar energy and some "star dust"...). But designing an efficient system doesn't make it necessarily Sustainable, for example armies and global corporations are very efficient but still many of them are causing environmental damage.
In Permaculture there are 3 Ethics that help us to design in a more harmonic and sustainable way.
Care for the men - A hungry man is an Angry man... There is no time to care about Nature if you are busy surviving..
Care for the Earth - We design our system to take care of the man but also to create more and more thriving and fertile natural systems to the Earth.
Fare share - Always designing to create abundance and share it with the other humans, other animals with the whole... A good system have a lot to give.
A Permaculture designer see everything as components of a system and the system is designed to be an intensive efficient and sustainable unit, combining all the components into harmonious wholeness.
To make it more clear, let's take an example of a house:
A house is normally designed separately by Architect, interior designer, Landscape designer etc... So if the house and the garden, for example, are functioning as separated units, both need a lot of energy in and create a lot of waste out.
Permaculture design for a house will be connecting all components of the system, when every byproduct of a component is a resource for the other:
The leftover from the kitchen is food for the compost, the compost create heat for the green house and heating water plus nutritions for the garden.
The garden can suply food for the kitchen, which can be habitat for bees and other creatures.
Left over from the garden and kitchen can feed the chicken, and they in return supply eggs, meet, grate fertilizer for the garden and cultivation.
Water are collected from the rain, used in the house, filtered in eco-filter and used for irrigation. The eco-filter produce decoration, shade, fish and building materials (like bamboo that both purify the water and grow for constructions...)
The water from the toilet is used to produce biogas for cooking, heating and creating electricity generator and light. The left over from the biogas go to the compost than to the garden.
Fruit trees supply food, earth, leaves for compost, shade for the house in the Summer and allow sun into the house in the winter, after autumm when the leaves are already in the earth. Plus trees are a good place for a swing or an hammock and can use as wind breakers.
The house when designed in an Eco way, with smart use of isolation and thermomass, thermodynamics of the air and shade - sun with the trees, uses minimum energy for heating in the winter and cooling in the summer.
Solar energy, Wind energy, Beehive and more can be integrated in the the system.
This highly intensive and multiple hyperlinked system is almost autarkic, highly productive, low labor and increases its fertility with the years.
Permaculture is not only design for a house, the same principles can be used in a company, city, factory, village, state, time management, business and more.
For every climate zone there are different technologies but similar principles to design the system.
Learning to see the world through Pc Designer eyes helps to see that everything is linked and that if you allow the nature of the system flows, it will work for you and not the opposite.
It is seeing the whole through all its parts.
Nature works like this, there is no waste!!
Bill Mollison was once asked what is Permaculture?
His answer was: "Not to shit into the bed you are sleeping in.."
"The real skills" classes
"The real skills" - is the name of the skills that give a person an opportunity not to be dependent on the industry oriented on high level of consumption and plastic madness. These are the skills that will help you to decorate your life with cosy things storing the warmth of human hands. We are going to work with natural materials that the Earth has given us. When these wonderful things get too old they will return into the Earth, turn into dust, without causing any damage to the environment cause apart from warm memory. But during the whole project every day every minute of living in the eco-village,far away from the civilization you will be learning to get the real skills. And we would like you to have memorable things apart from the knowledge and good mood made with your own hands. That is why we offer you the following classes.
Healthy natural food
The technology of gathering and procurement of medicative herbs People and nature have always lived in a close symbiosis. And people have always taken from nature all that have been necessary: air and soil, food and clothes, inspiration and religion. Though this interaction should work and be useful for the both sides so that there is balance in the world. For maintaining harmony we have to learn not only how to take but how to give back as well. Not only to see, but also to reply. Since some time ago the harmony of this connection has been broken. People started to try and get more but give back less. And now we are glad that at least people still have a hankering for natural, not artificial sources. Now less and less people live in harmony with the environment. But yet not everything is lost, not everything is forgotten. In this or that way people show their interest and try to take some steps to become real participants of the flow of life surrounding us. Now it is particularly very noticeable in tea movement growing popularity, in spreading of tea culture. The native land of tea is the East and of course tea has got its oriental cultural shade and brings it to the West. But tea is only one plant among countless of others… And the tea culture has got its elder sibling – the herbal culture. Herbalism has got deeper roots and opens up much wider possibilities of interactions with the natural world. It’s definitely very useful to be friends with one herb (tea for example), and in this there is plenty to discover for oneself. But what if you have studied 6 plants? Or 10? Or more? You can make your own world much richer and more comprehensive and start to pay attention to things that have been hidden before.
Non-yeasted bread bakery
It is proved that thermophilic yeast bread which is mostly on shelves of all shops, is not useful at all, moreover, it weakens our health significantly. So, what can we do if we sometimes are so hungry for it? Is there any alternative? And how do you think our great grandmothers used to bake bread? We would like to strip away the myth saying that home-made non-yeast bread production is a long and difficult process. Even if you have no experience in cooking, you can easily make non-yeast bread using sour dough, and it will be much healthier and tastier than bread you buy in supermarkets.
Eco kitchen utensils - Ancient techniques of making moulded dishes, decoration methods. Wood baking.
Getting to know the ancient ways of hand making and processing of crockery that our ancestors used before pottery wheel was introduced. Traditional and non-traditional techniques of ceramics decoration, ancient ways of processing crockery that make it durable and water-resistant. We are going to share some secrets with you that will definitely help you to create a very personal “piece of art”, also, to do wood bakery in the field without using an electric muffle. -
Work with clay. Crockery making using a pottery wheel. Baking in a muffle roaster.
Those who have tried to work with pottery wheel even once, will not forget that wonderful feeling of soft lively material in their hands. As for the finished things – for a long time they will be presenting their owners with lots of warmth.
Eco toys:
- Self-sewed playing and interior dolls - Traditional Russian amulet dolls - Toys made of grass/ wood What can be more important than to make a toy for your beloved child, with your own hands! Along with the toy you hand over your view of the world to your child. Though, as history tells us, it is not only children who need toys. There are also dolls for adults with amulet function. Clothes: - Self-sewed caps and legwarmers Bright caps, reflecting your world perception will be surely needed in the changeable climate of Altai. And warm legwarmers will protect your legs while dancing and add the unique individuality to your image.
Self-decorated eco bags
It has been a long time when the whole world have been talking about plastic overuse, but our oceans are still continuing to get filled with tonnes of non-biodergadable trash that form gigantic islands drifting endlessly around. What can we do with that? We are almost nothing on a world-wide scale. Though we can start with ourselves. Just do not take plastic bags from shops and supermarkets if you do not really need them. Sew your own eco bag instead. It is very simple and it will serve you much longer than a thin piece of plastic. Moreover you will be able to parade your special designer thing around a supermarket.
Felt
Felt is an amazing material. Guess how many useful things can be made of ship firJ And at the same time you do no harm to the animals. To be ecological is both simple and very pleasant. All these things will surround you with warmth and joy. When you decide to visit your friends you will not rack you brains about a present anymore. And finally, if all our civilization crumbles away, you will still be able to live without it, with all those real skills at hand.
