Following Paul Brooks wonderful article in the Midweek about our Eco-Thrifty Renovation and the educational programmes we’ve developed along with it I got a short flurry of phone calls and an email. The result was that three representatives of Te Oranganui and one neighbour dropped by for a one-hour tour on a Tuesday morning. They were all grateful for the site visit and for the information I shared. I was happy to meet some new people and to demonstrate how we have managed to develop a warm, dry, energy-efficient home on a small budget. But by the afternoon I was discouraged when I was faced with the miniscule impact of our project when compared with what may be described as the carelessness (or thoughtlessness) of others.

As I rode my bicycle down Puriri Street and Alma Road at 4 o’clock on a brilliantly sunny day I noticed that every street light above me was lit. I would estimate that one hour of all of those lights burning would use more electricity than we use at home in a month. I have seen the lights on Cornfoot Street also lit during bright, sunny days on numerous occasions. Do ratepayers pay for that power? Is our community so wealthy that we can afford to waste energy like that? From what I understand there are about 90 million reasons we should be trying to reduce expenses in our city. The relationship between energy, finance and debt interests me greatly, and I feel quite fortunate to have the opportunity to host a world expert on this relationship in Wanganui on the 10^th of April.

Nicole Foss has managed to fit Wanganui into her month-long speaking tour of New Zealand. She has had a busy schedule on the South Island, including talking to many Councils and a radio interview with Kim Hill in Christchurch. She has lectured on energy and global finance in hundreds of locations across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Her day job is Senior Editor of The Automatic Earth (TAE), where she and co-author and Editor-in-Chief Raúl Ilargi Meijer have been chronicling and interpreting the on-going credit crunch as the most pressing aspect of our current multi-faceted predicament. The site integrates finance, energy, environment, psychology, population and real politik in order to explain why we find ourselves in a state of crisis and what we can do about it.

While living in the UK she was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where she specialized in nuclear safety in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and conducted research into electricity policy at the EU level. She also has significant previous experience practicing as an environmental consultant.

Nicole will be speaking at 7 pm on the 10th of April at the Meeting Room of the Gonville Cafe/Library. Koha will be accepted to cover travel costs. This event is co-sponsored by The ECO School and the Sustainable Whanganui Trust.

I’ll admit that I am conservative. I like to conserve energy, conserve water, conserve money, conserve time and conserve effort. But am I too conservative?

Here is my little story.

I was pleased to hear a certain radio personality express his newfound appreciation for what climate change looks like on the day before the autumnal equinox. He went on to express another conservative opinion about the unsustainable debt held by many local councils. Again, I share his concern. Then he began to talk about another issue and the conservative stance the Green Party had taken on it. Three for three. Good one!

I called him up to congratulate him on his consistent conservative values and what I recognized in each case as the application of the “precautionary principle.” I had barely made my point when he vigorously questioned me on the third issue: the Green Party’s stance on fracking in Taranaki. From my perspective, the Green Party appears to be using the precautionary principle in its approach to fracking. This would appear to be a conservative position.

However, the radio personality accused me of something I did not catch because I was nervous talking on the radio. I suggested that international scientific research on fracking may be considered and that some data from the USA indicates problems associated with fracking. He insisted that no scientific data from anywhere outside of New Zealand should be considered at all. This would appear to be a radical position.

Then the radio personality said that a full, independent scientific analysis had been done to assess the effects of fracking around Taranaki and found no need whatsoever for any concern. He asked if that would be enough evidence for me. I told him that for me – being a conservative and supporter of the precautionary principle – I would seek a second opinion. This would appear to be a very conservative position.

The radio personality said “No, no, no.” For him a second opinion was not important. This would appear to be a non-conservative position. Then he hung up on me without even thanking me for my call or my compliment. What kind of a position is that?

Peace, Estwing

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A Buddhist Perspective on a Permaculture Perspective on Science Education.

During my adult life I have come across two perspectives that have greatly helped me make sense of the world: Buddhism and permaculture. Neither were particularly valuable in teaching me new things, but rather in affirming the things bouncing around in my head already. When I first started learning about each of them I found myself nodding in confirmation, and awed at how someone else had written so thoughtfully about the thoughts I had been unable to articulate as lovely as they had. I was not alone after all!

Schumacher College in Totnes, England played a key role in my education on these perspectives. It was in the dining room there I met Bill Mollison over a cup of tea (not knowing who he was), and in the library that I read extensively on Buddhism for the first time. Not only did each perspective help me understand the world better, but each one also helped me understand the other. I could see Buddhist themes in permaculture and permaculture themes in Buddhism.

While I won’t go so far as to compare Bill Mollison or David Holmgren to Siddhartha Gautama, I will note that, from my observations, the stories that many permaculturists tell about their ‘discovery’ of and ‘conversion’ to permaculture as similarly transformative. I will also note my belief that the Shambhala Prophecy holds special significance for those permaculturists interested in getting permaculture ideas into their local schools.

The Kingdom of Shambhala is not a geopolitical entity. You cannot find it on a map. It exists only within the hearts of the Shambhala Warriors, who will arise at a time when the Earth is in terrible danger. During this time powerful forces will lay waste to the land and sea with technologies previously unknown. At this time, the Shambhala Warriors arise and enter the halls of power with only two weapons: compassion and a recognition of the interconnectedness of all things.

In the context of permaculture, compassion represents the permaculture ethics and a recognition of interconnectedness can be described as systems thinking. In the present context, schools are the halls of power where compassion and systems thinking have the potential to bring about profound transformation for both teachers and students. At present, most schools are largely transmissive in their approach to education, which simply acts to reproduce the existing unsustainable culture. There are many reasons for this, and the Shambhala way is to strive to understand the condition of schools and teachers in order to transform education.

The first step is to embrace the idea that schools are for student learning. The second is to recognize that – as have education researchers worldwide – the teacher is the chief factor in student learning. The third is to agree that students learn best when learning is relevant and experiential. The fourth is to recognize that many teachers fail to embrace relevance and experiential learning because of pressures ranging from time constraints to national curricula to testing. When a classroom door closes, the teacher alone determines how the time is spent, and if they feel overwhelmed with the status quo then they will be unlikely to take on anything new such as sustainability. Unless, of course, someone comes along to help them with compassion and a systems perspective. This can be the role of the permaculturist interested integrating permaculture ideas and practices into their local schools.

Based on three and a half years of doctoral research after 16 years as a teacher, I submit the following as one possible permaculture approach for junior secondary science. Please note that the underlying emphasis to this approach is that the teaching and learning of science can be improved by making it more relevant and experiential by engaging local individuals involved in the practice of permaculture. Continuing the Buddhist theme, I present this approach in two pieces akin to the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

They are the Five Fingers of a Permaculture Approach and the Eight Key Principles.

The Five Fingers of a Permaculture Approach to Junior Secondary Science: permaculture design as means, not end; the transformative nature of permaculture; the science behind permaculture practices; permaculture practitioner as citizen scientist; and, field trips to permaculture properties. It is not that these five characteristics are unique to permaculture, but that all five fall under the permaculture umbrella. There are other ecological design systems and other transformative learning experiences. There are other citizen scientists and other valuable field trips. Through my research I have identified these five ways in which permaculture – as a distinct, well established, international movement – can be used to help improve the teaching and learning of science and to cultivate perspective change in both students and teachers.

The Eight Key Principles: making science relevant; applied science; student-centred teaching and learning; experiential learning; emphasizing interconnectedness; affective experiences; taking actions for the environment; and transformative chronology. These principles do not come from permaculture, but from the rest of my theoretical framework: scientific literacy, ecological literacy and transformative learning theory. These are the key principles for pedagogies that help to improve scientific and ecological literacy and encourage perspective transformation in students. These key principles can be applied independently of permaculture, but in this case they are believed to enhance the Five Fingers of a permaculture approach described above.

On a final Buddhist note, by not trying to teach permaculture there may be a greater uptake of permaculture ideas by students and teachers. This less-is-more approach may appear paradoxical, but that is the nature of Buddhism. Improving scientific and ecological literacy in students while they are in school may lead to adult learners who pursue permaculture naturally and effortlessly. You can plant a seed but you cannot make it grow. You can, however, add compost.

I will be presenting a detailed description of the Five Fingers and Eight Key Principles on the 14th of April at the Australasian Permaculture Convergence in Turangi, New Zealand.

Peace, Estwing

Permaculturists share. It is that simple. It is one of three ethical obligations central to the practice:

Care for people

Share the surplus

When we started this project 15 months ago we had nothing to share other than our enthusiasm, our knowledge and experience…and some empty bedrooms. This just happens to be the formula for internship, and we welcomed our first awesome interns John and Amy a year ago right now.

They were absolutely amazing interns and we are grateful for all of their contributions to our project and to this blog. (Example of John’s post. Example of Amy’s post.) Along time went by and then Tom came to us late last year. (Example of Tom’s post.)

Last week I introduced Jiqiao, and mistakenly misspelled his name (Sorry!).

While Jiquao has not yet written a blog post, he has done everything else that we teach our interns in the first days with us. The number one skill we teach is pulling and straightening nails. This takes place on day one for all interns. Not only does it teach a valuable skill (there are specific techniques involved), but it also teaches respect for materials, humility and patience. (Think “wax on / wax off”.)

If possible, we use the salvaged timber and nails to build something right away to teach more skills and let our interns participate in the transformation from rubbish (according to someone else) to something functional and beautiful.

Another skill we teach all of our interns is scything.

Although our section is a mere 700 square meters, we have an abandoned patch out the front of 300 square meters where we can teach scything and encourage the growth of legumes such as bush lupine.

To the right of Jiqiao is a bush lupine, which takes nitrogen from the atmosphere and fixes in the poor, sandy soils. To the left of him is a living hedge consisting of 8 feijoa trees, 8 Jerusalem artichoke plants (sunflower family) and a loquat. These are all relatively wind-tolerant, and so they do not require the protection that we’ve given our 24 other fruit trees. They are planted in a berm of compost built by John and Amy last year. We use the grasses cut out the front to mulch the berm to suppress weeds and retain water.

I wrote recently about protecting against the predicted increase in extreme weather events associated with global climate change. Not to carry on too much on this issue, but last Friday I attended a local event organized to give Whanganui residents the opportunity to talk about how we – as individuals and as a community – can address the effects of climate change. Before the break-out sessions, we heard a detailed presentation from a river engineer about how our district and regional councils have made their decisions about flood protection on the Whanganui and other rivers. The long and short of it is that:

Although our ducks are trying it out today…

It will serve as the winter chook yard while I re-seed their present yard with beneficial grasses and allow it to recover from their scratching.

But, as I noted to begin with, the predictions are for more intense storms, which will include stronger winds. So I have designed and built with this in mind, including heavy duty galvanized wire…

… and shoring up the northwestern fence to compensate for the increased wind load due to the netting.

I know what you may be thinking about this ugly brace sticking into our backyard. But, in fact, it is hidden in the food forest / duck pen between our annual gardens and the back fence.

Aesthetics are still important to us, but anyone will agree there is nothing pretty about a blown down iron fence…or an upright iron fence for that matter. Over time, the wind netting will allow our apple, fig and peach trees, along with their tagasaste nurse trees, to grow taller and hide the iron we have to look at every day. Can’t wait.

Elsewhere on the property we have planted Feijoas (see recent photo in this post) that are wind-tolerant into a living hedge. No need for windbreaks there, as the hedge itself will be the windbreak for what we hope will be a blueberry patch in its lee. Can’t wait.

Peace, Estwing