Toby Hemenway is a teacher, consultant and lecturer on permaculture and ecological design. Toby is also a professor at Portland State University, a Scholar-in-Residence at Pacific University, and a biologist consultant for the Biomimicry Guild. In this lecture Toby explains how Agriculture has not actually helped mankind but instead has hindered our progress as well as causing a negative impact on our Earth.

Agriculture destroys our eco system by wiping away the lusciousness of our land and forests by depleting nutrients and destroying the topsoil by over growing huge amounts of food in designated areas. The land then requires massive amounts of fertilizer which now comes mainly from petroleum based products.

Visionary and eco-architect Mark Lakeman is founder of City Repair, Communitecture Architects, and the Planet Repair Institute. Mark goes against the traditional architecture teachings that humanity and nature are separate. Instead he brings these two concepts together, expressing them in beautiful artform. Modeling the plazas of Mexico and South America, Mark is teaching people the foundations of community by showing them the value of building open spaces to sit and gather, gardens, and places to read and drink tea. The end result is creative and beautiful.

Unlike modern architecture designed with a T-square and triangle, Mark designs in relation to the natural landscapes and natural curves and spaces in the community. He also designs according to the wants and needs of the people in the community.

For a growing amount of people, the need for sustainable communities is clear and obvious and has been for a long time. You’ll be waiting a long time for governments to act and implement real sustainable communities. Governments are put into power by powerful business and lobby groups who don’t have an interest in sustainable communities. So the answer at hand right now is to do it yourself. 

One group, Open Source Ecology (OSE), are coming up with the tools and knowledge to be able to create sustainable communities. Whats better, is as the name suggests, their work can be accessed as they release what they do open source.

Featured on Planet Green and “The World’s Greenest Homes” TV show, Kevin Edwards’ 3000 square foot straw-bale constructed home is beautiful, green, more affordable than traditionally built homes, and packed with amazing eco-features. Located in Scottsdale, AZ, this modern straw-bale house includes a saltwater swimming pool, recycled windows, ceiling accents made from recycling the delivery pallets from the work-site, a cooling tower inspired by Middle Eastern architecture, custom energy efficient refrigerator, and a re-circulating pump for instant hot water creation.

This straw-bale construction is straw bales encapsulated with metal lathing and then covered with stucco. The huge cooling tower uses a mister at the top with gravity pushing the mist down and providing what Kevin says is fifteen degrees of cooling! Kevin also incorporated the natural texture of the straw into the ceilings of the children’s rooms to create a noise-dampening affect.

If you’ve ever crossed a hot car park in summer, you know about albedo. Dark colours absorb heat, while lighter colours reflect it. That’s one of the principles behind the idea that a melting arctic may be a self-reinforcing feedback loop: relective ice melts and is replaced by dark water, which holds heat better and melts the remain ice even faster.

We can also use this principle to our advantage however, by increasing albedo in places where we have a little more control of the environment than we do in the Arctic – cities. Cities are prone to the urban heat island effect, being warmer than surrounding areas by 1-3C. They lack the green spaces that serve to cool the air, are full of activity and machinery, and they’re covered in acres of dark and baking tarmac.

Michael Reynolds builds living spaces out of garbage. He takes all of the things that are thrown out locally and turns them into houses. But not only are they houses, they are each unique, beautiful living structures, enviroartistically designed and completely self-sufficient.

These incredible pieces of art, called Earthships are all completely different.  Each one is specifically designed for it’s specific climate and situation.  And most of it is experimental and experiential, exploring new terrain in sustainable design and awe-inspiring architecture.

When introducing myself, I inevitably mention permaculture. I then conduct a careful scan of my conversation partner, looking for signs of recognition or bafflement. Very often, this situation is followed by the question ‘Permaculture? What is that?’ and more often than not I find myself answering historically.

Permaculture is about design. However, permaculture is a design system with a particular historical analysis. This analysis involves three very broad swathes of history centred on the current period of high energy — pre-industrial, industrial and a hoped-for future time characterised by design.

Pre-industrial life, excepting some energy excess of imperial powers, is largely characterised by a low-energy, labour intensive life and limited exploitation of natural resources.

Industrial life is characterised by a high energy, low labour and resource intensive life.

Permaculture envisions the possibility of and looks forward to a life which is characterised by relatively less labour and dramatically lower resource use than industrial life — a knowledge-intensive or design-intensive life.

I recently viewed the documentary Gasland and was appalled at what has been happening in our country regarding hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. Fracking is a controversial drilling technique used by the oil and gas industry that has injected millions of tons of highly toxic chemical fluids into the ground to break apart shale and release natural gas.

Problems with drinking water that can be traced to fracking in Colorado are documented in Gasland. One graphic example is tap water actually catching on fire.