On a trip to Jordan last year, Emma visited two permaculture projects, this is a brief video diary of what she saw. For more information about the permaculture projects visit: Jordan Valley Permaculture Project and CARE-Jordan
THE LAST TIME RAIN fell in Bayoudeh was February 10. The land has only gotten dryer since then. People in and out of Jordan like to talk about how water poor the country really is, but 2008 arrived to prove it with a vengeance.
Bayoudeh is a small village of about 3,500 people. It sits wedged between the Jordan valley and its highlands, perched on the slopes among the few remaining wild oak trees and stretches of olives. It’s been a dry year, but compared to the over-grazed hills deep in the Valley, Bayoudeh looks positively lush. Most of the modest stone houses are nestled in pockets of vegetation; even dried out vegetation is better than none, and in this year of almost no rain, the brown patches under the trees are crisp with dried grasses and low-lying, water-hardy plants.
In the last rainy season, the land got only about 60 percent of the average rainfall expected from the wet season, according to Sameeh Nuimat, the permaculture project manager at CARE International, Jordan. The average is about 400mm of rain, in a season lasting from November to April. This year, the rains came from December to February, and deposited only 302 mm.
CARE is running projects promoting permaculture technologies to restore soil fertility to produce crops with less water and no chemical additives.
These small projects have demonstrated clear benefits for rural families.Working through local community groups, farmers are selected to benefit while demonstrating to others the advantages of permaculture.
Revolving loans also ensure that technologies, including grey water reuse systems, water harvesting and poultry management, are available to a wide range of people.
Will walled permaculture paradise Masdar City – the Zero Emissions corporate, high-tech, green-zone in Abu Dhabi – be affected by the debts of co-federated city-state of Dubai?
Fresh fears over the size of Dubai’s debt have sent shock waves through international markets, with major stocks and oil prices falling sharply. Dubai World, the country’s largest conglomerate, wants to suspend payment on its sixty billion dollar debts until next May at the earliest. RT’s financial contributor Max Keiser says the World is entering the Phase Two of the global economic crisis.
If Masdar is hurt, I think it will be indirectly. Some experts worry that trouble in Dubai could lead to a freeze in credit markets beyond the UAE, which could hurt real estate investment generally. Although Abu Dhabi is providing funding for the basic infrastructure for the city, much of that project is supposed to be financed by outside investors, who might be reluctant to invest given a tough financial climate.
The city will be an oasis of renewable energy in a country of five million, made rich by oil, that consumes the most natural resources per capita in the world. Seen one way, it’s just the latest ostentatious project in a country that’s been defined by them. Indeed, the UAE is already home to the world’s tallest building and an enormous indoor ski facility that features a 200-meter-long black-diamond slope. Real-estate developers have dredged coral and sand from the sea floor, piling it up in the Persian Gulf to create islands in the shape of palm trees and a map of the world.
Geoff Lawton is currently a key landscape consultant on Masdar city a futuristic supposedly zero waste carbon neutral city slated to be build in Abu Dhabi which is part of the UAE. Interestingly, the per capita ecological ecological foot print of Abu Dhabi also happens to be one of the highest in the world and though now being called a hub of sustainability don’t expect the UAE to move away from oil extraction anytime soon.
Recently, the gulf states have been using their surplus oil money to go on a building spree so that they’ll be able to leverage the equity accumulated to continue to make investments when demand deflates. Financing a massive project like this is another issue too, Masdar City is currently set to cost a mere 15-35 billion and right now their looking for 600 million in investment financing for the start of construction….good luck! . In order to finance they’ll have to sell a whole lot of real estate, especially ritzy real estate, like luxury eco condos, hotels, malls, and conference centers and this type of blatant eco classism will create multiple social divisions.
Comments on Masdar City landscape designers website
The leaders of our world are gearing up to use climate change as an excuse for even greater control over our lives. I believe that our battle is one against power as much as it is against pollution etc. We could very easily have a few Masdar Cities around the world where the rich and powerful live in luxury while the rest of us toil as peasants on organic farms.
Abu Dhabi has little choice but to continue to bail out Dubai.
A financial collapse of the emirate would make it unlikely that Sheikh Mohammed or Sheikh Hamdan could remain in power as the government and the ruling family’s management of Dubai Inc. are so closely intertwined. That could be politically unsettling for the region as many of the states are likely to be tarred with the same bush by investors as Dubai.
Once the manic burst of building has stopped and the whirlwind has slowed, the secrets of Dubai are slowly seeping out. This is a city built from nothing in just a few wild decades on credit and ecocide, suppression and slavery. Dubai is a living metal metaphor for the neo-liberal globalised world that may be crashing – at last – into history.
Tony Anderson of Klimaforum09 and the International Permaculture Council is interviewed by Nicholas Roberts of Permaculture TV about the 10 000 Trees per lifetime / 1 Tonne C02 per year plan for Planetary Permaculture
At Climate Camp UK, in London, we kept getting asked “where we going to Copenhagen (forCOP15and to get involved in thenetwork of Climate Justice Action?”. The answer eventually was “we would like to, if we could afford it and had something serious to do!”. We developed a couple of ideas, one was aClimate Social Forum, in theWorld Social Forum principlesand process.
After a little enquiry was informed there is government funded civil-society forum:Klimaforum09, which sounds rather like theEuropean Social Forum, Malmo 2008in its left-establishment (vertical-left) support. On the surface its structured like a World Social Forum, but under-the-hood, its a government funded conference for NGO’s, an extension of Nordicsoft-powerpublic-diplomacy.
However the Kilmaforum2009’s9 themesand theattending organisationsare right-on and would love to work-out how to go and work onGaia Permacultureand thePermaculture Worker Cooperative Movementprojects. The Klimaforum2009 creator is a Danish permaculturalist:Tony Anderson. So, its an amazing opportunity, will try to reconnect with Malmo solidarity accommodation types and contact the Nordic permaculture contingent, and the Klimaforum online forum.
One very promising discovery, which could be a lead-in to Gaia Permaculture is the plan developed by Tony Anderson and the Scandanavian Permaculture network for theØresund Bioregionand the global plan for10 000 trees.
Tony Andersen, organiser of Klimaforum, member of the International Permaculture Council and co-author of the 10000 Trees planetary permaculture plan invites you to Klimaforum09 – Copenhagen 7-18 December 2009
Tony Andersen is
an organiser of Klimaforum09, with 5000 activists & grassroots attending, 1 million Euro funding
Copenhagen based Danish architect specialising in cooperative design
“we dont just work for climate change, we work for systems change”
welcome to Permaculture TV
Copenhagen architect practicing democratic, cooperative and participatory design, i.e. empowering users of his house, building and social designs, lead him to permaculture design in the 1980s
many realised in Brazil at IPC8 (International Permaculture Convergance 8 ) [DVDs] from experience doing global permaculture, realised a global disaster was happening and would get worse
call for grassroots, environmentalists and activists
COP15 to straighten-out the climate change problems
Klimaforum09 publicly, officially funded, so invitees could be funded & proper facilities provided, result of 2 years negotiation with Danish government
Klimaforum09 supported by 20 Danish grassroots environmental groups, 60 international organisations, 5000 attendees, 200+ workshops for 2 weeks
running parrallel with UN conference
80 grassroots projects, working on declaration, pre-conference, editor group, international editing group (12 people), edit & present pre-conference declaration
2 days debated in Klimaforum, presented in paper to UN conference
UN process is “sh%^y”, the outputs “will never work”
after 18th Dec, make a pre-conference declaration; basic points, directions and trends for future work i.e. 10000 Trees
avoid the Rio problem, everyone assumed things would work-out, but instead they got worse, and so will maintain a Klimaforum network, to keep-up pressure
develop strategies for changing attitudes, concludes “we dont just work for climate change, we work for systems change”
10 000 Trees “best means to take c02 (GHG) from the atomosphere is not technical means, it is trees”
“best means to take c02 (GHG) from the atomosphere is not technical means, it is trees”
Tony Andersen of the International Permaculture Council and organiser of Klimaforum09 talks about the global permaculture strategy of 10000 Trees
LESS THAN
1 TON CO2 PER PERSON PER YEAR
MORE THAN
10,000 TREES PER PERSON PER LIFETIME
One of the grassroots movements, most experienced managing trees, via perennial polyculture, family farms, local people
international permaculture network strategy
related to IPCC calculations, to make a huge impact
also cut down C02 to less than 1 tonne per person per year
Danish have proved you can change lifestyles without complete disaster impact on lifestyle
if we can plant 5000-6000 in the next 25 years, we will be close to balance
oceans, boreal forests are no longer functioning as carbon sinks
“best means to take c02 (GHG) from the atomosphere is not technical means, it is trees”
10,000 Trees: A Practical Planetary Permaculture Strategy for Climate Change
The characteristics of Permaculture are its ability create projects that provide plenty of food
for the people involved,at the same time that it regenerates the basic natural resources:
soil, water, wind, energy all through – planting systems.
THE 1 TON CO2 10.000 TREES PROJECT……………………………………………………………………………4
Permaculture…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4
Climate Change…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5
Carbon sink…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….6
More than 10,000 TREES pr. person pr. lifetime………………………………………………………………………6
Less than 1 TON CO2 pr. person pr. year………………………………………………………………………………..7
The U.N. Climate Conference 2009 / COP 15………………………………………………………………………….8
Parallel activist and grassroots Conference………………………………………………………………………………9
The Permaculture network…………………………………………………………………………………………………..10
Tony Andersen of the International Permaculture Council and organiser of Klimaforum09 talks about the global permaculture strategy of 10 000 Trees more on http://www.Klimaforum09.org
Funded by a global carbon tax of 100 Euro per tonne of C02, most of the carbon will be sequestered in the soil around the perennial polyculture, agroecology of the 10 000 Trees planetary permaculture program.
Tony Andersen, Klimaforum09 organiser and member of International Permaculture Council explains the relationship between 10 000 Trees and Soil Carbon.
10 000 Trees per person
1 tonne of C02 per person per year
100 Euro per tonne global Carbon tax
Global Carbon Stocks (Gt C)
Area
( 109 ha)
Vegetation
Soil
Total
Biome
Tropical forest
1,76
212
216
428
Temperate forest
1,04
59
100
159
Boreal forest
1,37
88
471
559
Tropical grassland
2,25
66
264
330
Temperate grassland
1,25
9
295
304
Deserts/semideserts
4,55
8
191
199
Tundra
0,95
6
121
127
Wetlands
0,35
15
225
240
Croplands
1,60
3
128
131
Total
15,12
466
2011
2477
Data & Models of 10 000 Trees
Tony explains the sources of data for the 10 000 Trees program. Many mainstream sources of scientific information, IPCC, Stern etc. Also latest information from academics in Greenland and other Nordic Regions where climate change is a reality NOW.
10000 Trees idea comes from IPC4 in Nepal, after IPC8 Brazil decided to develop
collecting data IPCC, James Hansen, ocean-data from Danish Greenland gulf stream from ’96, ship circumnavigating globe measuring ocean currents
more information at International Permaculture Council website www.InPermCou.org
Planet Permaculture vs. Gaia Permaculture
Tony explains how the ethics, principles, strategies, techniques and patterns of permaculture can be applied on a local level and scale-up to a planet level permaculture.
He also politely avoids my neologism Gaia Permaculture. lol
Gaia Permaculture, or Gaia specifically is not used, its too vague
permaculture interconnects, relates the small project to the global scheme
(CNN) — It is midday and Geoff Lawton is hard at work at Zaytuna Farms in New South Wales, Australia. But the real work, he says, is going on inside the center of the compost.
Geoff Lawton says that permaculture “revs up” systems of soil creation.
“There’s lots of things breeding in there,” Lawton says.
Compost may not seem a sexy subject, but within this steaming pile, life is being created.
“There’s organisms breathing and dying and reproducing very quickly,” he says. “It’s all very hot and steamy.”
That rich soil lays the groundwork for Lawton’s revolutionary method of food production. It’s called permaculture.
Lawton’s friend and mentor, Bill Mollison, developed the process back in the 1970s. Since then he and Lawton have traveled the globe preaching the value of permaculture and its aim to create harmony between the landscape and the people who live on it.
Geoff Lawton, Wikipedia Biography
Geoff Lawton is a permaculture consultant, designer and teacher.
He holds a diploma in permaculture design. Since 1995 he has specialized in permaculture education, design, implementation, system establishment, administration and community development.[1]
Since 1985, Lawton has undertaken a large number of jobs consulting, designing, teaching and implementing in over thirty countries around the world.[2] Clients have included private individuals, groups, communities, governments, aid organizations, non-governmental organizations and multinational companies.[3]
Lawton’s aim is to establish self-replicating educational demonstration sites. He has currently educated over 6,000 students in permaculture worldwide. Lawton’s ‘master plan’ is see aid projects being replicated as fast as possible to help ameliorate the growing food and water crisis.
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