2 Permaculture

2.1 What is permaculture and how could it be universally applied?

Bill Mollison is the originator of the permaculture concept, which he saw as a positive route to dealing with environmental degradation and possible global famine. If you search YouTube, results will come up for drylands, tropical, cool lands, urban, temperate. In a series of clips, Bill explains how permaculture principles can be applied in a range of climate zones.

Bill Mollison talks about ‘How to Feed the Hungry in Africa’

Geoff Lawton of The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia is a very active promoter of permaculture practice. You can find Geoff Lawton talking about his work on YouTube; see him talking about ‘Greening the desert’.

David Pimentel is an agriculture scientist. He is scathing about biofuels – mainly on the grounds that it takes more energy to grow them than they give back in fuel, and because the land could be better used for other purposes. Pimentel doubts that existing forms of agro-industrial farming can be sustained, because of both climate change and resource depletion (leading to higher prices for water, fertiliser, pesticides, herbicides and fuel).