Powerdown Immediately

"Climate change is advancing at an incredible speed. We know we should do something, but we lack the political will to do what it takes to hold it to 2°C. UN committees are now being counseled to prepare for 4°C of warming. To keep it survivable, there's got to be a powerdown -- starting today." - http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-12-09/powerdown-let-s-talk-about-it

Let this be a clarion call to make changes.  ANY changes you can.  If you don't voluntarily make these changes now when you have the luxury of time and money to support them, you may end up being forced to change, like so many other of the mass unprepared.

Technology fantasists, get over your overly-optimistic belief in the ability of human ingenuity to solve all ills.  Rare earth metals, those minerals that you need for your hi-tech solutions like solar panels are rapidly declining, think again!

Green-technology fantasists, swapping from gas-guzzling cars to electric cars reduces your CO2 emissions? Think again the majority of CO2 emissions come in the manufacturing process and how is the electricity generated to power your care? Probably by coal, gas or oil fired power stations!

Switch to hand held, durable and resilient tools.

Switch to growing your own food, 5% or 10% or 50%, NOW.

Switch to community resilience.  Get to know your neighbours.  Share your resources.  Share your journeys.

There is only one conversation we should be having and that is how to make our future livable for our kids, non-human species and the wider Earth-wide ecosystem.

Bees & Bumbles

I've always had a love of these hard-working buggers. It must come from my Grandad, he loved his honey bees! But with the recent well-documented problem of colony collapse syndrome, our focus should at least consider these little guys when planning on what plants we want in our gardens ie why not make them Bee-friendly :~) (http://www.generous.org.uk/actions/home/192/make-your-garden-bumblebee-friendly)

The out-laws visited recently and whilst here we went to Wakehurst, a Kew-managed garden in the Sussex countryside where the pictures you see on this blog were taken. We were fortunate enough to bump into a real bee-keeper who told us that 1 productive hive can produce over 60lbs of honey each season... SIXTY POUNDS! Another reason to bee-friend them (pun intended).

Consider also that most of the pollination that takes place to your fruit and vegetable is carried out by the industrious bee, without which, would mean we'd be out there cotton bud (q-tip to the Yanks) in hand cross pollinating all the plants ourselves!

And finally as that intellectual lightweight Einstein once said (although it is an unattributed quote) "If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man would have no more then 4 years left to live. No more bees, no more pollination, no more men!"

You get the picture.

Care of Earth

Embarrasing as it may be to admit this, I am more singularly focused on this permaculture principle more then any other. It should not consume me like it does, I should spread myself thinner making sure i am doing all I can about Care of People and ensuring a Fair Share too.

Problem is, fewer and fewer of us are caring for our Earth as evidenced by this recent article by George Monbiot.

"The names alone should cause anyone whose heart still beats to stop and look again. Blotched woodwax. Pashford pot beetle. Scarce black arches. Mallow skipper. Marsh dagger. Each is a locket in which hundreds of years of history and thousands of years of evolution have been packed. Here nature and culture intersect. All are species that have recently become extinct in England."

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/03/15/the-naming-of-things

The key point made in this article I would like to emphasise... if we, the pampered twenty percent, who, in large numbers, support environmental causes cannot prevent the extinction of 2 species per year in the UK alone, then what hope do we have for a bountiful, rich and diverse future?