Extinction anxiety

I have seen a few people saying that Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion are creating unnecessary anxiety.

People seem to think the idea of human extinction is extreme and unlikely.

I agree. We probably wont go extinct this century. Probably. But we will very likely experience a major population check.

People my age remember the Ethiopian famine of the 1980s. 7.9 million people faced the possibility of starvation, and there were over 600,000 deaths in 1984 alone.  One country.  One year.  And while the food production systems in Europe, America, Australia and Asia were still highly functional. A 7% death rate.  Can we limit the whole world to a 7% death rate from starvation per year? If all our food systems start to suffer, where will aid come from?

Multiple factors caused these problems, and climate change is going to increase all of those factors.

I want to discuss just two things, where I have a little experience and knowledge. I am not an expert, but I do have some experience and knowledge, and I know where to look to find out information from experts.

Those two things are honey bees, and fruit trees.

Honey bees, as we all know, are important pollinators of many of our crops. Flowering plants and pollinating insects and animals evolved together. There are plenty of pollinating insects, but the European honey bee is by far the most useful as far as our food crops go, mostly because of the intensive ways we grow those crops.
Bees maintain a very careful 32 degree (Celsius) temperature in the brood chamber of their hive. They do this by using vibrations to heat the hive in cool weather, and by evaporative cooling in warm weather.You know how, when the weather gets near to 36 degrees (human body temperature) you have already she layers of clothing, and probably had a few cool drinks, maybe you sit in the airconditoned comfort of your home, or in the shade, or maybe you go for a swim?  And you don't wait until it gets that warm to do these things: you start doing them maybe 10 degrees cooler than human body temperature.  Well, so do honey bees.
The foraging bees in a hive STOP foraging as it gets hotter, and only collect water.  An old beekeeper who was one of my mentors told of a year where he observed them collecting water all day long, and then foraging for nectar and pollen under the full moon.
Now, some of you will see where this idea is heading, but maybe some of you are thinking to yourselves "so we'll have less honey.  SO what?"
If pollinating insects, such as bees, are not foraging, they are not pollinating. Simple.  Obvious. I am not sure what temperature ALL foraging stops, but it is somewhere in the mid to high 30s.  If the planet warms up, there will be more days in that range, and above. No pollination, very little fruit, and very little seed for vegetables.

But the reduction in foraging insects might not matter.In order for many types of fruit trees to ripen their buds properly, and to avoid delayed or poor flowering and foliation, they have a "chill requirement." I would love to list all the fruit trees that need a chill period, and how long, but there are so many.  Apples, pears, peaches, cherries, olives, figs, nuts, lychees. . .  (A TROPICAL plant, Lychees need 100 to 200 hours of winter chill.) and more.
Most of the areas we have these kinds of trees growing will have enough chill for a while to come. . . but not every year.  Here in Melbourne, we have already had years where orchards closer to the city have had reduced yields, so that the more uncommon varieties of apples, that some of these orchards focus on, were unavailable.
Now, as it currently stands, and with predicted temperature increases, we will probably still have these fruits for 50 to 100 years, and maybe more, but availability will become erratic.  Also, for many of them, work has been done on producing "low chill" varieties.  There is a "tropical apple" available (Anna) that has a chill requirement of less than 100 hours.  It has a passable flavour, but may be inferior to most non-tropical apples, and certainly inferior to other normal tropical fruits.

Reduction in chill hours isn't the only problem though.  As temperatures increase in late spring and summer, leaves and fruit will get sunburned, bark on younger trees may get sunburned, flowers and developing fruits may drop, stomata on leaves will close up, potentially stunting growth, and the obvious worst case scenario: trees may die.
And of course, droughts, floods, hailstorms, cyclones/hurricanes, heatwaves, polar vortices, and other "extreme" weather phenomena will become more common, and all of those can have adverse affects on ALL our crops.  Australian banana supply has been affected multiple times recently by cyclones.  Apples are knocked from trees, or rendered inedible by large hailstones. Floods and droughts (and even late spring rains) affect grain crops. Heat reduces grass growth, drought stops it altogether, so hay making and feeding of animals will be affected.

What percentage of our current yields can we afford to lose?  If the whole world experiences drops in yields, who gets the food? (Rich people??)

The anxiety Greta is accused is creating, and the possibility of extinction referenced by Extinction rebellion.  Very, very real futures.
WE. NEED. ACTION. NOW.

Pastured chickens. Are they really that great?

Pastured chickens.  Are they really that great?

There are many farming systems in the world, aimed at putting chicken and eggs on people's plates.  The most abhorrent chicken keeping system, battery cages, is not usually used for meat birds: this system is usually reserved for egg production (and the quality of that egg???).
Most commercial meat birds are grown in a barn, or a series of barns, with artificial feed, and very little access to outside.  More and more egg farms are run this way now as well.
As Permaculturalists, we should be trying to allow chickens to fully express their chicken-ness.
"Free range" is almost getting there.  These birds are kept outside, or allowed access (or the possibility of access) to actual ground to scratch, even if, in the worst cases, that ground is compacted bare dirt.  Popular with consumers, this might be considered to be a marketing tool as much as an actual farm practice.
At the moment, I believe the pastured hens to be the best (current) practice for commercially raised chickens and eggs.  Some excellent examples of these are of course Ben Falloons Taranaki farm, and Joel Salatin's Pollyface farm.  In these systems, the chickens are part of a multi animal system, where they follow after cows in a rotational grazing system which improves the soil for very few external inputs.
What are pastured chickens eating? Grass.  Insects found in a grass ecosystem.  Seeds (largely from grass, but also from weeds).  Supplemental feed.  Joel Salatin reminds us, these are productive chickens.  If he wants to make a sufficient income to keep the birds, they need to produce a large number of eggs, so supplemental feeding is essential.

Geoff Lawton has a system with confined chickens ( http://www.geofflawton.com/fe/64322-chicken-tractor-on-steroids ) based on another system he visited with "free to leave" chickens ( http://www.geofflawton.com/fe/59960-feed-chickens-without-grain ) which both rely on the chickens being fed on food scraps, clean garden waste, crop remnants, and so on, which they turn over, peck over, break down, and add manure to, making excellent compost.  These birds may have a more diverse diet than pastured birds, but their food (albeit wastes from other systems: a good Permaculture use) has to be brought in, and it is predominantly fruit and vegetable matter (which is fine for chickens: they are omnivores) which means they are missing out on the seeds, and the small animals they would be getting in large(r) numbers on pasture or range.





Good systems as far as many Permaculture principles go: each animal is muli-functional (producing eggs, manuring the pasture, eating bugs etc.) There is virtually no waste as compared to a barn system, where the manure needs to be cleaned out and taken away.  It works with nature by not attempting to restrict the chickens' self expression.  BUT. . .

The domestic hen, gallus domesticus is descended from (or considered a subspecies of) gallus gallus.
The common name for g.g. is Jungle Fowl (Red Jungle Fowl or Grey Jungle Fowl, two closely related birds).  Yes, Jungle Fowl. JUNGLE fowl.  Now: take a quick look at a jungle, and tell me how much pasture you see.  What you WILL see in a jungle, that you won't see in pasture, is a vast array of plants, including fruiting plants and leafy green plants and possibly some grasses.  You will see leaf litter, sometimes feet deep, on the jungle floor.  Among that leaf litter there will be a greater diversity of insects than you will find in pasture.  Plus gastropods and annelids.  Plus small reptiles and rodents.  Chickens are omnivores.  oh BOY are they omnivores. The most offended I have ever seen a cat look, she was playing with a mouse, in that way that cats do: catch, release, catch, release. . .until, on one release, the mouse made a run for it, right between the legs of a chicken.  Whereupon, the chicken pecked at the mouse once, and swallowed it whole.  You may have heard that "goats will eat anything". . . they have got NOTHING on a chicken.

So, are pastured eggs that great?  I think they are better than ANYTHING currently available commercially.  I think their diet is diverse, and their lives are probably low stress and they get to express their "chicken-ness"
BUT I think "Jungle eggs" would provide the pinnacle of egg quality, and chicken quality of life.  Bring on the chicken integrated food forests!

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

This is a BIG care of people one.  Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.  It isn't in and of itself a particularly Permacultural topic, but for the fact that a) Permaculture tends to have very low "synthetic chemical" inputs, b) Care of People includes doing what we can to reduce harm and c) I only met my wife through a Permaculture event, and she only became interested in Permaculture due to her MCS.

What is "Multiple Chemical Sensitivity?  Well, the name pretty much covers it.  I wrote a similar post to this as an answer to someone else's blog probably almost 12 years ago.  His contention was that MCS doesn't exist, because people are saying they are sensitive to chemicals, and "everything is made up of chemicals."  And to prove his point, he included an image of the Periodic Table of the Elements.  I found that idea interesting, because, although everything, everywhere that we know of, is made up of the chemicals in the Periodic Table, there are virtually NONE that I would be willing to consume in a pure form.  Some of the inert metals are safe enough, but things like oxygen, which is essential to life, is quite dangerous to life if you are ONLY breathing pure oxygen.
So, because each person has many potential triggers, I think the name is close enough.  It has other names: Environmental Illness, Total Allergy, 20th century Sickness. . . 
But I will stick with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) for this post, because it will do.

What are the symptoms?  Well. . . The body is reacting to toxins, so many of the initial symptoms are similar to those of intoxication: slurred speech, loss of co-ordination, inability to concentrate, aggressiveness, mood swings: all the sorts of things you would expect to see from a drunk person.
And it goes further: the inability to remove these toxins from the body, or repeated exposure can lead to temporary loss of muscle function, unconsciousness, organ failure, brain damage: all things you see in long term alcohol abuse, and long term exposure to industrial chemicals.

What causes it? Truly, no-one knows.  There are theories about toxic load, various viruses, compromised gut walls, compromised blood/brain barriers. . . it could be all of these things, or it could just be normal human variation.  The actual incitants, the things that cause reactions, can be almost anything (which is why the name holds) but they are most likely to be things that are toxic.  If it says on the label "Not to be taken" or "Poison" or "Use in a well ventilated area" or "Deliberate misuse by concentrating and inhaling may be harmful or fatal", there is a very good chance that it will cause a reaction in most MCS sufferers.  Unsurprising really, because these things ARE poisons!  The main difference being, in these instances, that at level at which most people wouldn't even be aware of these chemicals in their environment, MCSers are already likely to be reacting.
But it doesn't stop there.  Anything that is conventionally considered a possible allergen might also be a problem. 
And some things for which you will never see the packet that has any of the warnings above: the fire retardant in your carpet, the formaldehyde in you r new clothes, the lingering residue of the termite extermination from 10 years ago.  Even some gases from untreated timbers, the perfume of some flowers (the perfumes "we" wear are often greatly concentrated from the original flower: perfumes are a MASSIVE trigger for MCS.)

So. . . all those things have the potential to be dangerous to all of us.  What makes a sufferer of MCS any different?  Well, it could be the things mentioned at the start of the paragraph "What causes it?" but as I stated there, it could also be normal human variation. 
Normally, when I get stung by a bee, I get a little lump, similar to what I normally get from a mosquito bite.  Recently, I got a few more than my normal number of stings, and ended up in hospital being treated for anaphylaxis.  Why?  as it the increased dose?  Was it the placement of the stings?  Was it the interaction of the venom with something else already in my system?  I don't know.  But I do know, normal human variation has some people not react to bee stings at all, and some who are always anaphylactic.
Do you know someone who suffers from hay fever?  I do.  I also know lots of people who DON'T have any hay fever symptoms.  They are exposed to the same potential incitants, but have completely different reactions.
Reacting to a bee sting makes sense: a toxin, intended to cause great pain in order to dissuade people, bears, monkeys, badgers, mice. .  . anything and anyone, from attacking a hive, and stealing their hard won honey.  The venom is supposed to be poisonous, and pain is supposed to be a result.  Reacting to pollen makes less sense.  Pollen is not evolved to cause discomfort, there is no evolutionary advantage to a plant it it makes a passing mammal uncomfortable.  Plants that don't cope well with being eaten produce spikes, or irritating hairs, or foul flavours, or poisons that prevent them being ingested by educable creatures.  So pollen allergy makes no evolutionary sense from the point of view of the plant, or the person.
So, reacting to "things that are ..."Not to be taken" or "Poison" or "Use in a well ventilated area" or "Deliberate misuse by concentrating and inhaling may be harmful or fatal"" also makes sense.  We want these things out of our systems, therefore, our system lets us know they are bad.
Oh, and as I said, most of these things are toxic.  They are designed to be deadly to some life form, whether it is parasites or weeds or fungus.  A small dose might do most people no harm.  Being bitten by a rattlesnake, or a cobra WILL do most people some harm, even though a bee sting might not.  But you know what?  Bee venom, and rattlesnake and cobra venom are chemically very similar.

"Alternatives to political systems." (comments on chapter 14, a Designers Manual.)

"The world needs a new, non-polarised, and non-contentious politic; one not made possible by those in situations which promote a left-right, black-white, capitalist-communist, believer-infidel thinking.  Such systems are, like it or not, promoting antagonism and destroying cooperation and interdependence. Confrontational thinking, operating through political or power systems, has destroyed cultural, intellectual and material resources that could have been used, in a life centered ethic, for earth repair." Bill Mollison, Permaculture: A Designers Manual 1988 (1999 reprint.)
Chapter 14 is one of the most neglected chapters of the designers manual.  There are a lot of Permaculture groups and clubs and societies and...and...and...  There are also a few well designed Permaculture village communities.  I have never lived in one of these communities, so I cannot comment on how they have been designed, or how they are run.  Anyone should feel free to comment on any experiences they have in those places.
At the Permaculture Melbourne (http://www.permaculturemelbourne.org.au/) AGM it has been mentioned a few times that the group is not being run sustainably. Office bearers and volunteer workers are not getting the support they need, or are just simply getting burnt out.  It has been suggested that ALL people on Trunk (the management committee) should become fully cognisant of chapter 14.
This has apparently not happened so far, as the minor changes in management style we have had are just barely moving in the direction of a chapter 14 style system.
We don't have party politics, we don't have an oppositional dichotomy.  We are still holding decision making meetings (usually only the AGM) to make decisions on office bearers, and occasionally on matters of policy.
Would troikas make it any better?  Maybe.  We often have trouble finding people to fill positions of responsibility, because the work load is perceived as large.  If we had an accounting troika, and a secretary troika (we have moved slightly toward this, by splitting up some parts of thee jobs.)  these jobs should be more manageable: we have enough trouble electing the six needed by our constitution, so that is not likely.
Local groups are managed differently.  Trunk takes care of insurance and details required to remain an incorporated body, so local groups don't need to do that.  Our local group (http://www.sesuburbspermaculture.org.au) doesn't elect office bearers.  We have a treasurer and a convenor with the recent addition of a website designer/manager.  All these people have volunteered for these positions, and that has been enough.  My understanding of chapter 14 is that this is how troikas should be organised: people with relevant skills volunteer.  We still have the problem that it is always the same people volunteering, and that communication seems to not happen very well.  Our current convenor has asked over the last 12 months for someone else to step into the role.
We also have a bit of an issue with the convenor being seen as the dictator/organiser.  We ask for input from others, we ask for other people to organise things, and it just doesn't happen.  What else can we do?  How can we organise so that the workload is shared?  So that people aren't taking on too much and getting burnt out?  So that peoples ideas and opinions are seen/heard and valued?
I have to read chapter 14 again.  And again.  And take some good quality notes.  I hardly remember much of it being discussed in my Design Certificate Course. Stay tuned.  I'll see what I can come up with.  After all, the problem is the solution...

Education beef. (no, not cows...except in the sense of "don't have a...")

O.K., so the title of my 'blog is supposed to refer to Permaculture ethics, but today, I am looking at education, an important aspect of "Care of People."
I could look at all sorts of issues here: schools saying they have a "student lead curriculum," students being (often wrongly) drugged to modify their behaviour, schools which emphasise that they use "individualised learning programs"...
Beef 1. All students are individuals. (that covers all the three things mentioned above. I may expand later.)
Beef 2. Performing monkeys and language education.
I am a language teacher. I speak a little German, Indonesian and Chinese. I have a university degree that includes a minor (although mot recognised as such by the university, they only recognise majors) in Linguistics. So, why would I not be anooyed with a principal who wants to keep my daughter back in Prep on the basis of her language skills? (He thinks she can't read.)
Point one: Bilingual children (although that is a little bit of a stretch) often develop certain language skills behind monolingual children, but take the final step more suddenly: for example, a bilingual child will often start speaking later, but is more liklely to START with complete sentences then individual words.
Liora CAN read. She is impatient, and would rather guess a word than slow down and work it out. But I can read her a German picture story book, and she can tell me in English the basics of the story.
The problem we have with the school, is that Liora is shy. She will "perform" on things she knows she can do well, but will flatly refuse to do something she is scared of (climbing a ladder for example), lacks confidence in (reading for example) has not done outside of home before (saying names of hebrew letters for example) or doesn't want to do (using pencils when there are markers available....)
SO!! Performing children, who will confidently read for their teacher, but do not have any of the multitude other skills that Liora has, WILL be advanced to grade one. Shy students will be kept back.
The VELS states "The first challenge for children at school is to socialise and connect with teachers and other students, and such engagement – behavioural, emotional and cognitive – remains critical to success throughout schooling. "
(http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/interpersonal/stages.html accessed 17/12/2010)  I have italicised that last part, because THAT seems to get to the nub of the matter here.  Liora is already shy, and takes time to form new friendship attachments, specially in a large group, like a class.  Holding her back is likely to set her back in terms of this "first challenge" which may prove detrimental to her sucess "throughout schooling."
Liora is being partially homeschooled (hence the plethora of language oportunities to which she is exposed) and was sent to school, after discussions with the principal to determine his willingness to accept a partial enrolment, and with the emphasis that we are doing this PRIMARILY for her social development.
The system needs rebuilduing from the ground up if it can't cater for all students with individual differences as small as these.  Sure, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  But if you've blown a head gasket, a new paint job (such as introducing a "new" national curriculum) won't make a jot of difference.

Bees in a permaculture system

thinking...
Having written three (or is it four) articles on beekeeping for PIE, how can I explicitly talk about bees in a Permaculture system.
Obviously there are the two main sets of Principles we talk about.
If I combine David Holmgrens "Obtain a yield," his "Catch and store energy" and the 'Introduction to Permaculture,' (and generally quoted) "each element performs many functions" (and we could throw in Davids "Value biological resources" for good measure) we can immediately see how bees stack up well.
The two main material yields from a bee hive are both used as forms of energy: honey as food energy for people and bees, and wax as combustion energy for lighting. (hence the name of the book 'Sweetness and Light.')
The many functions of a beehive in a P/c system: honey production, pollen collection, wax production, propolis production, guard services, pollination, duck food...
and if I can work out how to make use of it, airconditioning...
Add in David's "Use small and slow solutions" as well, because even someone with no backyard can sometimes find somewhere for a beehive: the smallest livestock.
Looking at the situation in reverse (kind of) people who don't keep bees can help out by increasing the plant biodiversity in their systems, and permaculture designs tend to encourage such biodiversity. In fact, anyone who has a vegetable gardfen should consider planting useful nectar and pollen species for the lean times, to encourage the health and strength of any local beehives. A potentialy useful resource in the quest for bee-helping biodiversity is something like 'Honey Flora of VIctoria' published by the dept of agriculture, Victoria (my copy, from 1973 has a cover price of two dollars...)
Permaculture Melbourne members, please disregard this blog entry, as I will rewrite it more cohesively for the next (but one) edition of PIE.

Permaculture in Spring.

Much as I hate the emphasis on gardening when people talk about Permaculture, it is an important aspect, and in spring, that is certainly where the focus moves.
Had BRILLIANT flowering on our semi espaliered apricots, and they now have quite an abundance of baby fruit on them.
Our main nectarine and peach trees burst their leaf buds about a week apart.  Last year, they were both affected by curly leaf, which I treated reasonably successfully with three sprays about a week apart of Nettle and Horsetail tea (Urtica doica and equisetum arvense, not too sure on the spelling of the binomials.)  This year, the nectarine got curly leaf and the peach didn't.  I put this down to the fact that it rained during the week the nectarine opened its leaves, and not during the following week when the peach burst.  Happy to hear any other theories.
The apricot graft on the nectarine, and the plum graft on the nectarine are both healthy.  They are obviously not as vulnerable to curly leaf as the peach part of the stone fruit family.
Both of them have been attacked by little black aphids, but we have a marvelous population of lady bugs.  We photographed the entire life cycle of lady bugs on the stone fruit last year: little yellow eggs, tiny greyish black hatchlings, black, spiky, orange dotty striped juveniles, speckled pupa, and of course the beautiful adults.
We have started picking tomatoes.  I don't know if this is due to incredible skill on my part, or just a mild winter and bird netting.  Our broad beans are just about finished.  The girls must have eaten kilos each over the season, and probably a similar amount of the broad bean leaves.
Our old chicken (over six years old, possibly over seven) has been laying roughly one egg every two days for a few weeks now.  She is a Jungle fowl, presumably the ancestor breed to modern chicken varieties.  I would challenge anyone with a modern commercial hybrid to have them still laying at that rate (even if only for two or three months) at that age.  Certainly she never laid the 300 eggs per year some of the cross breeds can, but she has kept going for longer, and has been a much loved part of the family. (Her and her adopted son, and her two sons that he fathered and their adopted brother, and her grandson and granddaughter...) None of them ended up in the pot, although Liora, at the time about four years old, came up to me with "Fish" in her arms, gently patting him and said "I think this one is going to be a rooster.  We should kill him and put him on the stove and eat him." Fish's sister, Broccoli is still with us, giving us an egg a day at the moment. 
Liora, now six, said recently,  "I can't wait until we have room for more chooks, so we can kill some to eat."  Bloodthirsty child.