Introductory Webinar Session

Re-designing our lives as if caring for the planet,

and people, mattered.

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©Bill Wilson – Midwest Permaculture (.com)
Re-designing our lives as if caring for the planet
and people mattered…
“What permaculturists are doing is
the most important activity that any
group is doing on the planet.

We don’t know what the details of a

truly sustainable future are going to
be like, but we need options.

We need people experimenting in all Geneticist

kinds of ways and permaculturists Renowned Broadcaster
are one of the critical groups that are Author of more than 30 books,
doing that.” Host of the Canadian TV series
“The Nature of Things”
Dr. David Suzuki Weekly Syndicated Columnist

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Definition:

Permaculture (permanent – culture)

is a creative and artful way of living, where people
and nature are all preserved and enhanced by:
• thoughtful planning,
• the careful use of resources,
• and a respectful approach to life.

Thus embraced, these attributes create an

environment where all may thrive for
untold generations.

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Within a Permaculture designed system:
• wastes become resources
• productivity and yields increase
• work is minimized
• and the environment is restored.
History and logic demonstrate:

To have a ‘permanent-culture’
you must have a ‘permanent-agriculture’.

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Fulltime farming in U.S.
requires a minimum of
640 acres.
(1-Square Mile)

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Humus content of native
prairie soils? 10-13%
Humus content necessary to
sustain soil life? 3%
Humus content of
commercially farmed soils?

And What of Carbon Cycles?

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Where is the most carbon (CO2) being absorbed?

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Number 1 export in U.S.? (in truck or ship loads) 9
 The Muddy Mississippi

Barge moving corn and soybeans down the river. 10

Humus = Sponge
Was 13% …now it’s 1%

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March 20, 2006 The Cornell University Chronicle

About 2 inches of soil blew away from cropland in Kansas

during the winter of 1995-96. That's the equivalent of 263 tons
of topsoil per acre. (6 semi-truck loads / acre) 15
“Collapse” by Jared Diamond

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“Against the Grain” by Richard Manning

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Farm Drain Tile

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The 4-Headed Dragon on Industrial Agriculture
1. Soil Depletion and Loss
2. Alteration of Hydrological Cycles – Desertification
3. Contributing to CO2 + Little Carbon Sequestration
4. Pollution of Streams and Aquifers (nitrogen & …cides)

A Fifth Crisis Looming…

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 Over a third of all the oil and gas consumed in
the U.S. is used for food production
(from seed to plate).

The food on the average American plate traveled

over 1500 miles to get there.

It takes

10 cal. of oil
To produce

1 cal. of food

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August 2005

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“Estimates for total recoverable oil on our
planet are about 2 trillion barrels.
On a cumulative basis, we have
pumped out 1 trillion.”

Mother Jones?
Rolling Stone?
Utne Reader?

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 Financial Planning Magazine (Oct. 2005)

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 Example of Peak Oil
 Oil drillers struck a geyser of black gold at
Spindletop, Texas in 1901.

 After yielding 153 million barrels of oil,

Spindletop is mostly a museum site today.

 The average well in Texas today produces 9

barrels of oil a day. (Was ~25 at peak production)

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Gb/a = Billion barrels of oil annually – Globally

1957 – Dr. M. King Hubbert - Geologist

“The U.S. will hit ‘peak oil’ in 1970”

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How Much Oil is There Anyway…

How Much is 2 trillion barrels

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How Much Oil is There Anyway…

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How Much Oil is There Anyway…

 6 Quadrillion gal.= 6 + fifteen 0’s

6,000,000,000,000,000

 Divide that by 42 (gal/barrel)

= 143,000,000,000,000
= 143 trillion barrels of water in the
great lakes.

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 How Much Oil is There Anyway…

 2 Trillion
barrels is the
equivalent to
1.4% of the
volume of the
great lakes.

 Less than the

size of Green
Bay.

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Why Does It Matter – How it Affects Me…

Powerful Oil – ‘Black Gold’

 1 80,000 lb. truck = 45,000 lbs. of freight
 1 truck x 1 gallon of fuel = 5 miles average
(up a shallow grade)
 1 person with 1 garden cart = 250
lbs/load/trip
 1 person could manage 20 miles/day or
two loads/day (5 miles there, 5 miles back and
repeat)

 Conclusion: to move 45,000 lbs., 5

miles up a shallow grade, 250 lbs.
at a time = 90 days of work (3 full
months, no days off)
(Note: 5 months if you add the weight of the truck.)

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 Coal - Oil - Natural Gas - even Uranium

They’re all Highly Concentrated

Forms of Energy

And They are all Finite Resources

They all have a peak – a limit.

They are all ‘priceless’ in their own right.

And how do we use these valuable resources?

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Have cheap and abundant fossil fuels have acted upon
society like an addictive drug?
If so, the supply is running low and withdrawal is certain.

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CO2 Levels & Global Warming

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Consumption over last 100 Years
WE have used up about:
 Half the topsoil
 Half the oil

 Half the rainforests

 Third of all natural gas

 Third of all coal

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 Goal of Permaculture Design
Reverses the CONSUMPTION model
into a CREATION model.
 Build the topsoil
 Produce the energy we consume
 Re-Grow the rainforests (and others)
 Create sustainable communities and cities
 Possibly Retard/Reverse global warming
 Improve everyone's standard of living
(quality of life)
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How?
And From What…?
Where will energy come from?
Hydrogen - Nuclear?
Bio-diesel – Ethanol?
‘Free Energy Devise’?
Alien Technology?
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Where will the energy come from?

Well…
Where do oil,
natural gas
and coal
come from?

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Ancient
Sunlight 45 45
Consider This:
The amount of sunlight that intersects the earth
in 24 hours, is more energy than all the
conventional oil that has been…
or ever will be…
extracted.

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 The total global annual consumption of energy
(400 quads) is roughly the equivalent
to 40 minutes of sunlight:
Spider silk is 5 times stronger than steel and made
from digested crickets……..at room temperature…!

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 1978

Bill Mollison David Holmgren

“The systems by which we live

today are simply,
non-sustainable.”
Bill Mollison 48
 Permaculture Ethic
1. Care of Earth (life)
2. Care of People (everywhere)
3. Share all Surplus (no waste or pollution)

Permaculture is really about relationship,

our relationship as humans to the world around us. 

The Question Is…

Will (do) we work with the natural abundance
and flows of our world and universe…
…or will (do) we ignore these? 

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 Massive
Energy Inputs

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10 calories of oil = 1 calorie of food
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Chicken Tractor

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Mark & Jen Shepard’s farm 14 years ago when purchased.
How a Swale Holds Water on the Landscape

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Mark & Jen Shepard’s farm 14 years ago when purchased.
Permaculture Model
• Holds water on the landscape
• Builds topsoil, fertility and humus
• No herbicides, pesticides or artificial
fertilizers
• Yields increase for 30 years then
continue to produce for generations. 59
Hazelnuts & Chestnuts

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Henry Brockman
Eureka, IL

Successful organic vegetable

farmer on 10 acres.
15 Years.

“It’s About Relationship”

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Kris & Marty Travis
Spence Farm, Fairbury, IL

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 Harvest an
average of
$25,000 worth of:
-Lambsquarter
-Ramps
(wild leeks)
-Wildflower Seed
-Red Amaranth
(pigweed)
…each year.
All growing wild
on their farm.

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Rickard Farm – Ohio
Rotational grazing doubled grass
production and restored health to soil.
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 Jon Haeme’s Strawbale Home

Consumes 90% less energy

(from the grid or LP gas)
compared to the average
American home
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 The Haeme’s Strawbale Home

The walls are almost two feet thick

and have a rounded feel to them.
The home is incredibly energy-
efficient with its south-facing
windows that let in light and heat
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in the winter.
Harvesting rain
water in
our new
Rain Gardens
Bill and Becky Wilson
Home of
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Midwest Permaculture
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Save Perspective as Previous Picture – Year 1 68
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Planted on this berm:
Gooseberry, Currants, Raspberry, Strawberry, Onion, Green Beans,
White Clover and Comfrey.

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How many gallons of water come off of a
2,000 sq.ft. home during a 1” (inch) rain?
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 We will water the garden
even if it doesn’t need it,
emptying the tank, before a
rain. Why?
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Feb. 18th
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 Permaculture Greenhouses
that grow food 365 days/year on renewable energy.

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Producing the vegetables we eat 52 weeks a year.
• Lettuce
• Broccoli
• Tomatoes
• Sweet Peas
• Onion
• Green Beans
• Zucchini
• Cucumber
• Potatoes
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Etc… 90
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 Bio-intensive Farming and Gardening Methods
Yielding up to 10x’s the food of industrial agriculture

John Jeavons

“How To Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought

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Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine”
Lead Instructor of our PDC Courses - Wayne Weiseman
Authorized by Bill Mollison and the Permaculture Institute of Australia to
teach the Design Certification Course (PDC) and grant PDC Certification.
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 Wayne
Weiseman’s
Dayempur
Community
Farm

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Wayne Weiseman in Kano, Nigeria, Feb.2007

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 - Permaculture Design Seeks to -
Provide for Our Current Needs

Bring Decency and Dignity to all People

Assure Abundance for Future Generations

Repair the Damage to our Planet

Reverse/Retard Global Warming

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The Good News Is: Nature will work with us.
What services are
these trees providing?
•Harvesting sunlight &
CO2
•Replenishing the
atmosphere with H2O
and Oxygen
•Holding water on the
Landscape
•Building soil
•Creating habitat for
many other life forms
•Moderating heat and
cold
•Cooperating with other
species
•Self-replicating
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•More…
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The
Question Is:
Will we work
with nature?

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Permaculture is about Relationship
 Sun & Soil
 Water & Air

 Plants & Animals

 Ourselves and Others

We can create abundance for all.

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 “For what is the use of a home,
if you haven’t got a tolerable planet

to put it on?” H.D. Thoreau

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“Let ours be a time remembered for,
~ the awakening of a new
reverence for life,
~ the firm resolve to achieve
sustainability,
~ the quickening of the struggle
for justice and peace,
~ and the joyful celebration of life.”
U.N. Earth Charter

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 ‘…a new reverence
for life…’

Care of People
---
Care of Planet
---
The dream of the heart…
It time for us to step forward from
adolescents to adulthood.

George Washington Carver 106

Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

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Each of us can be a part of a change that is possible… Bill Wilson – ©MidwestPermaculture.com
 Permaculture Resources
Recommended
Introductory Books

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 Permaculture Resources
Recommended
Design Course Text

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Permaculture Resources

Mollison’s Original Text – 550pgs.

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 Midwest Permaculture Trainings
8-Day Design Certification Courses
4-Day Suburban/Urban Training Intensives
1-Day or Half-Day Introductory Trainings
Webinars… WalkAbouts… Books…. More…

Midwest Permaculture
125 Crescent Lane
Stelle, Illinois
815-256-2215
www.MidwestPermaculture.com

The information and slides in this presentation are copyrighted by Midwest Permaculture.
Permission to use is granted to all of our students, registered and graduated.
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