tomintaz.
31-01-2004, 08:41 PM
:D :D :D
I’m a designer....... & as a designer.. I come to you with a design in mind.
So.. as a designer.. I see the world as a design problem.. & what I’d like to do today.. is talk about some designs.. & talk about design as a signal human intention.***
Because, I think @ this point in our history.. we have to look back @ our designs & ask ourselves.. did we really intend to see the things in the way we see the world today & as we see the tragedies from an environmental perspective.. we can ask ourselves.. was that intentional***
Let me give you the first industrial revolution...& it’s effects from an environmentalists perspective.. & ask you.. if this was our design intention.
Would you design a system.. & wake up every morning to actively participate in it’s continuation where we measure our prosperity by how many natural resources we cut down.. dig up.. bury.. burn or otherwise destroy***
Measure progress by the number of smoke stacks.. & if your especially proud.. put your names on them,
measures productivity by how few people are working. Requires 1000’s of company regulations to stop you from killing yourself to quickly.. & destroys biological & cultural diversity @ every turn seeking a 1 size fits all solution.. & while your @ it produce a few things so highly toxic that it will require 1000’s of generations to maintain constant vigilance.. while living in fear.
Can you do this for me? ***
Was this the intention of the creators of the First Industrial Revolution.? ***
We have got to ask ourselves @ this point in our history when.. if EVER did we give the right to an individual.. corporation.. government or otherwise.. to strip our forests to it’s roots.. pollute our rivers.. or to destroy our children's rights.. when did we give the right for someone to release neotoxins into the environment.. when DID we do that..? ***
Our very LANGUAGE dispels this concept.. What do we say when someone is cheating a regulation or system without being punished.. WHAT DO WE SAY..? .. we say.. their getting away with murder.. that’s what we say..! ***
When disaster happens here in Australia or anywhere in the world for that matter e.g. famine.. oil spills.. terrorism etc..GDP goes up..WHY..?..because there’s so many people cleaning it up & repairing the mess recording it as *[activity]*
Is this how we measure prosperity..?
For every case of leukaemia OR cancer we create many jobs.
.. is this our job creation program? ***
So.. it’s no longer possible @ this point in our cultural history..for us to watch these tragedies year after year [ whether it be the increasing storms.. droughts.. bushfires. by the way are NOT coincidence.. & will continue to happen with haunting regularity world-wide.. Just look @ all the extreme weather we’re having.. especially on the East coast.] & say..it’s not part of our plan.. because apparently it IS.. it’s part of our defacto plan.. this approach & reasoning makes no sense whatsoever..These things are happening & will continue to happen because we HAVE no plan.! ***
So perhaps it’s time to develop a new design programme.. because each time we learn.. as Brazil & other countries have pointed out.. that when you see a tragedy & allow it to perpetuate.. then you participate in the tragedy itself. ***
In offering no resistance we ourselves become strategically tragic.. & I think any organisation world-wide that recognises THAT.. again is strategically tragic. We all must recognise it’s time for a strategy change.. This is a very humble moment. ***
Unfortunately the words TWAT & NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT don’t go in the same paragraph. But if anyone has trouble with this concept.. reflect on this.. it took us 5000 yrs to put wheels on our luggage..
How smart are humans..... really. ***
So.. what we’re looking @ is that humans have created two VERY distinct overarching moral syndromes that permeate our society: the commercial syndrome.. which arose from trading cultures.. & the governing.. or GUARDIAN.. syndrome.. which arose from territorial cultures. The guardian system is conservative & hierarchical.. adheres to tradition.. values loyalty.. & shuns trading & innovation.
The COMMERCIAL system.. on the other hand.. is based on trading and can function well only when it is open.. trusting of outsiders.. innovative.. positive.. and forward thinking. We must understand that.. ideally.. society should separate those two functions as completely as possible. Trouble ensues when the two systems become confused about their roles & each takes on the functions of the other..for it's then that the positive attributes of one system become the vices of the other.
When the guardian syndrome intrudes.. with its hierarchical.. bureaucratic methodology.. into the realm of commerce.. it flounders because it is no match for business in quickness & creativity. That's what we saw in Eastern Europe. What's also true.. but not so obvious in the West.. is that when business plays government.. governance fails as well.. which is what we're seeing in the United States..Japan & other countries.
Business & unions HAVE to get out of government.. We need more than campaign reform.. we need a vision that allows business to see that citizenship is mocked and democracy is left gagging and twitching on Canberra’s steps. The irony is that business thinks it is doing the right thing in its efforts to control the legislative agenda. We must get past this..it’s pernicious..it still perpetuates the system.. does it change the story.. NO.. the story is still.. Good-bye Australia. The reality is that business is preventing the economy from evolving.
Democracy has been effectively eliminated in Australia by the influence of money.. lawyers.. & a political system that is the outgrowth of the first two.. There can be no healthy Ecology sector unless there is a healthy governing sector.!!
It should be self-actuating as opposed to regulated or mandated, honouring human nature and market principles. There are those who sincerely believe that the rate @ which we are losing life on earth calls for the imposition of laws that protect the environment at the expense of individual freedom. Granting them their argument.. which in effect puts aside certain human liberties for a greater good.. the premise is flawed when you look @ it from a design point of view. Although government has a critical role to play.. its role must coincide with the natural impulses of society. Human beings want to flourish and prosper.. to live in security and better themselves. If a system of conservation is misunderstood or blocks or interferes with those aspirations.. it will ultimately be rejected.***
It should exceed sustainability by restoring degraded habitats & ecosystems to their fullest biological capacity. In other words.. we have to work with what we have.. hoping for deep.. historic changes but not relying on them.***
Furthermore.. we have probably passed the point where our planet's resources can be relied on to support the number of people expected to live on it within the next 40 years. Thus.. any viable economic program must turn back the resource clock & reverse degradation by actively restoring damaged & deteriorating ecosystems. This restoration is far more compelling than the algebra of sustainability because we create rather than merely measure.***
It should be creative & engaging.. & be perceived as more rewarding than our present way of life. It will come about in the minutiae of daily acts willingly engaged in by billions of eager participants. Redesigning our world has to uphold ideas.. visions.. & goals that people WANT to achieve.. In other words.. we have to uphold the image of a future world we will live in that is intriguing.. non threatening to the vast majority.. & wonderfully inviting because people can participate in.. enjoy.. & create it.***
The Q’s: we want to be asking are.. “how do we love all of the children.. of all the species.. for all time.. not just our children.. not just our species.. & not just now..”***
Furthermore we should be asking.. what creations would nature WANT to see us do.. with all it’s millions of yrs worth of R&D perhaps there’s some serious messages here.. if we could use nature as a model & as a mentor what would the principles of nature be..?***
In 1838 Emerson went to Harvard to give a lecture titled *Nature* & his Q: was... “if human beings are natural are therefore all things made by humans part of nature.?”.. & his conclusion was this..
If nature is all the things that are immutable.. what he called unchangeable essences.. the things too big for humans to effect.. like the oceans.. the sky.. the mountains & the leaves.. [& here we are today 160 odd yrs later recognising we can effect the mountains the sky.. the oceans & the leaves].. we have to ask ourselves.. was his conclusion correct..?***
But now today our discussions have evolved.. into the rights of ecosystems to exist.. & so we realise now our concepts of nature have expanded & our concepts of the rights of nature perhaps.. have expanded.. in which case we need to understand what is nature..?
& the whole concept of AWAY has gone away.. Remember when you used to be able to throw things away..? where’s away.. AWAY has gone away.
Well.. to me this means we need a new design.. a design to meet up with this new consciousness because as *Einstein pointed out “the significant problems we face.. cannot be solved @ the same level of thinking we were @..when we created them”...& so the things that were created with the consciousness of AWAY cannot be put through multiple life cycles of which they were never designed.. & perhaps so we need a new design based on that new understanding.. & if that is the case what principle would we want to operate under..?
Well.. what has happened now.. from the environmental perspective.. looking @ it from the business & government side is that everyone now is trying to be less BAD.. But is being less bad.. being good.?.. or is IT being bad.. but less so.
So from a environmental perspective.. is being less bad.. being good.? It’s interesting to note as a english professor @ Stanford University did.. in english language class he said.. “it’s ironic that a double negative is a positive.. where as in Russian.. a double negative is a reinforced negative.. it’s also interesting that in NO language is a double positive a negative.”
&.. by learning from great scientists.. like Einstein we can believe he also may of been a poet.. let me put it this way.. if E=mc2.. was created as a small poem imagine that “E” = the sun & it’s energy.. & “M” = the earth & it’s mass.. the sun is physics.. the earth is chemistry.. we put the two together & + “C squared”...what do you get .. BIOLOGY.. the one thing Einstein DIDN’T deal with.. Life itself.!!
You see.. the first photosynthetic cell.. learns to divide.. learns how to have sex.. the next thing you know.. creatures with self consciousness.. explain that science.
& GROWTH is good.. Isn’t it interesting that when the sun shines on the earth’s mass & converts it’s mass to energy.. & physics into biology that LIFE itself is.. embedded in these molecules.. growth is good.. a tree that grows is good.. a child that grows is good & yet debate today between commerce & environment is..GROWTH.. NO GROWTH.. Business is saying that growth is the engine of Commerce.. Environmentalists are saying we have to stop growth.. it’s destroying the world.. & so the arguement is really [spacious].. because the Q: is NOT growth.. no growth.. The Q: is WHAT do you want to grow..
Health or sickness.. Intelligence or stupidity.. Prosperity or poverty..? YOU choose.. & if we apply natures laws growth IS good. What we accept then.. is that we need some new criteria.
SO IF WE CAN CONSTRUCT TOGETHER A STRATEGY OF CHANGE SET ON A LIST OF SIMPLE & BASIC PRINCIPLES.. THEN PERHAPS WE COULD HAVE A STRATEGY OF HOPE TO OFFER OUR CHILDREN..
What we realise then..is that being more efficient while being LESS bad @ what we are doing today.. won’t save us..because being less bad is NOT being good.. Rather.. imagine it like your going north to Darwin.. your 100kms out of Darwin when really.. your supposed to be going to Hobart.. it’s not going to help you to slow down to 20.. your going the wrong way.!!
Perhaps we need new direction..
So maybe it’s time for a new story.. for it’s not about efficency.. natures not efficient.. when we look @ any tree blossom we say “oh my “GOD”.. how many flowers does it take.. you see nature is not efficient.. it’s effective & very very excessive..it celebrates en masse & in abundance.. but all that abundance goes back into the soil.. it’s the resource & it cycles it back & back & back..it’s cradle to cradle.. not cradle to grave.***
So our design protocol needs to change from less is more.. to MORE is MORE.. & from form.. follows function & function follows evolution.. perhaps form follows celebration.. What if we celebrated abundance of the natural world.. instead of it’s limits.. What if we celebrated the abundance of human creativity & the imagination.. rather than bemoaning it’s limits...What if we transformed our very policies of business & design..?***
The Q: then.. is not..“Am I doing the wrong thing right”...because these tragedies are still in the making...the Q: is “WHAT is the right thing to do”.. That’s the FIRST question..!!!!
So the Q: is not.. “am I efficient & doing this right” .. That’s a managers job.. the Q: is..“am I doing the right thing”.. That’s a chief executives job..!!***
What I’d like to do now.. is present to you what I’m going to put into place.. here in Tasmania over the coming months & years.. but before I do.. I invite Anyone & Everyone who would like to join me in my QUEST to consider this a very open invitation.**
SIMPLY.. my main strategy will be to provide the many millions of various & differing native tree seedlings.. Australia wide for any worthwhile NRM initiative or project. Be it national agendas.. regional programs.. local groups or investors.. We will provide & consult all local & National Govts. on what’s best for Australia.. state by state.. regarding problems like salinity problems.. bushfire regeneration & innovative.. proactive reforestation.. we will actively partake in all major forest management practices across ALL states & implement beneficial strategies for farmers..investors & community groups such as Landcare.. Bushcare & Coastcare.. to name a few.***
On top of that were aiming to be the Australia’s largest professional Forestry & NRM training institute.. training & educating our students in ALL Forestry & NRM techniques.. teaching exactly.. what NRM actually is.. providing certification within all courses on all forestry & nursery & NRM practices.***
We will communicate an effective message to the people of Australia & public authorities.. promote community awareness & provide information & educational material.. & we will provide an ecologically sustainable permaculture model to be envied.
In all our activities.. Peak Reforestation expresses a veiw based on absolute truth & a critical analysis of all available research & current scientific information. Our professional teams will provide solutions globally to the energy.. life sciences.. agriculture & forestry industries.. making an important contribution to this innovative agenda in partnership alongside other players in the innovation system.***
@ “P.R’s” core will be the visitor centre & administration... establishing groundbreaking Y.H.A. style accommodation.. on site for travellers.. offering P/T.. seasonal & permanent work placements. P.R will capture the hearts & souls of everyone who visits or works it.***
Imagine if you can.. a Forestry themed mini-disneyland built with everything eco.. everything. Constructed with recycled materials.. straw bales.. stucco mud.. log poles & glass tiles.. it will promote solar.. wind & water power & SHOWCASE effortless energy efficiency.. highlighting sustainable environmental responsibility.. with real examples everywhere you look.. that people can touch.. view.. interact with & learn about.***
It will support impressive computer hardware & software alongside essential internet access.. for communication & information sharing between ALL parties & individuals involved.. for any & all ongoing project purposes or just for casual chill-out.. mingling.. socialising.. you know with map room.. massive country kitchen facilities.. wildlife & parks info.. message boards.. educational talks.. videos.. activities & more. Inviting schools.. tourists & business to observe the operations within.***
What we expect to deliver in this project is a design that is both healthy & innovative. All of our workers will work in natural daylight with 100% fresh air delivered to their breathing zone under their own control.. We’ll do this with normal budgets creating in the process Australia’s most energy efficient building. It won’t be hard to do...***
In fact quite the opposite.. the buildings that exist are one’s that are dark.. have flouresent lights.. poorly spaced & offer a minimum of fresh air.. but we’ll use less energy & we’ll produce a life support system for people who work.. instead of work support system for people that don’t have a life..***
It will purify rainwater.. be powered by the earth.. heated by the sun & we’ll be developing seedling tray products with a 100% biodegradable material *[Banana Paper].. with our friends in QLD that can go back to the earth.. into cycles of recycling for ever... in short.. it will produce more energy than it will need to operate.. like a tree.***
It will be a museum.. a museum that explores the natural world & people who are influenced by it & have influences on it.. & the Q: will be.. “what are those influences & what are our intentions”...
& so our hope is.. That our culture will understand that it’s time for change & for us to celebrate this sacred thing that we have as humans.. That makes us singular as a species of which IS our intention & our hope.. That 1 day we will allow our children’s.. children’s.. children’s.. children to celebrate life & liberty in the pursuit of happiness.. free from the remote tyranny that might be US & bad business & design.***
Let me just define what I stand for..The whole concept of a sustaining world will require us to honour the needs of commerce [to be profitable].. the needs of society [to be fair].. & the need for our natural systems to be maintained in a very healthy state...***
From a social perspective I think it’s reasonable to say that we SHOULD eliminate racism.. sexism & other forms of inequality.. I think that’s a fundamental need for our human culture.
From the ecological perspective.. which ranges between extreme socialism & extreme capitalism.. We NOW need to add extreme ecologism to the table as well..The Q: is “how do we bring all 3 into a balance that’s propitious for all”.***
Seemingly @ first people are a little sceptical.. but when they see this is long term ambition is not a 2 yr project most views change.. Look.. what we’re talking about is immensely profitable.. enjoyable apart from essential.. so this issue of disconnecting profitability with environmental intelligence is something that’s GOT to end.. We’ve got to make sure we have enough examples in place & on the ground for people to understand that you CAN do ecological intelligent things WELL.. while being very cost effective.***
Being the Founder of *Peak* one of my strategies is to build permaculture systems with our profits.. in otherwise barren land within 3rd world countries in dramatic ways.. with local citizen help.. because providing these countries with natural resources SHOULD be a priority.. hopefully they’ll take us on with messages of positive feedback from back here in Australia as examples.***
We have people in Jordan right now doing just that.. they’re providing straw bale housing for the homeless in Iraq.. they’re encouraging the citizens of these middle eastern countries with ongoing programs of practical permaculture techniques... Geoff & Nadia alongside many others have been doing this for many yrs now..The results are outstanding.. & as we look @ the developing world we realise this unique opportunity for quick & intelligent leap frogging technologies is NOW possible.. & as we look @ the Guardians role.. we realise that we can transform from the fierce regulator into fierce bench markers.***
For example.. if outside countries see us do it here successfully.. they will see that they can do it there to.. We want to encourage these countries to build these frameworks.. structures & communities.. We are not focused on the regulatory side instead.. we’re focused on the design & self sufficiency side..The cultures around the world should come together & discuss their own ambitions.. around their own issues.***
What we’re trying to do is to show proactively that these examples exist & that way.. when ANY country wants to carve out a regulatory structure.. it doesn’t appear as pie in the sky.. or something that’s simply not possible.. because the dangers in a regulatory situation are.. when you try to aquire something that’s not ecological.. economical or scientifically possible is DISASTROUS.***
So the idea that the Guardian becomes the bench marker in finding the best practices around the world.. will help teach & educate ALL mankind.. for it’s in hindsight.. it’s probably going to be the most cost effective way of doing it..***
How sophisticated are we anyway?.. I mean how many humans can go into a paddock & with their left hand scrape away a little dirt & with their right hand put something in the ground that makes oxygen.. sequesters carbon.. fixes nitrogen.. distils water.. provides habitat for hundreds of species.. builds soil.. changes colour with the seasons.. uses solar energy.. creates fuel.. complex sugars & food.. creates micro climates & self replicates..thats the assignment of the museum we want to promote.***
Ironically.. @ the same time our culture has figured out how to watch holes of ozone over antarctica.. to watch the flows of thermal currents in our oceans.. to watch a hurricane be made & then dissipate & our scientists seem to have forgotten the thing that our culture has know for millenia..we seem to have put our peoples through some kind of fog & oil mist amnesia.. so I think it’s kind of exciting to see that the world IS slowly embracing a strategy of change something that we ALL see not just as inevitable.. but a delightful prospect in the interim which is burgeoning daily.***
An architect & environmental visionary William McDonough was asked..“what was the thing that saddens him the most”.. He replied..
“That would have to be either an environmentalist or business person typically looking @ a child being born in say.. India...& points their finger @ that child & says we have a population problem.. because the minute we don’t love every single child born.. human rights don’t seem to exist.. & so for an environmentalist to say we’re running out of natural resources.. & for business people to say we need those resources.. so we can maintain our quality of life & so on..
We forgo this fundamental deep connection to our own species.. I think is a terrifying prospect.. & I think once we come to grips with that idea.. that loving our children.. is actually.. the opposite to war”.***
Finally.. on a sombre note.. I happen to know the same guy.. William McDonough met with the king of Jordan some time ago.. & while walking with a sheikh through a town that had been flattened by tanks.. He spotted part of a childs skeleton & started to cry @ which point the sheikh looked over & said..“I see.. you don’t know what war is do you”.. “I guess not”.. Bill said.. the sheikh replied. “War is when we kill our children”.
The goals & strategies outlined in the body of this piece cannot be achieved unless we engage in a creative process that pays close attention to the needs of all people. Despite the attention & involvement that environmentalism has drawn.. most people do not feel they are meaningfully involved in the designing & construction of economic & environmental solutions to everyday problems. The only design process that can succeed is one based on unconditional respect for everyone. To achieve broad-based participation in a system of commerce designed to sustain the environment.. the ABOVE objectives should be kept in mind.
???
I’m a designer....... & as a designer.. I come to you with a design in mind.
So.. as a designer.. I see the world as a design problem.. & what I’d like to do today.. is talk about some designs.. & talk about design as a signal human intention.***
Because, I think @ this point in our history.. we have to look back @ our designs & ask ourselves.. did we really intend to see the things in the way we see the world today & as we see the tragedies from an environmental perspective.. we can ask ourselves.. was that intentional***
Let me give you the first industrial revolution...& it’s effects from an environmentalists perspective.. & ask you.. if this was our design intention.
Would you design a system.. & wake up every morning to actively participate in it’s continuation where we measure our prosperity by how many natural resources we cut down.. dig up.. bury.. burn or otherwise destroy***
Measure progress by the number of smoke stacks.. & if your especially proud.. put your names on them,
measures productivity by how few people are working. Requires 1000’s of company regulations to stop you from killing yourself to quickly.. & destroys biological & cultural diversity @ every turn seeking a 1 size fits all solution.. & while your @ it produce a few things so highly toxic that it will require 1000’s of generations to maintain constant vigilance.. while living in fear.
Can you do this for me? ***
Was this the intention of the creators of the First Industrial Revolution.? ***
We have got to ask ourselves @ this point in our history when.. if EVER did we give the right to an individual.. corporation.. government or otherwise.. to strip our forests to it’s roots.. pollute our rivers.. or to destroy our children's rights.. when did we give the right for someone to release neotoxins into the environment.. when DID we do that..? ***
Our very LANGUAGE dispels this concept.. What do we say when someone is cheating a regulation or system without being punished.. WHAT DO WE SAY..? .. we say.. their getting away with murder.. that’s what we say..! ***
When disaster happens here in Australia or anywhere in the world for that matter e.g. famine.. oil spills.. terrorism etc..GDP goes up..WHY..?..because there’s so many people cleaning it up & repairing the mess recording it as *[activity]*
Is this how we measure prosperity..?
For every case of leukaemia OR cancer we create many jobs.
.. is this our job creation program? ***
So.. it’s no longer possible @ this point in our cultural history..for us to watch these tragedies year after year [ whether it be the increasing storms.. droughts.. bushfires. by the way are NOT coincidence.. & will continue to happen with haunting regularity world-wide.. Just look @ all the extreme weather we’re having.. especially on the East coast.] & say..it’s not part of our plan.. because apparently it IS.. it’s part of our defacto plan.. this approach & reasoning makes no sense whatsoever..These things are happening & will continue to happen because we HAVE no plan.! ***
So perhaps it’s time to develop a new design programme.. because each time we learn.. as Brazil & other countries have pointed out.. that when you see a tragedy & allow it to perpetuate.. then you participate in the tragedy itself. ***
In offering no resistance we ourselves become strategically tragic.. & I think any organisation world-wide that recognises THAT.. again is strategically tragic. We all must recognise it’s time for a strategy change.. This is a very humble moment. ***
Unfortunately the words TWAT & NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT don’t go in the same paragraph. But if anyone has trouble with this concept.. reflect on this.. it took us 5000 yrs to put wheels on our luggage..
How smart are humans..... really. ***
So.. what we’re looking @ is that humans have created two VERY distinct overarching moral syndromes that permeate our society: the commercial syndrome.. which arose from trading cultures.. & the governing.. or GUARDIAN.. syndrome.. which arose from territorial cultures. The guardian system is conservative & hierarchical.. adheres to tradition.. values loyalty.. & shuns trading & innovation.
The COMMERCIAL system.. on the other hand.. is based on trading and can function well only when it is open.. trusting of outsiders.. innovative.. positive.. and forward thinking. We must understand that.. ideally.. society should separate those two functions as completely as possible. Trouble ensues when the two systems become confused about their roles & each takes on the functions of the other..for it's then that the positive attributes of one system become the vices of the other.
When the guardian syndrome intrudes.. with its hierarchical.. bureaucratic methodology.. into the realm of commerce.. it flounders because it is no match for business in quickness & creativity. That's what we saw in Eastern Europe. What's also true.. but not so obvious in the West.. is that when business plays government.. governance fails as well.. which is what we're seeing in the United States..Japan & other countries.
Business & unions HAVE to get out of government.. We need more than campaign reform.. we need a vision that allows business to see that citizenship is mocked and democracy is left gagging and twitching on Canberra’s steps. The irony is that business thinks it is doing the right thing in its efforts to control the legislative agenda. We must get past this..it’s pernicious..it still perpetuates the system.. does it change the story.. NO.. the story is still.. Good-bye Australia. The reality is that business is preventing the economy from evolving.
Democracy has been effectively eliminated in Australia by the influence of money.. lawyers.. & a political system that is the outgrowth of the first two.. There can be no healthy Ecology sector unless there is a healthy governing sector.!!
It should be self-actuating as opposed to regulated or mandated, honouring human nature and market principles. There are those who sincerely believe that the rate @ which we are losing life on earth calls for the imposition of laws that protect the environment at the expense of individual freedom. Granting them their argument.. which in effect puts aside certain human liberties for a greater good.. the premise is flawed when you look @ it from a design point of view. Although government has a critical role to play.. its role must coincide with the natural impulses of society. Human beings want to flourish and prosper.. to live in security and better themselves. If a system of conservation is misunderstood or blocks or interferes with those aspirations.. it will ultimately be rejected.***
It should exceed sustainability by restoring degraded habitats & ecosystems to their fullest biological capacity. In other words.. we have to work with what we have.. hoping for deep.. historic changes but not relying on them.***
Furthermore.. we have probably passed the point where our planet's resources can be relied on to support the number of people expected to live on it within the next 40 years. Thus.. any viable economic program must turn back the resource clock & reverse degradation by actively restoring damaged & deteriorating ecosystems. This restoration is far more compelling than the algebra of sustainability because we create rather than merely measure.***
It should be creative & engaging.. & be perceived as more rewarding than our present way of life. It will come about in the minutiae of daily acts willingly engaged in by billions of eager participants. Redesigning our world has to uphold ideas.. visions.. & goals that people WANT to achieve.. In other words.. we have to uphold the image of a future world we will live in that is intriguing.. non threatening to the vast majority.. & wonderfully inviting because people can participate in.. enjoy.. & create it.***
The Q’s: we want to be asking are.. “how do we love all of the children.. of all the species.. for all time.. not just our children.. not just our species.. & not just now..”***
Furthermore we should be asking.. what creations would nature WANT to see us do.. with all it’s millions of yrs worth of R&D perhaps there’s some serious messages here.. if we could use nature as a model & as a mentor what would the principles of nature be..?***
In 1838 Emerson went to Harvard to give a lecture titled *Nature* & his Q: was... “if human beings are natural are therefore all things made by humans part of nature.?”.. & his conclusion was this..
If nature is all the things that are immutable.. what he called unchangeable essences.. the things too big for humans to effect.. like the oceans.. the sky.. the mountains & the leaves.. [& here we are today 160 odd yrs later recognising we can effect the mountains the sky.. the oceans & the leaves].. we have to ask ourselves.. was his conclusion correct..?***
But now today our discussions have evolved.. into the rights of ecosystems to exist.. & so we realise now our concepts of nature have expanded & our concepts of the rights of nature perhaps.. have expanded.. in which case we need to understand what is nature..?
& the whole concept of AWAY has gone away.. Remember when you used to be able to throw things away..? where’s away.. AWAY has gone away.
Well.. to me this means we need a new design.. a design to meet up with this new consciousness because as *Einstein pointed out “the significant problems we face.. cannot be solved @ the same level of thinking we were @..when we created them”...& so the things that were created with the consciousness of AWAY cannot be put through multiple life cycles of which they were never designed.. & perhaps so we need a new design based on that new understanding.. & if that is the case what principle would we want to operate under..?
Well.. what has happened now.. from the environmental perspective.. looking @ it from the business & government side is that everyone now is trying to be less BAD.. But is being less bad.. being good.?.. or is IT being bad.. but less so.
So from a environmental perspective.. is being less bad.. being good.? It’s interesting to note as a english professor @ Stanford University did.. in english language class he said.. “it’s ironic that a double negative is a positive.. where as in Russian.. a double negative is a reinforced negative.. it’s also interesting that in NO language is a double positive a negative.”
&.. by learning from great scientists.. like Einstein we can believe he also may of been a poet.. let me put it this way.. if E=mc2.. was created as a small poem imagine that “E” = the sun & it’s energy.. & “M” = the earth & it’s mass.. the sun is physics.. the earth is chemistry.. we put the two together & + “C squared”...what do you get .. BIOLOGY.. the one thing Einstein DIDN’T deal with.. Life itself.!!
You see.. the first photosynthetic cell.. learns to divide.. learns how to have sex.. the next thing you know.. creatures with self consciousness.. explain that science.
& GROWTH is good.. Isn’t it interesting that when the sun shines on the earth’s mass & converts it’s mass to energy.. & physics into biology that LIFE itself is.. embedded in these molecules.. growth is good.. a tree that grows is good.. a child that grows is good & yet debate today between commerce & environment is..GROWTH.. NO GROWTH.. Business is saying that growth is the engine of Commerce.. Environmentalists are saying we have to stop growth.. it’s destroying the world.. & so the arguement is really [spacious].. because the Q: is NOT growth.. no growth.. The Q: is WHAT do you want to grow..
Health or sickness.. Intelligence or stupidity.. Prosperity or poverty..? YOU choose.. & if we apply natures laws growth IS good. What we accept then.. is that we need some new criteria.
SO IF WE CAN CONSTRUCT TOGETHER A STRATEGY OF CHANGE SET ON A LIST OF SIMPLE & BASIC PRINCIPLES.. THEN PERHAPS WE COULD HAVE A STRATEGY OF HOPE TO OFFER OUR CHILDREN..
What we realise then..is that being more efficient while being LESS bad @ what we are doing today.. won’t save us..because being less bad is NOT being good.. Rather.. imagine it like your going north to Darwin.. your 100kms out of Darwin when really.. your supposed to be going to Hobart.. it’s not going to help you to slow down to 20.. your going the wrong way.!!
Perhaps we need new direction..
So maybe it’s time for a new story.. for it’s not about efficency.. natures not efficient.. when we look @ any tree blossom we say “oh my “GOD”.. how many flowers does it take.. you see nature is not efficient.. it’s effective & very very excessive..it celebrates en masse & in abundance.. but all that abundance goes back into the soil.. it’s the resource & it cycles it back & back & back..it’s cradle to cradle.. not cradle to grave.***
So our design protocol needs to change from less is more.. to MORE is MORE.. & from form.. follows function & function follows evolution.. perhaps form follows celebration.. What if we celebrated abundance of the natural world.. instead of it’s limits.. What if we celebrated the abundance of human creativity & the imagination.. rather than bemoaning it’s limits...What if we transformed our very policies of business & design..?***
The Q: then.. is not..“Am I doing the wrong thing right”...because these tragedies are still in the making...the Q: is “WHAT is the right thing to do”.. That’s the FIRST question..!!!!
So the Q: is not.. “am I efficient & doing this right” .. That’s a managers job.. the Q: is..“am I doing the right thing”.. That’s a chief executives job..!!***
What I’d like to do now.. is present to you what I’m going to put into place.. here in Tasmania over the coming months & years.. but before I do.. I invite Anyone & Everyone who would like to join me in my QUEST to consider this a very open invitation.**
SIMPLY.. my main strategy will be to provide the many millions of various & differing native tree seedlings.. Australia wide for any worthwhile NRM initiative or project. Be it national agendas.. regional programs.. local groups or investors.. We will provide & consult all local & National Govts. on what’s best for Australia.. state by state.. regarding problems like salinity problems.. bushfire regeneration & innovative.. proactive reforestation.. we will actively partake in all major forest management practices across ALL states & implement beneficial strategies for farmers..investors & community groups such as Landcare.. Bushcare & Coastcare.. to name a few.***
On top of that were aiming to be the Australia’s largest professional Forestry & NRM training institute.. training & educating our students in ALL Forestry & NRM techniques.. teaching exactly.. what NRM actually is.. providing certification within all courses on all forestry & nursery & NRM practices.***
We will communicate an effective message to the people of Australia & public authorities.. promote community awareness & provide information & educational material.. & we will provide an ecologically sustainable permaculture model to be envied.
In all our activities.. Peak Reforestation expresses a veiw based on absolute truth & a critical analysis of all available research & current scientific information. Our professional teams will provide solutions globally to the energy.. life sciences.. agriculture & forestry industries.. making an important contribution to this innovative agenda in partnership alongside other players in the innovation system.***
@ “P.R’s” core will be the visitor centre & administration... establishing groundbreaking Y.H.A. style accommodation.. on site for travellers.. offering P/T.. seasonal & permanent work placements. P.R will capture the hearts & souls of everyone who visits or works it.***
Imagine if you can.. a Forestry themed mini-disneyland built with everything eco.. everything. Constructed with recycled materials.. straw bales.. stucco mud.. log poles & glass tiles.. it will promote solar.. wind & water power & SHOWCASE effortless energy efficiency.. highlighting sustainable environmental responsibility.. with real examples everywhere you look.. that people can touch.. view.. interact with & learn about.***
It will support impressive computer hardware & software alongside essential internet access.. for communication & information sharing between ALL parties & individuals involved.. for any & all ongoing project purposes or just for casual chill-out.. mingling.. socialising.. you know with map room.. massive country kitchen facilities.. wildlife & parks info.. message boards.. educational talks.. videos.. activities & more. Inviting schools.. tourists & business to observe the operations within.***
What we expect to deliver in this project is a design that is both healthy & innovative. All of our workers will work in natural daylight with 100% fresh air delivered to their breathing zone under their own control.. We’ll do this with normal budgets creating in the process Australia’s most energy efficient building. It won’t be hard to do...***
In fact quite the opposite.. the buildings that exist are one’s that are dark.. have flouresent lights.. poorly spaced & offer a minimum of fresh air.. but we’ll use less energy & we’ll produce a life support system for people who work.. instead of work support system for people that don’t have a life..***
It will purify rainwater.. be powered by the earth.. heated by the sun & we’ll be developing seedling tray products with a 100% biodegradable material *[Banana Paper].. with our friends in QLD that can go back to the earth.. into cycles of recycling for ever... in short.. it will produce more energy than it will need to operate.. like a tree.***
It will be a museum.. a museum that explores the natural world & people who are influenced by it & have influences on it.. & the Q: will be.. “what are those influences & what are our intentions”...
& so our hope is.. That our culture will understand that it’s time for change & for us to celebrate this sacred thing that we have as humans.. That makes us singular as a species of which IS our intention & our hope.. That 1 day we will allow our children’s.. children’s.. children’s.. children to celebrate life & liberty in the pursuit of happiness.. free from the remote tyranny that might be US & bad business & design.***
Let me just define what I stand for..The whole concept of a sustaining world will require us to honour the needs of commerce [to be profitable].. the needs of society [to be fair].. & the need for our natural systems to be maintained in a very healthy state...***
From a social perspective I think it’s reasonable to say that we SHOULD eliminate racism.. sexism & other forms of inequality.. I think that’s a fundamental need for our human culture.
From the ecological perspective.. which ranges between extreme socialism & extreme capitalism.. We NOW need to add extreme ecologism to the table as well..The Q: is “how do we bring all 3 into a balance that’s propitious for all”.***
Seemingly @ first people are a little sceptical.. but when they see this is long term ambition is not a 2 yr project most views change.. Look.. what we’re talking about is immensely profitable.. enjoyable apart from essential.. so this issue of disconnecting profitability with environmental intelligence is something that’s GOT to end.. We’ve got to make sure we have enough examples in place & on the ground for people to understand that you CAN do ecological intelligent things WELL.. while being very cost effective.***
Being the Founder of *Peak* one of my strategies is to build permaculture systems with our profits.. in otherwise barren land within 3rd world countries in dramatic ways.. with local citizen help.. because providing these countries with natural resources SHOULD be a priority.. hopefully they’ll take us on with messages of positive feedback from back here in Australia as examples.***
We have people in Jordan right now doing just that.. they’re providing straw bale housing for the homeless in Iraq.. they’re encouraging the citizens of these middle eastern countries with ongoing programs of practical permaculture techniques... Geoff & Nadia alongside many others have been doing this for many yrs now..The results are outstanding.. & as we look @ the developing world we realise this unique opportunity for quick & intelligent leap frogging technologies is NOW possible.. & as we look @ the Guardians role.. we realise that we can transform from the fierce regulator into fierce bench markers.***
For example.. if outside countries see us do it here successfully.. they will see that they can do it there to.. We want to encourage these countries to build these frameworks.. structures & communities.. We are not focused on the regulatory side instead.. we’re focused on the design & self sufficiency side..The cultures around the world should come together & discuss their own ambitions.. around their own issues.***
What we’re trying to do is to show proactively that these examples exist & that way.. when ANY country wants to carve out a regulatory structure.. it doesn’t appear as pie in the sky.. or something that’s simply not possible.. because the dangers in a regulatory situation are.. when you try to aquire something that’s not ecological.. economical or scientifically possible is DISASTROUS.***
So the idea that the Guardian becomes the bench marker in finding the best practices around the world.. will help teach & educate ALL mankind.. for it’s in hindsight.. it’s probably going to be the most cost effective way of doing it..***
How sophisticated are we anyway?.. I mean how many humans can go into a paddock & with their left hand scrape away a little dirt & with their right hand put something in the ground that makes oxygen.. sequesters carbon.. fixes nitrogen.. distils water.. provides habitat for hundreds of species.. builds soil.. changes colour with the seasons.. uses solar energy.. creates fuel.. complex sugars & food.. creates micro climates & self replicates..thats the assignment of the museum we want to promote.***
Ironically.. @ the same time our culture has figured out how to watch holes of ozone over antarctica.. to watch the flows of thermal currents in our oceans.. to watch a hurricane be made & then dissipate & our scientists seem to have forgotten the thing that our culture has know for millenia..we seem to have put our peoples through some kind of fog & oil mist amnesia.. so I think it’s kind of exciting to see that the world IS slowly embracing a strategy of change something that we ALL see not just as inevitable.. but a delightful prospect in the interim which is burgeoning daily.***
An architect & environmental visionary William McDonough was asked..“what was the thing that saddens him the most”.. He replied..
“That would have to be either an environmentalist or business person typically looking @ a child being born in say.. India...& points their finger @ that child & says we have a population problem.. because the minute we don’t love every single child born.. human rights don’t seem to exist.. & so for an environmentalist to say we’re running out of natural resources.. & for business people to say we need those resources.. so we can maintain our quality of life & so on..
We forgo this fundamental deep connection to our own species.. I think is a terrifying prospect.. & I think once we come to grips with that idea.. that loving our children.. is actually.. the opposite to war”.***
Finally.. on a sombre note.. I happen to know the same guy.. William McDonough met with the king of Jordan some time ago.. & while walking with a sheikh through a town that had been flattened by tanks.. He spotted part of a childs skeleton & started to cry @ which point the sheikh looked over & said..“I see.. you don’t know what war is do you”.. “I guess not”.. Bill said.. the sheikh replied. “War is when we kill our children”.
The goals & strategies outlined in the body of this piece cannot be achieved unless we engage in a creative process that pays close attention to the needs of all people. Despite the attention & involvement that environmentalism has drawn.. most people do not feel they are meaningfully involved in the designing & construction of economic & environmental solutions to everyday problems. The only design process that can succeed is one based on unconditional respect for everyone. To achieve broad-based participation in a system of commerce designed to sustain the environment.. the ABOVE objectives should be kept in mind.
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