New to permaculture but loving the idea

[cassio]

Hello, there! I'm Cassio from Brazil, and I'd love to make some friends here.
After decades trying to figure out what on earth could possibly give some sense of meaning to one's life, eventually I came into contact with the permaculture thing, and soon it seemed very clear to me that this should be it! Now I'm just waiting till I've finished up this I'm doing now (which is rubbish, but since I started...) to take my steps and hopefully start to dedicate to permaculture full time as soon as possible.
But, anyway, while this is not possible, I would love to have the opportunity to exchange some thoughts with you, permaculture guys.
What I would like to hear from people in this forum is: what would you see as the prospects for the Earth and mankind, with or without permaculture becoming the predominant model of human activity? And what is the likelyhood of this happening, and what is being done and what is not being done but should be done in order to achieve this (permaculture becoming the predominant model).
I hope you don't find my talk boring...:blush:
Cheers!
Cassio

[ecodharmamark]

G'day Cassio

Welcome to the PRI Forum.

"...what would you see as the prospects for the Earth and mankind, with or without permaculture becoming the predominant model of human activity? And what is the likelyhood of this happening, and what is being done and what is not being done but should be done in order to achieve this..."

You may wish to explore Holmgren's Future Scenarios (http://www.futurescenarios.org/) in order to help you find an answer to this one.

Where in Brazil do you live? It's a very big country ;). I have studied extensively the built and political/social/cultural environment of Curitiba (http://www.forumforthefuture.org/greenfutures/articles/Interview_with_man_behind_Curitiba). Have you ever been there?

Cheerio, Markus.

[cassio]

Hello, Markus

Thank you so much for the tip (Holmgren's Future Scenarios), it's being really instructive, I'm loving the read. Exactly what I needed.
Never actually been to Curitiba. It's held as a model city in Brazil indeed. I myself am from Sao Paulo city, which I might describe as "simply unsustainable".

Cheers, and see you around!

Cassio.

[sun burn]

HI cassio. I think we chatted already about sugarcane. I will respond to that again on the sugarcane thread. But here i will respond to your questions.

Certainly i don't know anything for sure but I lean towards the pessimistic answer at least in the short term because I've seen a lot of human nature. But you never can tell what changes the world will make. There's nothing wrong with being hopeful or working towards a better future for the planet. But to be realistic i like to take the lesson out of steven coveys book the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He talks about an idea he calls the Circle of Influence. In short it means "be the change you want to see in the world" to repeat another famous line. So i just get on with doing what i can do and if one thing leads to another it does.