have a quick read of this too if this is the direction you are goingOriginally Posted by x-campbell
http://scienceforums.com/topic/20428...arming-debate/
have a quick read of this too if this is the direction you are going
http://scienceforums.com/topic/20428...arming-debate/
"You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. .Most people don't know that" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk
Music can solve all the world's problems. Not many people know that- MA 2005
"Politicians will never solve 'The Problem' because they don't realise that they are the problem" R Parsons 2001
On the Climate Change attitude front that ABC ratio national link is very interesting. This recent article postulates that a psychological study by Ezra M. Markowitz and Azim F. Shariff released in Nature magazine in March goes a long way to explaining why "climate change does not register, emotionally, as a wrong that demands to be righted". They then hypothesise that the reason a recent Rolling Stone story on the topic went viral was that the world finally has 'someone to blame'. Story with related links can be found here http://www.abc.net.au/environment/ar...06/3560286.htm
Other broad ideas:
The concept of pets as therapy is well accepted. Has anyone ever done a study on gardens as therapy? I wonder what types of health and wellbeing impacts would arise from having people in retirement villages able to garden/grow their own food versus say control group that increased exercise/time outdoors without the gardening/growing to look forward to?
Other than that, I was thinking the other day about the role permaculture could play in improving the psychological wellbeing of immigrants. In Sydney, an innercity refugee centre has started to offer all kinds of permaculture oriented courses (bee keeping, compost making) and one occasionally sees TV stories of community gardens where even newly-arrived immigrants with poor English are clearly blooming and connecting with their new neighbours.
On a more topical front, with the reopening of the island detention centres, I'd been wondering how and whether some of the leaders within the permaculture community could offer to help set up permaculture gardens within the centres. Could this in any way improve (at least somewhat, under the circumstances) the mental health outcomes for those who will be confined, knowing how severe the mental health implications of this detention is for them. Would permaculture gardens with some modicum of autonomy and something to look forward to change that in any way? .. food for thought.
I went a step further in a drunken type-off.
I suggested all refugees be trained in regenerative agriculture, sustainable building and living, with central support like nurseries, earthmoving, health and education etc. They are given plots with extensive Zone 5's, they sell surplus to Central support at market value. They get to live safely and with significant support doing the job that a lot of Australians don't want to do (repairing the land).
And then I woke up.
Keep Planting. Never Stop. Always Improve on What You Have Got.
Lesley W
Have a look at Horticultural Therapists Association in Australia and esp. in USA
Hello X-cambell "group for banned users"
I am especially interested in Michelangelica's response to your search for an appropriate thesis topic in the light of your connection to "group for banned users". I just found this site through Google searches, Permaculture + invasive plants. From the search results (and my own experience) I have found a sharp division between these two lines of thought--to the point even that "permaculturists" are likely to hold that all plants are native to the earth, so what is the issue? as against the "invasive plant" person's thesis that all introduced plants are invasive.
Discussion between the two groups has reached an impass, and more than once I have seen members banned from sites because they hold the wrong point of view.
At the same time, very much government money in the United States at least is being allocated to the fight against "invasive plants", but very little government money is being allocated to building sustainable ecosystems. I would wager in fact that most government people have no idea what a sustainable ecosystem is.
There is a psychological issue here in that one group has the capability of capturing government funds and public sympathy, while the other view (the one that members on this site share) gets little money and is a very hard concept to relate to public understanding.
Where is the common ground? Or, is it like an Escher drawing--you either see the figure or the ground, but not both?
Hi hazelnut - as one of the moderators I can assure you that we don't ban people simply because we don't agree with their philosophy about plants. I can't recall the reason in this particular case, but usually it is because of the posting of spam or because of repeated inappropriate behaviour.
You'll find us a very broadminded bunch.
Thank you eco4560. What is the point of having a discussion forum if there are not at least two points of view to discuss? So thank you for your response, but I take it this is a dead thread?
I like that ! my ancesters had to do a similar aprenticeship (ticket of leave) other wise you wont get folks to live out here!
Rumour has it that Michaelangelica has died
Id love to plant an acorn on him!
Hello Andrew Curr. It looks like I have found a bunch of Aussies here! I am in west-central Alabama USA so you can imagine my surprise. And then I woke up! regenerative agriculture, sustainable building and living, etc. in fact would be vary appropriate here also. Rural Alabama is one of the poverty regions of the USA, and as such it has been targeted for some economic types of regenerative practice. We are in the Alabama black belt-- the old sea floor full of oceanic minerals is what the soil is made of. 200 years ago settlers came in (many from Ireland), they built plantation homes of the type you may have seen in the movie
Gone With the Wind. There are still a few hundred of those around here--so that testifies to the sustainablity of that type of architecture. But they also grew cotton. Later after the civil war followed by the Depression they grew soybeans. Today there are fish farms -- catfish. But not much else. There are a few farms that still produce soybeans at a commercial level. But the area is about 70 % black and few blacks own farms.
I hope Michaelangelica is not dead. From the post above, I can she that he/she would be a great person to talk to.
What is Zone 5?
Yes, sorry to say that Michael did pass away a few weeks ago.
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