If you often feel powerless or hopeless about climate change and social upheaval then this article is for you. With supply-chain interruptions, soaring energy costs, and climate change, we can find security through local and regional resilience. This boils down to abundant food, clean water, healthy ecosystems, and thriving communities. Permaculture provides the knowledge and skills to create security through local sustainability. Here’s what you need to know.
Global Supply Chain vs. Regional Networks
Geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan is the author of The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization. In this book he describes the convergence of trends in age-demographics, geography, global supply chain, and climate shifts. It spells out major disruptions in global supply chains due to political and economic instability. This heralds massive changes for all of us. This is not a doomsday prophecy but a clear sign of the impending trends and how we can adapt gracefully.
Consumer products like our computer, cell phone, and car have components that are created in countries all over the world. If we have political instability in regions where parts are sourced the assembly lines will stop. The same is true for our meals that come from food that is sourced from across the globe.
Disruptions in our food supply along with inflation and soaring energy costs can cause social upheaval. Having regional networks that are thriving will put us in a better position.
Globalism: A Blessing and a Curse
Globalism has many pros and cons. Communities that are far from population centers without much water or farmland but rich in mineral resources can still thrive. Thanks to shipping and global trade networks globalism allows people to live in inhospitable regions. However, this is energy intensive, requires dependency on a global supply chain, and is not sustainable in the long term.
Experts have known that the globalist system is unsustainable but we never quite imagined how to transition out of it. Global trade within an extraction economy allows people in one region to deplete resources in another region. They do this without barely noticing the environmental or social impacts in that place.
However, when we source things closer to home (regionalism) we will feel the impacts of unsustainable practices much sooner. When the impact is no longer in some far away place we are no longer disconnected from it. This will cause us to implement more regenerative and sustainable practices in our region. This is a much more sustainable model in the long run.
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a design philosophy and practice that seeks to create sustainable, self-sufficient systems. It does this by mimicking the patterns and relationships found in nature. The term combines “permanent” and “agriculture” or “culture,” reflecting its goal of establishing enduring food and natural resource systems.
At its core, permaculture emphasizes working with nature rather than against it. Permaculture focuses on solutions like companion planting, water conservation, soil health, and renewable energy. Permaculture systems aim to maximize productivity, minimize waste, and enhance biodiversity, creating ecosystems that are resilient and regenerative.
On a practical level, permaculture can be applied to a wide range of contexts. These principles can be applied to backyard gardens and urban landscapes as well as large-scale farms and communities. Permaculture practices include:
- Observing and collaborating with the environment
- Capturing and storing energy including water (rainfall), wind, and solar
- Rebuilding organic soil
- Using renewable resources
- Creatively adapting to change
Beyond agriculture, permaculture extends to social systems, promoting cooperation, resource sharing, and sustainable living practices. By integrating ecological design with human ingenuity, permaculture offers a road map for addressing modern challenges. We will resolve issues like climate change, food security, and habitat loss naturally when we apply permaculture principles..
Permaculture is the Solution
We are witnessing a shift from globalized/centralized systems to regional, local, and decentralized systems. Each region has its own strengths and weaknesses. This is based purely on the landscape, climate, availability of agricultural land, mineral resources, and access to water.
Permaculture is the science of maximizing efficiency, stacking functions, and utilizing natural resources in a regenerative way. This assists nature in doing her job more effectively. This provides abundance as well as a better quality of life for humans, the environment, and the animals.
Past Meets Future
We have been living in one of the most affluent and abundant times in human history. yet many of us grew up with stories from our grandparents who lived through the depression era. Back then people were more resilient. They grew food in their backyard, canned vegetables for winter months, hunted, and were generally frugal or less wasteful. Now we can integrate some of these past practices while maintaining the modern comforts we have become accustomed to.
What You Need to Know
Learning about permaculture practices will help you be more prepared. This is how we will ease our transition into the Post-Globalism Era. They will be highly valuable to their community. Getting ahead of the curve is empowering because it allows us to be part of the solution.
“The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone.” -Bill Mollison
Getting Ahead of the Curve
Andrew Millison is an instructor at Oregon State University. He is a permaculture visionary who has been preparing for this global transition for two decades. He is an agent for change who shares his wisdom through educational expressions of art, design, and multimedia storytelling. This information is valuable for the urban planning department, intentional communities, and people who strive to live more sustainably.
Check out Andrew’s Youtube Channel. You will enjoy his inspiring, informative, and often humorous videos. Each episode gives you a blueprint for how humanity will navigate the coming changes. It is a collection of success stories that are both entertaining and educational. If you have been feeling overwhelmed by terrifying climate predictions and apocalyptic nightmares, this resource is for you. For everyone else it is still worth checking out!
Apocalypse or Evolutionary Leap?
War, violence, and hunger are often the result of depleted resources, broken supply chains, failing political systems, and social upheaval. Permaculture is literally a safety net that can help us avert catastrophe. It can guide us in designing a more healthy, sustainable, and regenerative society for future generations.
When supply chains falter, everything from industry to food production will need to be sourced closer to home. The centralized, energy-intensive, unsustainable, corporate-dominated extraction economy is collapsing before our eyes. In its’ place will come efficient, resilient local and regional communities that thrive by utilizing regenerative permaculture practices and principles.
Join us for this exciting journey of global transformation. Learning more about permaculture principles will help you become a leader who can bring solutions to your community. This is how we ease the anxiety that many feel as we face the challenges of our day. Though the future is unknown now is the time to plant seeds for the future we would like to see.
