Some time ago J.M. Korhonen put an open letter to nature organisations and those moving around in nature up to his website. The question was: “Where would you direct the resuscitation money? The obvious answer is of course: Permaculture education. But since the board got the question it was decided during a board meeting to write about how Permaculture could help during crisis times and afterwards form a personal point of view.
Find 3 paragraphs below:
Maria Maier
In a pandemic world, things are intense and accelerated. We are all living daily a rollercoaster of emotions, questioning non-stop our decisions and motivations, and it feels that there’s a strong light over the design system of our modern society that makes us all, in different levels, rethink everything. Can we even talk about opportunities when we are still crying our losses? Can we start talking about a post-corona world, considering we don’t even know if we are in the beginning, middle, or end of it? How about other pandemics that might come after? It is not time to brag, but Permaculture has many answers! And we knew it. If it was not corona, it would have been climate, or political, or economical crisis (which are all still in course). We have been talking about these problems and designing (and applying) models of life in society that are sustainable, in a permanent way, for all living beings on this planet. There are solutions in a small, medium and large scales. But more than ever, I feel that this unique time that we are living requires a deeper look into our zone 0, or even more deep, into our own selves. It is time for People Care, for self-care, to be the transformation we want to see in the world. It begins inside of us.
Dominik Jais
Permaculture is an ideal tool to design for resilience. And resilience is what is need. Two of Permaculture’s principles that go very well hand in hand with resilience, and they are also those that I currently like most: “multiple elements for important functions” (each important function is supported by multiple elements) and stacking (each element performs many functions). Those two already allow a broad design that goes from patterns to details and makes sure that there is resilience in the system we design. Of course I won’t stay at those two. I’ll iterate through all of them and see how they could contribute towards a more resilient design. When the Corona crisis hit us I wrote on Facebook, and I repeat it here again: “Let us plant as much as we can” – “Let us grow together”.
Jukka Ahonen
The corona virus has taken a life of many people, and even more it has driven into anxiety and uncertainty about the future. How will the society survive? Will there be peace and wellbeing we used to have? I am convinced that the way to sustainability is local self-reliance, which leads to resilience. As long as we are dependent on systems far away, our wellbeing is firmly tied to factors outside of our control. This is unwise. Permaculture can contribute to our stability with social design that is based on three principles: earthcare, peoplecare and fair shares. Our life is rooted in the wellbeing of the earth and its nature around us. Any organism is more productive when it is healthy. How can we care for our nature and benefit from its produce in a way that its health is continuously sustained? Sustainability also needs that people are healthy and have a community that nurtures them and gives them a good place to be. Growing trends of isolation and loneliness raises the need for new, intentional communities. Strengthening our ties with people around us leads to stronger culture of sharing and better mental health. Look close. What you are looking for might be sitting right next to you.
17.06.2020 – 15:46
