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The phrase ‘Mother Earth’ is an uncomfortable one for many of us raised in the Western scientific-mechanistic tradition, where ‘anthropomorphism’ is considered to be ridiculous. Yet our tendency to see the world as a ‘collection of objects’, rather than as a ’communion of subjects’, to use the words of the ecological mystic Thomas Berry, has brought us to the brink of planetary ecological crisis. One does not have to believe that the Earth is literally sentient to recognise that there are profound lessons to be learnt from those indigenous peoples who approach the natural world with gratitude and humility rather than arrogance and entitlement.

Sustainable communities are built through emphasising learning, experimentation, locally developed rules and embracing change.

Permaculture is about what we want to do and can do, rather than what we oppose – an approach that is ethical, pragmatic, philosophical and technical.

In a nutshell, the great challenge of our time is to create sustainable communities – that is to say, social and cultural environments in which we can satisfy our needs and aspirations without diminishing the chances for future generations.

I have developed over the years, a growing conviction that a journey a little deeper into this African primal forest (which Western man fears so much and has made us – its children – fear too!) could, even as it has done for the archaeologists, bring us face to face with the spiritual (religious) ancestry of all mankind and help us better to understand the forces in which we – all mankind – ‘live and move and have our being’.

Science is not enough, religion is not enough, art is not enough, politics and economics are not enough, nor is love, nor is duty, nor is action however disinterested, nor, however sublime, is contemplation. Nothing short of everything, will really do.’

If we the generation that faces the next century, don’t do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable.

Permaculture can be thought of as a global concept and a creative design response to a world of declining energy and resource availability.

Take responsibility for an unknown future.

Ecovillages, and the larger social movements of which they are an integral part, are the most promising and important intentional community movement in all of history.

We must realise that well-being cannot be equated with material wealth. The quality of life is not dependent on the quantity of material things or growth measured by GDP.

Ecological design is not an alternative to dominant technology and design, [but] is the best path for their necessary evolution.

If we build a rich enough set of ecological concerns into the very epistemology of design, we may create a coherent response to the environmental crisis.

Within the sustainability movement, and particularly within cities, “replication and transformation is unlikely until the process of ‘conscious evolution’ within these locals has matured over time to a point where they represent alternatives that are self evidently preferable to an increasingly unviable status quo.

If economic progress is to be maintained and humanity is to succeed rather than collapse, we will need to replace the fossil fuel-based, automobile-centred, throwaway economy with a new economic model.

Permaculture is about consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs.

If globalisation is now at the root of so many problems, localisation – a shift away from the global and towards the local – is an obvious part of the solution.

One-fifth of the world’s topsoil has been eroded away and nearly one-third of croplands have been lost to land degradation in just the past 40 years.

In our African spiritual heritage and our diverse faith traditions, trees, flowers, water, soil and animals have always been essential companions of human beings, without which life and being are inconceivable.

Development is about improvements in the quality of life and embodies the satisfaction of material and non-material human needs.

Approximately 75 % of the world’s agricultural diversity has been lost in the last century.

Our situation today is far more challenging because in addition to shrinking forests and eroding soils, we must deal with falling water tables, more frequent crop-withering heat waves, collapsing fisheries, expanding deserts, deteriorating rangelands, drying coral reefs, melting glaciers, rising seas, more powerful storms, disappearing species, and soon, shrinking oil supplies.

An engagement with the arts should not be a luxury in which we indulge after ‘work’, it should be intertwined with our work.