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Summary
Episode three of the Permaculture Smackdown continues with Paul and six of his patrons – Katie, Kyle, Elliot, Julia Winter, Opalyn et al. to review up to page 16 of
Sepp Holzer’s
Desert or Paradise.
Chapter 1 - Reading Nature - continued:
“Only cool soil absorbs rainwater, so if the soil is warmer than the rain, the
water will roll over the surface of the ground” When Katy first read the title, she incorrectly assumed that the book was about how to turn a desert into a paradise, instead it’s more about how any place can be a desert, and how a lot of apparently “natural” deserts are actually man-made from centuries ago. Are such desert ecosystems worth preserving if they can be improved? If so, how much? “All of it” can be seen as destroying an existing ecosystem, “none” seems like either wasting potential or refusing to fix a past mistake.
“Water is the key to a stable climate” Sepp’s somewhat purple views on water aside, his methods work even if his methods are completely new to current water scientists. Treating water as a living system is comparable to treating a car or ship as a person - it may be completely inaccurate, but it may well lead to better understanding and taking care of it. Just because something seems purple or magical, it doesn’t mean it’s inherently complete nonsense, just that science doesn’t understand it yet. Or it’s utter dingbatism.
“Food
should be our medicine – the solution is always the same to me, we need an all-embracing ecological rejuvenation of our planet” It seems that whenever Paul talks about his book outside of Permies, some people crop up to tell him that he should be angry at the bad guys instead. Even with 100 angry people, it seems that only 1 will actually go out and write letters to politicians or attend a protest, while those that try to improve their own life are reliably doing good, even if only a little.
“… Regions that were covered with mixed forest are now bare monocultures, or agricultural deserts”
Relevant Threads
Desert or Paradise thread
Desert or Paradise documentary by Sepp Holzer
Sepp Holzer forum
Sepp Holzer's 3-in-1 Permaculture documentaries (Farming, Terraces, and Aquaculture)
Hugelkultur forum
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This podcast was made possible thanks to:
Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Eivind W. Bjørkavåg
Suleiman, Karrie, and Sasquatch
Bill Crim
anonymous
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Wade Luger
Sasquatch
Kyle Neath
Chris Sugg
havokeachday
Bill Erickson
Dominic Crolius
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
G Cooper
Penny McLoughlin
Ash Jackson
Mehron Kugler
Lisa Goodspeed
Mark
Pasquale DeAngelis
Sean Benedict
Greg Martin
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Eric Tolbert
Ruwan Nanayakkara
Polly Jayne Smyth
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