Why people care?

Welcome Looby,
After reading the great review here and also looking thru your book on Amazon, I am convinced its a book I will eventually read even if I can't win a copy thru Permies! Not having your book yet, I would love to hear a little bit about your background and what led you to write on the People Care part of the ethic triad. I also agree that Permaculture has been more focused on earth care (understandably) over the years than the people part, until Rob Hopkins started the Transition movement. I was thrilled when that happened and took a Transition training workshop a few years ago and with my small permie group in Reno, NV began Transition Reno. I feel that we need to help people work together and help each other in order to help our earth and Transition seems to be one way that reaches out to people and helps introduce them to Permaculture, even if they didn't know about it before.
Well, I am looking forward to reading your book, thanks for dedicating the time in your life to write it!
Barbara

Hi Barbara,
I choose to write about permaculture for 2 main reasons.
The first is that I have observed that it is often people that limit great Earthcare projects - either from our own gardens, to how we function as a family, how we communicate as groups, how our societies are set up, and how we make decisions nationally. And in permaculture we turn limiting factors into building blocks of design - so if its people that are limiting us then we need to pay attention to improving it.
The second reason is that I believe that we can use permaculture principles and design to make vibrant, productive, healthy, and abundant people, families and communities just as effectively as we use them to create vibrant, productive, healthy, and abundant gardens, smallholdings, woodlands and farms.
I believe that through paying more attention to peoplecare we will be able to make more progress with Earthcare as well. The problems of each ethic are linked and the solutions are also linked.
Looby

I also agree the People Care ethic of permaculture is not mentioned enough, the focus seems so often to be on the physical practices of permaculture, mostly food-growing, and not much about people, their relationships and communities. I think the human relationships aspects of permaculture are crucial, I personally try not to see permaculture as a way I can make my own personal little lifeboat in which to sail through life, I want to try to get other people on board, even though that is hard!