A Beautiful Reminder from Bill M.

In looking for videos to research on permaculture to go along with my reading (I'm a hands-on girl, but visual is second best for me) I found this gem:

   
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=permaculture

I hope you find inspiration from this short reminder of what we, as humans, are truly called to do.  --Tess

Thank you for the reminder about who started permaculture:

https://permies.com/t/59144/Bill-Mollison

https://permies.com/t/84936/permaculture/clear-comprehensive-list-Bill-principles

I found this titbit in there: pollution/waste is the product of work (at about 2 minutes in)

When you look at a whole system there are two things that are very undesirable. One is work and the other is pollution. Pollution is a product of work. Work is a result of not supplying every component in your system with its needs. Now lets put that in another way...If you didn't put a tank on your chicken house you got to carry the water to the chickens. So you incur work. Now if you didn't collect the eggs from the chicken house, that's pollution.

Can anyone explain what he means there? Or is it mistranscibed, or a bit missing? It seems that waste is the product of 'not working' in the example he gives.

Nancy Reading wrote:Can anyone explain what he means there? Or is it mistranscibed, or a bit missing? It seems that waste is the product of 'not working' in the example he gives.

I think there's a bit missing, and also it's two examples - "when you look at a whole system there are two things that are very undesirable - one is work and the other is pollution"

If you look at the first example - "Work is a result of not supplying every component in your system with its needs. Now lets put that in another way...If you didn't put a tank on your chicken house you got to carry the water to the chickens. So you incur work." It's about designing things so that work is reduced.

Then the second example - "Now if you didn't collect the eggs from the chicken house, that's pollution. Pollution is an unused resource." This is about teaching you to value all the products of a system because if any aren't put to use they can become pollution.

The bit that doesn't make sense to me is the bit he puts in before the two examples - "Pollution is a product of work.". Either I'm missing something or he mis-spoke. Maybe pollution is a product of not doing the work you should, like collecting the eggs? Or maybe he means that if you do some work, like putting the chickens in a chicken house, but don't finish the work, like collecting the eggs, then that is what creates pollution.

Thank you for clarifying Burra - that's exactly what I meant!

The only thing I would add is that work can cause waste - in energy used (for example driving a car) shoe wear, time used that you never get back....

Now I'm thinking of chicken houses that dispense their eggs straight into a kicthen cupboard (and I don't even have chickens!)

Nancy Reading wrote:The only thing I would add is that work can cause waste - in energy used (for example driving a car) shoe wear, time used that you never get back....

Remember this?

Loving the questions & responses here! For me, I got that work, if performed unsustainably, produces waste. For example, if we don't understand the needs of our system - including ourselves - at least some of the work we put out will be wasted. So as we plan, as we design, we have to understand our needs, the needs of the space(s) and the needs of the other species, human & non-human. That starts with lots of questions & observations as I have learned from all of my readings & videos.  I am LOVING permaculture and all it is.