Returning to discuss Frank Herbert's DUNE, which I am rereading now for the first time since I "got into" permaculture.
There is NO WAY that Mollison and Holmgren hadn't read Herbert by the mid 70s when they developed the initial permaculture ideas and curriculum. Dune was published in 1965, and I see its marks all over the PDM.
Here is a selection of quotes from a chapter in Book 2 of Dune, near the midpoint of the book. I think Herbert does an incredible job of very briefly explaining a permaculture-style approach to ecology- focusing on the role of humans in guiding planetary ecosystemic processes. Some spoilers in the below text:
"I am Liet-Kynes," he said, addressing himself to the empty horizon, and his voice was a hoarse caricature of the strength it had known. "I am His Imperial Majesty's Planetologist," he whispered, "planetary ecologist for Arrakis. I am steward of this land."
...
A thought spread across his mind—clear, distinct: The real wealth of a planet is in its landscape, how we take part in that basic source of civilization—agriculture.
...
"The highest function of ecology is understanding consequences."
...
"The more life there is within a system, the more niches there are for life," his father said. And the voice came now from his left, from behind him.
...
"Life improves the capacity of the environment to sustain life," his father said. "Life makes needed nutrients more readily available. It binds more energy into the system through the tremendous chemical interplay from organism to organism."
...
"We are generalists," his father said. "You can't draw neat lines around planet-wide problems. Planetology is a cut-and-fit science."
What's he trying to tell me? Kynes wondered. Is there some consequence I failed to see?
...
"To the working planetologist, his most important tool is human beings," his father said. "You must cultivate ecological, literacy among the people.
...
"The presence of moisture in the air helps prevent too-rapid evaporation from living bodies," his father said.
Why does he keep repeating the obvious? Kynes wondered.
He tried to think of moisture in the air—grass covering this dune… open water somewhere beneath him, a long qanat flowing with water open to the sky except in text illustrations. Open water… irrigation water… it took five thousand cubic meters of water to irrigate one hectare of land per growing season, he remembered.
"Our first goal on Arrakis," his father said, "is grassland provinces. We will start with these mutated poverty grasses. When we have moisture locked in grasslands, we'll move on to start upland forests, then a few open bodies of water—small at first—and situated along lines of prevailing winds with windtrap moisture precipitators spaced in the lines to recapture what the wind steals. We must create a true sirocco—a moist wind—but we will never get away from the necessity for windtraps."
...
"Movement across the landscape is a necessity for animal life," his father said. "Nomad peoples follow the same necessity. Lines of movement adjust to physical needs for water, food, minerals. We must control this movement now, align it for our purposes."
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"We must do a thing on Arrakis never before attempted for an entire planet," his father said. "We must use man as a constructive ecological force—inserting adapted terraform life: a plant here, an animal there, a man in that place—to transform the water cycle, to build a new kind of landscape."
...
"It was lines of movement that gave us the first clue to the relationship between worms and spice," his father said.
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"Men and their works have been a disease on the surface of their planets before now," his father said. "Nature tends to compensate for diseases, to remove or encapsulate them, to incorporate them into the system in her own way."
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"The historical system of mutual pillage and extortion stops here on Arrakis," his father said. "You cannot go on forever stealing what you need without regard to those who come after. The physical qualities of a planet are written into its economic and political record. We have the record in front of us and our course is obvious."
...
"Our timetable, will achieve the stature of a natural phenomenon," his father said. "A planet's life is a vast, tightly interwoven fabric. Vegetation and animal changes will be determined at first by the raw physical forces we manipulate. As they establish themselves, though, our changes will become controlling influences in their own right—and we will have to deal with them, too. Keep in mind, though, that we need control only three per cent of the energy surface—only three per cent—to tip the entire structure over into our self-sustaining system."
