C. The Integral Permaculture Certificate

1) What is Soil?

We could say that the destructo-culture, based on industrialized agriculture, carries a basic dysfunction, which is to see the soil as an inanimate thing, a resource to be exploited, & even something that can be seen as 'property' of human beings.

This paradigm has to change because it is at the base of great injustices & of the destruction of the most important base for life on Earth.

In this class we meet the soil as a living being, an organism of enormous complexity & importance, studying how it works in detail, from the microscopic to the global level.

To know soil intimately is fundamental for any sustainable design & to have a direct & vital relationship with this great organism helps us re-connect, physically as well as emotionally, with the Planet.

2) How can we Regenerate Soils?

"Deserts are the footprint of civilization", & this means that the most important work we have to do now as conscious human beings is to regenerate the soils that have been lost, & those that have been exploited & de-vitalized all over the planet, especially by agricultural activities.

Fertile soils are very important stores of carbon in the earth, & just with regenerating soils we could halt climate change stabilizing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. It is vital for sustainability that we regenerate & improve the fertility of soils also because they are the support of biodiversity, important stores of water & indeed the base of all land-dwelling life & any civilization.

There are many techniques we can use, & many very inspiring examples of soils regeneration (& so of entire ecosystems) in the world. In this class we explore several of those.

3) What are the Vital Cycles?

Gaia, the great living organism that is Earth, can be understood as a whole made out of millions of vital cycles that interrelate, each one continuously transforming & cycling the elements essential for Life (like oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, etc.) in order for these to be usable in their optimal form for each organism that needs them.

It is our great ignorance of these cycles, & of their vital importance for the equilibrium of the whole system, that has brought us to making great design errors, as humanity & as individuals.

In this class we get up to date with an essential aspect of the functioning of our home, the Living Planet & we get familiar with the most fundamental blocks that support the whole of Life.

4) How to manage Water in the Landscape?

We are probably known by other species in the Universe as 'that small noisy planet where everyone pisses in the water" (Will Durst)

Water is another vital element & normally very badly managed in our society, due to our usual ignorance of its importance, characteristics & inter-relationships with other elements.

In this class we learn of harvesting systems for this vital substance, how to re-connect ourselves with the water cycle, the strategies of "slow it, spread it, sink it", & we see various examples where a good management of water has totally changed the system. Small re-designs can improve the whole environment a great deal, & this is especially true with water re-designs.

5) How does Aquaculture work?

Normally we think of producing food or biomass with terraculture (growing in earth), but aquaculture (growing in water) can be many times more productive for the same surface area. Therefore knowing how Aquaculture works is important if we want to create super-productive systems.

In this class we explore the basic principles & various good examples of very productive aquaculture (& multifunctional) in different parts of the world.

Also we explore how we can start very small in order to add mini-aquaculture-systems which are very easy to install & maintain, in our surroundings.

6) How to Integrate Animals in a System?

In natural systems plants & animals form a single system, where all organisms are closely inter-connected, & give each other mutual support.

But normally in systems that we humans have designed, animals are excluded or separated from their vital environment, so creating not only waste & pollution but also terrible conditions for animals & their exploitation.

In this class we explore how to learn from nature & design systems that re-weave the whole web of Life, so creating environments which are ideal for plants, animals & humans, as well as giving much greater abundance of well-being, richness & also production.

7) Food Sovereignty

To return the control of food to each local community is something essential to creating sustainable societies. Only installing this practice as habitual would change other systems a lot, amongst them the economy, soil regeneration & ecosystem & human health.

In this class we explore the importance of food sovereignty & how it works in practice.

Included in this class is an exploration in some detail in the various organic food-growing styles that can be used, in small & large scale, with examples of good practice in different areas of the planet.

8) How to Increase Biodiversity?

Biodiversity is the variety of life in all its forms, levels & combinations. To maintain the biodiversity of the Gaian organism is of vital importance because each species represents a node of connexion in the complex web of Life which sustains us. At the moment our industrial & highly consumerist civilization is responsible for the disappearance of some 200 species per day. These are converted into human biomass on a daily basis, but we're destroying the foundation that support our own survival. So there is a big job to do. In this class we explore some direct ways of increasing biodiversity at a local level, like seed recuperation, habitat protection, & starting to change our diet in a conscious way so that it adapts better to the indigenous ecosystem of our region, instead of trying to adapt nature to our whims.

9) Trees & Forests (PART 1)

¿Why are trees so important? If we all plant some 10,0000 trees each we can prevent climate catastrophe, regenerate lost soils, increase biodiversity and preserve vital ecosystems & cycles. Trees are the biggest and oldest living beings on Earth. But around 75% of the ancient forest have vanished due to human action. So it's urgent for us to know and understand trees, how to plant them, how to care for them,how to return them to their most important place in nature. In this class we will learn about tree biology and tree functions as well as their influence in our culture.

10) Trees & Forests (PART 2)

At about the time humankind discovered agriculture, forests covered about 50% of the land area on planet Earth. Now they barely cover some 30%, & falling. This is now the single most urgent physical repairing of the environment we need to engage in, as forests are so vital for every aspect of life on Earth, safeguarding the vital cycles of air, water, earth, stabilizing the local & global climate, creating soil & habitats for a huge number of species, sustaining entire economies & our health. Forests play a key vital role on many levels as they are so basic & even primal for humans. In this class we get intimately acquainted with Forests, their make-up, how they work & especially we learn how to design Forest Gardens: our future human habitat, if we are to survive & thrive as humans.

Module 4 - Energy & EcoTechnology

Despite the fact that many 'Technological Improvements' haven't managed to improve the quality of life for the majority of people, but have brought more problems & pollution, we still keep expecting the arrival of a more modern technology, perhaps more ecological, that will restore & reverse the damage made.

In fact, it is possible, but not without having more citizens with a better understanding & a wider vision of what technology is, & who also understand some basic science necessary in order to be able to think for ourselves on these subjects.

The technology of the home, or bio-construction, is a close & important example for all of us, which will be highlighted during the course.

Weekly online classes:

1) Is our Civilization Collapsing?

Climate Change, Petrol Peak & Economic Crisis have been called the 3Es of Collapse: Environmental, Energetic & Economic. It is important to be well informed about the basic facts & science of these, how they interconnect, their causes & predictable effects. In this class we look at these issues in some detail, also exploring what cultural & inner meanings are being proposed & that we can make of these crises / opportunities. What does all this mean for us as integral designers for sustainability?

2) How can we make optimum use of resources?

We could say that the key to the sustainability of any society (or indeed any design) is simply to make optimum use of resources - so this is a very important subject to clarify for ourselves as designers. In this class we will explore how often, instead of using rational criteria for appropriateness when choosing resources (materials, fuels or technologies), like energy trade-off, we tend to use subjective & superficial criteria, like appearance, fashion & emotional attachments. This class is about how we can learn to make wiser judgements & choices in these matters.

3) What are the fundamental Energy Laws?

There are some basic energy laws the ignorance of which lead us to make very big & avoidable mistakes, as global as peak oil or as individual as believing our salvation will come from 'free energy'. Not understanding the basic laws that govern energy also lead us to staying permanently confused & therefore open to being manipulated with regards to any new technology or 'new miracle fuel' that is proposed. No progress can be made in terms of future energy choices if the majority of the population cannot distinguish myth from science in these important areas, and in this class we aim to firmly lay the foundations for understanding energy, which are also the foundation of any good sustainable design.

4) Why Howard T. Odum as the father of Integral Permaculture?

Howard T. Odum studied in great detail the energy flows & interactions in complex life systems, creating a simple pattern-language that serves as a powerful model for understanding how ecosystems work, in useful detail. This model includes visible as well as invisible components of a system, & is so holistic that human economy as well as minerals & weather processes can be accounted for. He also proposed a new & provocative law of thermodynamics that includes Life. In this class we will explore the basics of this work and explore how it is an essential base of Integral Permaculture.

5) Why Dana Meadows as the mother of Integral Permaculture?

Dana Meadows was a pioneering environmental scientist, a great system thinker & educator, a leading voice in the environmental movement. She is best known for being the lead author of Limits to Growth, a milestone which alerted the world to the unsustainable course the western model of development was taking, back in 1972. The book, which reported on a study of long-term global trends in population, economics, and the environment, sold millions of copies and was translated into 28 languages & inspired the birth of permaculture, amongst its many of other important influences. A long-time organic farmer, professor & journalist, Meadows had a unique insight, passion & ability for translating the complexities of systems dynamics into practical action-points, some of this we will explore during this class.

6) What Energy Sources are available & how do they work?

Civilizations are based on the fuels they use to power themselves. The fuel determines the technologies used, and the technologies determine the lifestyles, economies, and eventually the entire culture. So the transition to sustainable fuels is critical if we wish to design sustainable cultures. This class explores which fuels can be considered 'renewable' & under which circumstances. Also we look into the various transformer technologies which are needed to make this energy available to us, how they are most effectively used and we explore what a truly 'solar-powered civilization' might look like.

7) What is BioConstruction & how many types are there?

This class provides a solid introduction of the science & technology of the home, covering bio-climactic principles as well as choice of materials, location & design context. But we also question the great emphasis which is put on more & larger construction by the alternative movement these days. BioConstruction or EcoBuilding are terms which technically mean 'construction which promotes life' or 'ecological building', not something which is centered - yet again - on consumerist values: putting human whims & comfort above all else. How or when are these 'bio' & 'construction' terms used in contradictory ways? Do we need to coin a new 'perma-construction' term?

8) Why is Social Capital key for the future?

In this class we explore social capital as the umbrella term we use to value a complex set of inner quadrant qualities such as creativity, innovation, social skills, connectivity, emotional intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, cultural awareness, etc., all of which have a critical part to play in re-designing any technology & therefore society as a whole. "Sustainable Development" has been criticized as a term for being inherently contradictory, but when all quadrants are taken into account, we can see that a major growth in the interior quadrants (personal development & culture) will probably be key in achieving any significant reduction in physical consumption or material growth, so 'sustainable development' is far from contradictory as a term. So how do we design for increasing and improving social capital?

9) How do we Design good EcoTechnologies? (PART 1)

Technology is the application of science, so a good basic knowledge of science is essential if we are to design technologies of any kind. And everything that transforms energy or matter from one form to another is a technology, so science and technology really are basic for life, and certainly for designers. In this first part we explore the science of heat, flows, optics & materials in order to understand how to best design ovens, solar devices, heating & cooling technologies...

10) How do we Design good EcoTechnologies? (PART 2)

In this second part of exploring technology as the application of science, we delve into the basic science of fluids, of pathogens & of basic mechanics & vectors in order to become better designers of water systems, compost toilets & any built structures, large or small.

NOTE THAT ... we go adding more detail about each class as we arrive at the module in the 2011-2012 programme, & adding the links to the classes as we record them.

Module 5 - EcoEconomics & Transition