"We're a mining society. We mine the soils, the groundwater, the forest, the minerals, the fish... We're destroying non-renewable resources. There's no future in it." Richard Reese, author of What is Sustainable? and Sustainable or Bust, examines past cultures in search of patterns for a sustainable future. Earlier cultures lived slower and simpler. They limited their populations; many prohibited over-hunting. He concludes that ours is a story of tools: "We're really clever on the tool-making side of the game, and very undeveloped on the foresight side of the game." As resource bubbles pop and industrial civilization collapses, can we use wisdom from sustainable cultures, and not just repeat the same mistakes in the next civilization?
Showing posts with label SUSTAINABILITY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SUSTAINABILITY. Show all posts
What Is Sustainable?
"We're a mining society. We mine the soils, the groundwater, the forest, the minerals, the fish... We're destroying non-renewable resources. There's no future in it." Richard Reese, author of What is Sustainable? and Sustainable or Bust, examines past cultures in search of patterns for a sustainable future. Earlier cultures lived slower and simpler. They limited their populations; many prohibited over-hunting. He concludes that ours is a story of tools: "We're really clever on the tool-making side of the game, and very undeveloped on the foresight side of the game." As resource bubbles pop and industrial civilization collapses, can we use wisdom from sustainable cultures, and not just repeat the same mistakes in the next civilization?
CREATORS AND DESTROYERS
There are two types of people in this world: creators and destroyers. We need to create a new system and replace the current, unsustainable one.
Geoff Byrd adeptly breaks down the fundamental question of which way humanity should go – tear down the existing system, or build a new one and let the old crumble under its own decrepit weight
Lasagna gardening: A sustainable and no-till method of gardening
by: Michael Ravensthorpe
(NaturalNews) Lasagna gardening is a method of gardening that requires no tilling or weeding from the gardener, yet produces rich and fluffy soil. Also called 'sheet composting,' lasagna gardening involves building layers and layers of organic matter in a designated area of the garden, waiting until they compost, and then utilizing the fertile soil that is produced to grow plants. Aside from being convenient and physically undemanding, this type of gardening is beloved by gardeners because it is environmentally-friendly; rather than throwing your biodegradable waste into the trash, you're using it to enrich your garden's soil.
Creating the first and subsequent layers
To begin your lasagna garden, you need to create your first layer. Acquire some brown corrugated cardboard, or several newspaper layers, and place them wherever you want your garden to be (this could be on a weed patch, on a patch of grass, etc.). Then, once the cardboard or newspaper is in place, water it. This will start the process of decomposition, since the wet layer will gradually sink into the earth, both suffocating the grass and weeds below it and attracting earthworms that loosen the soil by tunneling through it.Once your first layer is composted, you can start to add layers of real compost. This could include leaves, coffee grounds, vegetable and fruit scraps, grass clippings, manure, teabags, seaweed, shredded newspaper or junk mail (most paper is biodegradable), peat moss, and garden matter. However, it is best not to just dump everything atop your first layer. Doing this will probably make your lasagna garden indistinguishable from an ordinary compost heap. Instead, alternate between the browns (e.g. peat, shredded newspaper, fall leaves) and greens (e.g. grass and garden cuttings, vegetable peels). Ideally, the brown layers should be twice as deep as the green layers, since brown layers are usually comprised of material that is 'thinner' than the green layers, and thus biodegrade more quickly. However, it is not important if this rule is broken; as long as you organize your lasagna garden into layers of some kind, you'll get good results.
You can stop adding new layers to your lasagna garden once the compost heal reaches a height of around two feet. After you've achieved this height, you can wait until the compost heap shrinks in size - this will probably happen much quicker than you expect. Once the compost heap has shrunk to a nice layer of fertile earth, you are able to start planting.
Planting
If your garden's first layer consisted of cardboard, your hands (or, if you prefer, shovel) will pierce through the decomposed card and expose a layer of rich, fluffy soil underneath. This is where you should plant your plants or sow your seeds. If you need to cut a hole out of the cardboard to make way for the plants or saplings, that is fine.Now that your lasagna garden is established, you can care for it using the traditional methods of weeding and watering. Some gardeners like to continue adding unobtrusive layers of compost (ideally straw, grass cuttings, or leaves) to their garden to ensure the living conditions for its plants and insects remain rich and moist for a long time, thereby creating the ideal conditions for growing nutritious, organic produce.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.motherearthnews.com
http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/lasagna-gardening.html
http://www.canada.com
About the author:
Michael Ravensthorpe is an independent writer from the United Kingdom whose research interests include nutrition, alternative medicine, and bushcraft. He is the creator of the website Spiritfoods, through which he helps to promote the world's healthiest foods, whether they be established superfruits such as mangosteen or lesser-known health supplements like brewer's yeast.
Michael is also the creator of the companion site Spiritcures, which details his research into the best home remedies for common medical conditions such as poison ivy rashes.
FORESTS ARE GUARDIANS OF THE EARTH
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All 7 billion people on earth have their physical, economic and spiritual health tied to the health of forests. This short film highlights this relationship and our role in ensuring the forests’ well-being and development.
2011 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE FOREST
All 7 billion people on earth have their physical, economic and spiritual health tied to the health of forests. This short film highlights this relationship and our role in ensuring the forests’ well-being and development.
THE QUEEN OF TREES
HOW TO BUILD A SUSTAINABLE HOUSE ... LIVE FREE
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The epic story of radical Earthship eco architect Michael Reynolds, and his fight to build off-the-grid self-sufficient communities
The way the bureaucracy deals with new thinking is outrageous.
There are people coming together all over in "living networks" built on faith, hope, love and charity.
The way the bureaucracy deals with new thinking is outrageous.
It is backwards, pre-historic, and anti-economic.
People like these need to be a part of these "living networks" to help teach and share their knowledge with others that are seeking to be good stewards of the land.
HEIFER INTERNATIONAL
Their website is : http://www.heifer.org/
Click here for HEIFER GIFT PAGE
Send the 'man who has everything' a card letting him know that a Peruvian family will start a business thanks to the chickens you bought in his name..
Get some laughs when you give your pompous boss a card that says that a goat, with his name on it, is going to Indonesian peasants!
BACKGROUND
American farmer Dan West, the founder of Heifer International, was serving as a Church of the Brethren relief worker in Spain during the Spanish Civil War when he became frustrated at being forced to decide how to allocate a very limited amount of food aid.
Upon his return to the United States, he founded Heifers for Relief, an organization dedicated to providing permanent freedom from hunger by giving families livestock and training so that they "could be spared the indignity of depending on others to feed their children."
The basic philosophy of Heifers for Relief was based on the proverb, "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; you have fed him for a lifetime."
West also conceived the slogan "Give not a cup, but a cow."
Each participating family would study animal husbandry and agree to donate any female offspring to another family.
In this fashion, he imagined that a single gift would multiply far beyond the original investment.
HEIFER TODAY
Today the organization is known as Heifer International and gives gifts of cattle, sheep, rabbits, honeybees, pigs, llamas, water buffalo, heifers, chicks, ducks, goats, geese, other regionally appropriate livestock, as well as tree seedlings. As of 2006, these animals and plants have been distributed in more than 125 countries around the globe. Each gift perpetuates Heifer's interest in agroecology and sustainability.
Heifer International works to ensure that the gift of each animal will eventually help an entire community to become self-sustaining. Animals such as goats, water buffalo and camels are "seven M" animals: they provide meat, milk, muscle, manure, money, materials and motivation.
Once its immediate needs have been met, a family is free to sell any excess at market. Heifer International provides a breeding animal along with the gift animal so that it can produce offspring. Participating families are required to "pass on the gift", that is: they must give at least one of the female offspring to a neighbour who has undergone Heifer's training. In time, that neighbour will pass along one of the offspring of its animal, and so on.
Goats are great for families
The gift of a dairy goat represents a lasting, meaningful way for you to help a little boy or girl on the other side of the world.Goats can thrive in extreme climates and on poor, dry land by eating grass and leaves. The gift of a dairy goat can supply a family with up to several quarts of nutritious milk a day - a ton of milk a year. Extra milk can be sold or used to make cheese, butter, or yogurt. Families learn to use goat manure to fertilize gardens.
Goats often have two or three kids each year, making it easy for Heifer recipients to pass on the gift of a goat to another family in need. This great investment allows our partners to lift themselves out of poverty by starting small dairies that earn money for food, health care, and education.
"With all the money donated to help fight famine around the world, with all the grandiose plans conceived to conquer poverty, sometimes all it takes to save a child is a goat."
THANK YOU FOR READING THIS .................
FREE ENERGY IS HERE NOW
The Future of Free Energy is here now!
The end of oil, coal and nuclear poisoning!
1 Million Watt Cold Fusion Reactor Running In Italy
The future of free energy is at hand.
The end of the energy barons, war mongers and central
The end of the energy barons, war mongers and central
bankers will follow.
So, let's all demand this technology
So, let's all demand this technology
be implemented immediately.
Imagine the technology shown here interfaces with
Corning's new Display Glass Technology.
This is the future for all of us.
Free Energy and Free Thinking, the free interchange
of all vital information via a free energy system
HONEY BEES
Encourage honeybees to visit your garden by planting single flowering plants and vegetables. Go for all the allium family, all the mints, all beans except French beans and flowering herbs.
Bees like daisy-shaped flowers - asters and sunflowers, also tall plants like hollyhocks, larkspur and foxgloves. Bees need a lot of pollen and trees are a good source of food.
Willows and lime trees are exceptionally good.
SUSTAINABILITY
THE PROPOSAL :
SUSTAINABLE LIVING
TO RENEW EDUCATION BY WAY OF MUTUAL RESPECT TO OTHERS AND TO THE PLANET
To create Centers or schools ... to incorporate sustainable technologies and life-styles through a combined residential, social, and academic setting.
TO ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING :
Sustainability
Increased dependence on renewable energy, in the form of wind, water and solar energy sources, focusing on closed systems.
Increased reliance on Farm-grown food.
Elimination of non-compostable wastes.
We all need to grow our businesses but not at the cost of the planet.
HEIFER INTERNATIONAL
Heifer's mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth.
By giving families a hand-up, not just a hand-out, we empower them to turn lives of hunger and poverty into self-reliance and hope.
With gifts of livestock and training, we help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways. We refer to the animals as "living loans" because in exchange for their livestock and training, families agree to give one of its animal's offspring to another family in need. It's called Passing on the Gift – a cornerstone of our mission that creates an ever-expanding network of hope and peace.
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