Prepping and permaculture

Prepping, or being prepared for disaster, is a big topic now. 

 

 

Download full size copy at www.prepperlink.com

 

Depending on where you live, you might prep for a variety of natural disasters, like hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, tsunamis, floods, or volcanic eruption. 

 Then there are manmade disasters, like the nuclear leak at Three Mile Island or the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Many of us prepare for smaller disasters, however, like enduring a power outage or being trapped in a highway drift during a snowstorm.

At the high end of the prepping movement, there are individuals preparing for the breakdown of society.  Some are moving to remote locations and setting up mini farms to ensure a steady food supply.  These people would certainly benefit from the agricultural principles of permaculture.  But, how might they benefit from adopting the broader scope of permaculture?

They would have to form a community (zone 2) of like minded people to leverage their position.

The nucleus of this community needs to be set in place before the disaster. 

 Microcurrencies might provide a small community of people with a medium of exchange, to facilitate bartering of goods and skills.  This should be developed before hand in order to build up trust in the system.

 A community first aid station could handle small emergencies or provide ambulance service to a city hospital.  By addressing this need in advance, a building could be converted and powered by solar, with battery backup. Arrangements could be made to train people to staff the facility and a system established to compensate them from the farm produce or by microcurrency. 

Shared educational responsibilities would provide children with a larger pool of knowledge than just home schooling.  This might entail a rotating schedule, much like a Cub Scout Den Meeting.

Ideally, each homestead should have solar power and battery backup.  For those who don’t or can’t have a personal solar power system,  community solar or wind installations could be set up to provide a charging station for batteries used to power electric tools, tractors and rototillers.

So preppers have a lot to learn from permaculture, but do permaculturists have anything to learn from preppers?

There are well over 100 prepper blogs on a variety of subjects.  Here you can learn to store and preserve food, manage your water supply, treat human and animal illnesses, and a host of other things that everyone might need at some time.

 At one extreme are people who are prepared to live as hermits to escape the ills of a dysfunctional society.  At the other people are thinking of ways to form communities after a social breakdown.  There is a wide range of thought in between.

 I think both would benefit from reading the thoughts of each other.

Permatechnology

Sustainable Technology

 How does technology fit into the concept of permaculture?  Thinking again of zones, we should focus on personal efforts first.

We should generate as much energy as we can at the point of use and then look to local, regional, and then look beyond.  This could mean installing solar panels, both active and passive, backyard wind generators and Microhydro where feasible.

Wood stoves and fireplaces, if we have the resources to harvest our own wood are also local solutions.

Alternatively, we can reduce the need for external energy sources by reverting to hand tools and

muscle power instead of electricity.

• Hang your wash, instead of using the clothes dryer. 
• Use a push mower, instead of a power mower. 
• Mix your batter by hand, instead of using a power mixer. 
• Read a book, instead of watching TV. 
• The list goes on.

Beyond the personal zone, it is difficult to get power other than from the grid.  A few communities have formed their own power companies and neighborhood power seems feasible, but not currently available.

But what about other uses of technology? 

Transportation

Zone 1 – Walk, bike

Zone 2 – Motor scooter, local public transportation. 

Zone 3 – Car pool.

Zone 4 - Intercity bus and rail.

Zone 5 – Rethink why this trip is necessary.

What are your thoughts on this?  How do we solve the travel problem?

Laundry Day

I entered my first video challenge today.  It was a 72 hour video project by the Art House Coop.  I view these as learning experiences more than serious endeavors, but I am getting better at video editing.  Anyway it's only 57 seconds long, so take a minute to view it.

For some reason, I am unable to upload the video to this blog, but you can follow the link below to youtube to view it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPhBVccYuu0