Permaculture: Ethics: Earthcare 2

A wise gardener grows soil. Growing and nurturing soil is part of Earthcare and one of the most important actions we can undertake.

"According to 2017 study by the University of Basel, the European Commission -- Joint Research Centre and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH, UK), almost 36 billion tons of soil is lost every year due to water, and deforestation and other changes in land use make the problem worse..."  source

A little reading.

No space to grow, then take an inventory of your food habits. How much food do you toss away? 

"Consumers also squander huge amounts. As much as 37% of animal products and potentially a fifth of fruit and vegetables may be wasted after being purchased, according to the FAO. Rich nations have higher levels of waste due to limited shelf life or poor consumer planning, while poorer countries typically grapple with climate and infrastructure issues."  source

Ecosystem restoration may well be the most effective method we have for combating climate change and for practising Earthcare. The next post will go into some detail on the why and how.

Permaculture Ethics: Earth Care, Part One.

The phrase "Think globally, act locally". come to mind when you are planning to incorporate Earth Care into your life. You do not need to be a permaculture designer to work with the three permaculture ethics, People Care, Earth Care and Fair Share.

Reduce, better yet, eliminate your use of single-use plastics. This is simple enough to do. Do not by bottled water, for a start. If the tap water is unfit to drink where you live, then you will need to filter or boil it, but the next thing you need to do is engage in non-violent political action to support your right to drinkable water. Water is a human right and our politicians have an obligation to honour that right.

Eliminate the amount of garbage you toss away, after all, there really is no such place as away. We are all inhabitants of one planet. Everything is connected. Reduce, reuse, repurpose, compost. I

Composting turns what is called waste into valuable, organic material, any garden will love. This act of adding compost to t e soil is a great way to take care of the Earth.

Harvest rainwater. Don't let it run away down that asphalt driveway, use it to water the ornamental garden, or lawn, if you must have one, create a rain garden. Do some research on rainwater harvesting before you set up a system.

Fair Shares: Permaculture Ethics

The best explanation of the Fair Shares ethics begins: "By governing our own needs, living within limits and consciously co-creating, we can create surplus resources to further the other key permaculture ethics (Care for the Earth and Care for People). 

Living within limits is not about limiting people's free movement, tight border controls and one-child policy. It is about conscious efforts to achieve a stable human inhabitation of the Earth and respecting the genuine needs of other beings. " source

Accepting and designing human environments to incorporate the rights of human, and all other beings, to water, clean air, adequate and appropriate shelter, education for all, and healthcare, for example, is how we honour the Fair Share ethics.

Fair Shares is essential if we are to achieve the other two ethics, People Care and Earth Care. What can you do to actively embrace the Fair Share ethic?

Ethics and Permaculture

"Ethics, also called moral philosophy, the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad and morally right and wrong. The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles." This definition comes from the Encyclopedia Brittanica 

I have stated in an earlier post,  climate change is human-caused. As the problem is the solution and human behaviour is the problem, then, human behaviour must change if we are to slow down, reverse and repair the damage climate change has wrought.

How do we achieve this goal? Well, for me, I started with changing myself. One of the most important steps I took back in 1999 was to take an Introduction to permaculture course and the full Permaculture Design Certificate Course. I will explore how permaculture came into being in a future post. Today I will begin a discussion of the three permaculture ethics.

A code of ethics is essential to developing a right livelihood. 

Something to ponder, do no harm, a good place to begin. Is it possible to do no harm? What do you think?

Ethics is concerned with what is morally good and bad and morally right and wrong.

The three ethics of permaculture are:

1-Care for People
2- Care for the Earth
3- Fair Shares.

I will on Thursday go into greater detail of the three, starting with Fair Shares.