Did you meet the neo-peasants who moved in next door?

Educational, Recommendation

It’s all happening. Local residents are coming together, talking together, working together, creating solutions, building community resilience. Making it happen. We are getting off carbon.

The decarboniser movement is spreading and morphing fast. It has different names, techniques, recipes and approaches. There’s the urban farmers. The organic neo-peasants. The permaculture blitzers. The transition street neighbours. The low-carbon lovers. All have the great task of decarbonisation in common.

They are transforming their own lives and the world around them. Their carbon-caring and biosphere-consciousness guide their choices as consumers. Sharing, swapping and farming their way towards a more sustainable lifestyle, while saving money on energy and investing in energy efficiency, retrofitting and electrification. Rather than waiting for governments to provide answers.

“Decarbonisation is the great task of our generation and Costa Rica must be one of the first countries in the world to accomplish it, if not the first.”
~ Carlos Alvarado, president of Costa Rica, May 2018


Stewarding the Earth – also in my backyard

Below on this page are some inspirational examples – stories and interviews with firstmovers in the field who are either based in Geelong or who will be coming to Geelong to give talks during June 2018:

The Farm Next Door: Geelong’s Community Working Bee #1
David Holmgren: Retrofit suburbia
Patrick Jones: The neo-peasant from Daylesford
Transition Streets in Geelong
Tree planting Google-alternative urges Australians to make the switch

Edible forest garden in Geelong

The Farm Next Door: Geelong’s Community Working Bee #1

The Farm Next Door wants to inspire people to grow food in their own communities. The first ‘community working bee’ in Geelong was a massive success.


Lachie Chomley from The Farm Next Door was interviewed by Peter Camilleri.

» The Farm Next Door on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/farmnextdoor





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“I am just another Australian trying to work out how we move beyond camping in this land to being rooted to it. Permaculture has been my sustained search to find home.”
~ David Holmgren

David Holmgren: Retrofit suburbia

Co-founder of the permaculture movement, David Holmgren, encourages permaculture activists to focus their energies on retrofitting suburbia for an energy decent future. David argues that the opportunities to retrofit are so much more important than new buildings because of the limits to debt based growth. This presentation was made at APC13, the 13th Australasian Permaculture Convergence in Perth October 2016.

Podcast interviews with David Holmgren

The Sustainable Hour interview


All Being Well interview
Kayla Robertson: Revolutionary Permaculture with David Holmgren
Released 4 June 2018
“In many homes worldwide, David Holmgren is a beloved name. As the co-creator of the global permaculture movement, his work has touched millions of lives, and can be seen etched into the gardens of inner city projects to community co-operatives to large-scale farms.The term permaculture was created back in the mid-1970s by David and university professor Bill Mollison, and is a combination of the terms ‘permanent’ and ‘agriculture’ to create a symbolic union. Its 12 principles are based around three pillars – care of the earth, care of people and return of surplus – and over the last forty years it has evolved into an organic, adaptive movement to expand alongside modern times.
Behind the movement, David is not only promoting a sustainable lifestyle, but a powerful alternative life away from dependent consumerism. As such, the principles of permaculture transcend the humble garden to see homes flourish through non-monetary economies, communities blossom through connection and to celebrate a life handmade through the imperfect art of creation.
Kayla had the pleasure of interviewing David at his home of Melliodora in Central Victoria, one of the best documented and well known permaculture demonstration sites worldwide.
In this episode you’ll learn David’s tips for the first place to start when greening your home, and the easy ways that you can introduce permaculture into your life.
+ We have FREE resources for all listeners of this show, including resources from David’s latest book – RetroSuburbia – and a Wayapa connection video practice, when you subscribe to All Being Well’s newsletter on our website: www.allbeingwell.com.au

» Find the podcast on itunes.apple.com



Pip Permaculture Podcast interview

» The Pip Permaculture Podcast on Soundcloud.com

“Whether you’re interested in the big picture of how, as communities, we can downshift our energy use, or the details of how you can grow more food for your family, RetroSuburbia is rich with real world examples and behavioural strategies applied by those already on the downshifting path.”

» Home page for ‘RetroSuburbia – the downshifter’s guide to a resilient future’
www.retrosuburbia.com

» Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/RetroSuburbia

David Holmgren in Geelong on 17 June 2018
This special multi-media event ‘Aussie Street’ will feature David Holmgren, cleverly bringing Holmgren’s RetroSuburbia ideas into our everyday lives and reveals an insightful and thought-provoking vision for a resilient and life enhancing sustainable future. In partnership with the City of Greater Geelong, Geelong Sustainability Group and Holmgren Events.

» [Update: The event is already sold out] RSVP on www.eventbrite.com.au





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Patrick Jones: The neo-peasant from Daylesford

At Melbourne Free University, Patrick Jones speaks about why he uses the term ‘neopeasant’, and what it means in the context of conquest, dispossessions, stolen land and climate change. The word ‘peasant’ is from the Latin pagus meaning country or land.

Earlier in the week Patrick was in conversation with Bushy, Adam and Ged on 3RRR’s show Greening the Apocalypse.

Patrick Jones and his family, Meg Ulman, Zero, Woody and Zephyr, live in Daylesford, Australia, on a quarter-acre permaculture plot – a family modelling ecological culture at the household economy level through the resources they tend and grow and the technology they use and refuse.

Their inspiring lifestyle encompasses many relevant if somewhat edgy themes: community resilience, social warming, cycle touring, Aboriginal Australia, permaculture, ethical living, foraging, community gardening, raising boys, fermenting, stealth camping, share economy, car-free living and ecological cultures.

» Check out their YouTube channel

» ‘Artist as Family’ blog on www.theartistasfamily.blogspot.com.au

» ‘Artist as Family’ on Facebook

Pioneers of our carbon neutral future



Radical homemaking and community-sufficiency
Patrick Jones will be speaking at Geelong Green Drinks on 27 June 2018. His Green Drinks talk is titled, ‘Radical homemaking and community-sufficiency: for post-money, carbon-positive wealth and well-being’

Patrick Jones and Meg Ulman present a case for the household and community economies to take back economic power, reign in carbon and methane pollution, while at the same time attending to both human and environmental health crises. Patrick will present a living model of what is possible on a household income that is far below the poverty line, and speak to the power of community resilience and sharing in uncertain and complex times.

» RSVP here: www.geelongsustainability.org.au





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Transition Streets in Geelong

‘Take a street and build a neighbourhood.’

Transition Streets has really taken off in Geelong, says Transition Street coordinator Monica Winston.

In a Transition Street, a groups of friends and neighbours meet every few weeks with a practical workbook to make easy changes in how they use energy, water, food, packaging and transport. This video explains what Transition Streets can be like:

Transition Newcastle produced a 180 page resource book that is made free to participants in Geelong. Here’s the PDF of the book if you want to check it out: Open this link and choose the NATIONAL version.

The book has chapters on water, energy, food, transport, waste and consumption.

» On Transition Street Geelong’s Facebook page you can look for and find others in your street or nearby to start your very local Transition Street. You can also contact Geelong’s Transition Street coordinator on tel 0414 789 613.





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Tree planting Google-alternative urges Australians to make the switch

If 1 per cent of Australians used Ecosia, the search engine could plant 10,155,700 trees

According to a survey released in 2017 by the Climate Institute, 65 per cent of Australians believe Australia should be a world leader in finding solutions to climate change.

What if there was a tool that allowed Australians to become world leaders in fighting climate change? “There is!,” says the team behind the search engine Ecosia.

Ecosia generally works like any other search engine, Google for example. Search engines make an incredible amount of money with online advertising. Unlike any other search engine, Ecosia invests 100 per cent of its profits in reforestation projects all over the world. This means that by switching to Ecosia as a search engine, users can plant trees every day.

An average Ecosia user helps finance 41 trees per year. So if 1 per cent of Australians switched to Ecosia, they could help plant an additional 10,155,700 trees.

An average tree in Ecosia’s reforestation project portfolio sequesters 50 kilos of CO2 over the course of its lifetime. This means that Australian Ecosia users could help take 507,785 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere in one year.

“Help Ecosia make Australia a world leader in fighting climate change and spread the word about the tree planting alternative to Google & Co” – start using www.ecosia.org when you need to search for something.





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Revegetating Devilbend’s Natural Feature Reserve

Help Greenfleet plant more trees

Want to offset your carbon emissions? “You have the power to take climate action today and create a greener future for our next generation,” says Greenfleet – an organisation which since 1997 has planted a tree every 70 seconds, adding up to 9.1 million native trees planted to date.

As Greenfleet raises funds to continue their native reforestation work around Australia and New Zealand, the end of financial year is an important time. The organisation relies on donations to continue its work to restore native forests, provide crucial habitat for endangered wildlife, address deforestation, and tackle climate change through practical action.

An example of what donations to Greenfleet achieve on the ground is this story about a stunning reforestation project on the Mornington Peninsula. 

This is a snapshot of what Greenfleet has achieved in the past 20 years:

  • 9.1+ million native trees planted
  • 490+ biodiverse forests created
  • Over 8,400 hectares revegetated
  • Millions of tonnes of carbon emissions sequestered to help protect our climate
  • Thousands of supporters and organisations taking real climate action and making a tangible difference to the environment

On their website, you can donate to Greenfleet’s 2018 Tax Time Appeal – or offset your emissions before 30 June 2018.

All donations to Greenfleet of $2 and over are tax-deductible. Call Greenfleet on 1800 032 999 if you have any questions.

www.greenfleet.com.au

 



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» TIME – 23 April 2018:
Meet the Founder of Impossible Foods, Whose Meat-Free Burgers Could Transform the Way We Eat
“Since the California company begun experimenting with a synthesis of these ingredients in 2011, founder Dr Pat Brown has attracted over $300 million in funding, drawn an opening salvo from a powerful cattle industry lobby, and has had to rebut suggestions his product is unsafe as he sets about solving what he says is the “most important and urgent problem in the world.”


Kate Raworth: A healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow

What would a sustainable, universally beneficial economy look like? “Like a doughnut,” says Oxford economist Kate Raworth. In a stellar, eye-opening talk, she explains how we can move countries out of the hole — where people are falling short on life’s essentials — and create regenerative, distributive economies that work within the planet’s ecological limits.

» www.ted.com/talks




Green communities a driving force for change