Can Permaculture Save Us?

 As everyone who is honest knows, we've passed the tipping point in climate change, and our planet today is in a slow, but gradually accelerating and irreversible downward spiral toward...what?  Societal breakdown? The collapse of civilization? Or the collapse of the biosphere as we know it? Chaos? Mass murder and suicide?  Random, murderous violence and tribal warfare for resources--or simply against the "other," however defined? Extinction? Whatever happens from now on, it will not be pleasant. It may well be terrifying, crazy-making, horrific, nauseating, ghastly...you get the picture. No hope--the living may well envy the dead...or eat them.

In such a dying world, is there any hope--for anything? And if not, how do we live?  Why not just terminate ourselves first, safely and painlessly?

When afflicted with these dark thoughts, which can only become more frequent as time goes on, I first take refuge in what Buddhists call "the five remembrances:"

1. I am of the nature to get sick; there is no way I can avoid getting sick.

2. I am of the nature to grow old; there is no way I can avoid growing old.

3. I am of the nature to die; there is no way I can avoid dying.

4. I am of the nature to lose everything I cherish; there is no way to avoid losing everything.

5. My actions are my only true possessions. By these alone shall I live, no matter what happens.

This practice--embracing impermanence--is very therapeutic, I find, for overcoming my recurrent dread about the future. One can adapt these remembrances by expanding the "I" to include "my family, my community, my country, and Gaia"--which are all simply more expanded versions of the self. And all are impermanent; all are of the nature to get sick, grow old, die, and lose everything they value. Even our sacred and beautiful living planet will eventually end up--sooner or later--like Mars or Venus...nothing but desolate rocks and sand.

And now, having dispensed with dread of the future by embracing impermanence and returning to our breath in the present moment, what should we do?

Grow gardens, grow community, and grow awareness.

And this is where the principles of Permaculture can come to our rescue--not as a whole planet, nor as a nation, state, or city--but as individuals working with each other to adapt skillfully, for as long as possible, to accelerating change in climate and breakdown of the larger social order. By the study and practice of Permaculture, we can progressively unplug from Glomart--from the vast, commercial, utterly unsustainable consumer-based infrastructure that now supports our lives--and regenerate community from the ground up through the passionate practice of Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share, of design in accordance with nature, and of relocalization of commerce.  And the more contiguous Gaian communities there are, practicing these principles, the longer we can ward off--and even mitigate--the encroaching chaos, despair, and madness all around us. So that if we have any future at all, it will be a Gaian future.  And if not, at least we can build, for ourselves and those we know and love, a Gaian Present Moment, embracing our impermanence with quiet joy as we learn, teach, heal, and create...

"and when I fall, let me fall, like a leaf, without regret..."

So be it.