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Permaculture: A Designer's Manual, Chapter 1

 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 The Philosophy Behind Permaculture (1) 1.2 Ethics (2) 1.3 Permaculture in Landscape and Society (6) 1.4 References (9) SUMMARY: In Chapter 1, Bill Mollison provides a broad overview of the aims and purposes of Permaculture, which he defines as "the conscious design and maintanance of agriculturally productive systems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems." From the outset he integrates the fields of design and ethics, in line with the "great shift of emphasis" from our traditional,  specialized, and ethically neutral focus on the properties and behavior of parts to a systemic and ethically engaged focus on the living Earth as an integrated whole. He cites James Lovelock's Gaia Theory as the inspiration for his own understanding of life on Earth as "a self-regulating, self-constructed, and reactive system, creating and preserving the conditions that make life possible, and actively adjusting to
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Wellsprings of Permaculture

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The above image is the logo that Bill Mollison created for the Permaculture movement, back when he conceived it in the late 1970s. He interprets it as follows: "The great oval of the design represents the egg of life; that quantitiy of life which cannot be created or destroyed, but from within which all things that live are expressed.  Within the egg is coiled the rainbow snake, the Earth-Shaper of Australian and American aboriginal peoples... "Within the body of the Rainbow Serpent is contained the tree of life, which itself expresses the general pattern of life forms...Its roots are in earth, and its crown in rain, sunlight, and wind. Elemental forces and flows shown external to the oval represent the physical environment, the sun, and the matter of the universe, the materials from which life on earth is formed..." I have conceived of this blog as a tribute to Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, the co-creators of Permaculture, and of the worldwide Permaculture movement.
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