Permaculture Ethics - Earth Care
Hi there fellow gardeners!
Last week I gave a brief introduction as to what Permaculture is. And as promised, this week I will dig a little bit deeper. Permaculture is based on three ethical principles, Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share. Today, I am going to talk about Earth Care.
One of the co-founders of Permaculture, Bill Mollison, explains Earth Care as follows in his book “Introduction to Permaculture”: “Care of the earth means care of all living and nonliving things: soils, species and their varieties, atmosphere, forests, micro-habitats, animals, and waters”.
To me this means that we need to consider these things on a daily basis in our life. Sometimes this can be very hard to do as it might mean that we need to give up on certain things in life, things that might make life a little harder or more uncomfortable. We have become so used to comforts in our life that we no longer seem to care if these comforts actually serves us in the long run. A couple of examples that I am sure many of us would benefit having a real good think about:
Starting the day with a cup of coffee: Yes, I am sure it will give you an extra boost that you “need” to wake up in the morning, but how is it actually effecting your life in the long run? Are you sleeping less because you know that the coffee will “save” you in the morning?
Ending the night binge watching a tv-series or your phone: I have definitely been there, and it can feel good in the moment! Just to finally be able to relax and not have to think about anything but what is going on on that screen. But what are the long term effect? Or, what are you potentially missing out on? Recently I have ended almost every night with 30 minutes reading a book, and then 20 minutes of yoga. Was I loving the idea of this when I finally got my children down at 9.30pm? Absolutely not. But how good it is when you’ve done it!
These two examples doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with earth care, but I think they are very relatable to many of us and hopefully that can plant a seed towards other things we can do to benefit rather than deplete the beautiful planet we live on!
Here’s a couple of ways we can implement the earth care ethics into our own lives:
Think about the long term consequences of your actions. Example: What are the long term effects on the planet of buying, and therefore supporting, non organic food?
Bring food growing back into your balcony or back yard! So much can be grown on the smallest of spaces (contact me if you need a hand ;)).
Compost your food waste. If you don’t have much space: Get a worm farm which can fit on any small balcony or backyard, which will be a good start. If you still have surplus food waste, contact someone with a compost and ask to dispose your food waste there.
Next week I will talk about the second Permaculture ethic, People Care!
See you then.
Hampus The Organic Gardener
