permaculture and kids and people

[tielan]

A friend asked if I'd be interested in giving a talk about permaculture to her daughter's class, who are doing a Food Sustainability unit at school.

So on Wednesday, I took a group of 11-12 year olds through the concepts of permaculture:

• 'permanent culture' - cultures that don't eat themselves or consume everything leaving nothing for the future
• the three ethics: earth care, people care, future care
• earth care: looking after the land, feeding it, not poisoning it
• people care: developing community, looking out for others
• future care/fair share: sharing the surplus - including not using too much today so that others might use it tomorrow

I added a couple of principles in there: observe and interact and use patterns from nature, and then took them out on a walk through the park to see what they could see, to think about the natural world and the way it works.

Apparently it went down pretty well. Unfortunately, my friend's daughter has COVID and wasn't at school that day, so...that was sad.

I got hold of a few sheets from a colouring book that's probably aimed at under-10s given the advanced education of kids these days. Honestly, the teacher used the phrase soil biome to talk about an excursion they were originally going to undertake, and I'm thinking I didn't learn that until I was at least in my thirties!

But the day was an opportunity and an experience - for me, as much as for the kids. Our permaculture group has been looking to improve our options for kids and teenagers: working out how to bring them around to a practical, ethical, and conservationist mentality when looking at the world. It's good that schools are teaching sustainability, but for many people the simple equation of 'supporting sustainability' involves things like "go vegan" or "protest climate change".

--

Our solutions never involve inconvenience from those who can afford it. Inconvenience that might involve using public transport rather than a car, choosing not to buy something from a climate change polluter company, only buying food in season instead of whenever we feel like. And I can already feel several people fuming at me while reading this: Are you suggesting that I don't get the medications for my condition? That I struggle through public transport when I'm disabled? That I eat bread and split peas for the rest of my life?

This morning, on one of the retrosuburbia groups, someone posted a cartoon of a woman looking at an outdoor clothesline drying clothes with the caption, "Yes, it's this newfangled technology that works of wind power and sun power." And after about six comments came a woman who said, huffily, "Well, if I put my washing out in midwinter then it comes in frozen!" And...not a single person said or implied that a clothesline should be the option for drying things in cold or wet weather. Not one. Not a single person who would advocate for clotheslines when the sun is out would say 'you should put your washing out on the line in every weather'. Frankly, we're all huffy, outraged, draggers-of-strawmen when it suits us.

We all make choices towards our convenience when possible. We all justify our convenience to everyone around us. And, yeah, some people need medication, or to use personal transport, or to use the dryer when the sun is out because taking it out and hanging it up means they have no spoons for other things. But some people don't. And what most people shy away from is the "if you don't need to, then maybe this time don't" angle.

Eat meatless one day a week. Hang out a load of washing when the sun is high and dry in the sky. Buy fewer things in plastic wrap. Take a keep cup along to Starbucks. And don't skip your medication!

Seriously, people!

One of the things I could have - maybe should have done - that morning of the talk was catch public transport. It would have involved getting myself on a bus, a train, switching trains, and walking, then doing the whole thing in reverse. I could have done it, although it would have cost me in terms of time spent. I didn't. That's one of the choices I mean.

Certainly the people with an excess of resources - time and money and opportunity - never make such a choice. In fact, it's fairly given that they shape the world to their own convenience, with little care or concern for others. That's the nature of excess.

But on a 'middle-upper class level' it's one of the most difficult choices to make: to inconvenience ourselves when we don't have to. When it's just a matter of time (which I had) and money (which I have), and I could have gotten myself organised, I just...didn't.

And if I can't explain that to a bunch of self-aware adults over the internet, then what hope do I have of explaining it to a bunch of pre-teens?

Comments

[wpadmirer]

Actually there's more chance of the children listening. They're not as convinced of their own positions, not as likely to pretend you're asking them something outrageous, and a whole lot less likely to be annoying assholes who put up straw man arguments that they think prove you wrong.

I've taken some steps over the years. I drink tap water at work in a cup that I own. It's a little thing, but I'm not drinking water constantly out of those individual plastic bottles.

Pat and I often eat meatless meals, because we're lazy as fuck and will eat a protein bar and yogurt for supper. So our laziness sometimes enables us to do good things. (grin)

[tielan]

It should always be 'small steps but manageable ones'. Are there caveats? Damn straight! Maybe your tap water isn't drinkable or your pipes are made of lead. Maybe you forgot your cup/bottle and you just ran a marathon? Maybe you need bottled water for Reasons That Aren't Because It Makes Me Look Good To Drink The Right Water. Then, yes, you do what your body - your health - needs.

Context matters.

[lilysea]

Years ago (maybe 2011 or 2012) I remember going to an environmental day held at a library in a very wealthy suburb (Mosman Park/Peppermint grove) - I didn't live in that suburb, but the day was expressly open to anyone in my city

And every single thing they said people should do was something that required more physical energy than I had, and they were framing it as "all of these things are easy and effortless"

and I came away thinking "...and where are the environmental tips for chronically ill people?" I found it really disheartening and depressing and a bit dehumanising - the way they framed it as OF COURSE all humans can do X, Y, Z made me feel less-than-human in the eyes of the people giving the talks or participating in the audience discussions.

Before COVID broke out in my city, I made a point of trying to give away stuff on Buy Nothing or to my local library so that it could have a second life. It was a big effort for me, but I thought it was worth it. I plan to do that again if cases ever go below 500 per day. (At the moment cases are 8731/per day)

I also run glass and plastic thru the dishwasher so that I can put it in recycling bin. It is a major effort for me, but I figure it is The Thing I can Do. Sometimes I throw out plastic containers into the rubbish-rubbish bin rather than [the dishwasher + recycling bin] because I'm exhausted and the containers pile up faster than I can deal with (I literally have a whole lounge/dining room full of piles of rubbish waiting to be sorted), but I make a point of always, ALWAYS dishwashering the glass.

I also chop up cardboard boxes so they can fit into my recycling bin (rather than putting them in the red rubbish-rubbish bin), which is another major effort for me.

Also I've been fighting ants and not reaching for any ant poison because I have fence skinks/geckos/frogs/willie wagtails and I don't want any of them to eat poisoned ants and get sick themselves.

I have two frog ponds, both of which cost effort to keep free of algae and rubbish.

I've been vegetarian since I was 13 years old. (I'm 45 now.)

I share a lot of environmental/conservation information on Facebook, both my personal Facebook and also [My Suburb Name] community notices and chat group.

I'm a member of The Greens and I always vote Greens 1.

I wish I could do more.

I'd like to be able to say yes when the Greens ask me to volunteer to do doorknocking or letterboxing leaflets or handing out how to votes on election day, but even before COVID that wasn't something I could do.

I'd like to pay extra for green electricity, but I can't afford it.

I'd like to use less electricity, but chronic illness/chronic pain means I need a lot of air conditioning and a lot of heating.

I also use a TONNE of single-use disposable thin vinyl gloves due to my skin issues. (Thicker reusable rubber gloves are not suitable for what I use them for)

I was expressing my frustration/guilt/feelings of inadequacy to my friend T, who is a science communicator and very permaculture and environmental, and T said "You should do what you can do, and not feel bad about what you can't do"

I do think we as a society would benefit from "You don't have to be perfect, but do what you can, when you can - it's better for 100% of people to do the right thing 50% of the time than for 50% of the people to do the right thing 100% of the time..."

[tielan]

I was expressing my frustration/guilt/feelings of inadequacy to my friend T, who is a science communicator and very permaculture and environmental, and T said "You should do what you can do, and not feel bad about what you can't do"

Your friend T sounds like the kind of permaculturist that I try to encourage. We can't all DO ALL THE THINGS, and many people have good reasons that they can't. But those of us who can, should. Context is important - context is crucial.

It's just very frustrating to see the people that one is targeting with a message of "you could do more" (because they do have the resources in the relevant dimensions) be the people who brush off the 'doing more' because it's inconvenient, while the people who are already at their limits feel bad about not doing more.

[lilysea]

I wish there was more discussion of barriers to doing the thing that is better for the environment & how society could remove them, too.

back when I was well enough to work

I stopped catching a bus to work and back and started driving in and back every single day

because

a) I experienced so much misogynist harassment and sexual harassment at bus-stops and on buses [and sometimes FROM THE BUS DRIVERS]

b) because the buses were always running late [because the timetables were unrealistic/aspirational, and drivers were penalised for lateness], even when I asked them to wait, the bus drivers would lurch away from the kerb at high speed as soon as I was onboard, so I never got a chance to sit down (even in the priority seats closest to the front door) before the force of the bus accelerating almost knocked me off my feet and aggravated my lower back pain and my hand and wrist pain (from holding on to the bars for dear life)

c) despite the no smoking signs, people were always smoking in the bus shelters, even when it was raining very heavily, so your choices were get drenched to the bone or get a migraine from secondhand cigarette smoke;

d) I got yelled at and painfully physically attacked by a little old lady on a bus because she was upset that I was taking (in her opinion) too long to get the ticket machine to accept my magnetic strip ticket - there was an issue with the ticket machine;

e) the automatic public toilets at the ***unstaffed*** bus depot malfunctioned and I was locked in there for ages and had to telephone 000 for help (because there was no telephone number for help listed inside the automatic public toilets);

f) a man stole my bag on a bus

g) a 15 min car trip took 2 or 3 hours by bus

h) catching the bus home after work meant walking home down a long, deserted, cold, unlit bike path at night
in a high crime area
AND the cold was really bad for my muscle and joint pain

I often think security guards on every single bus and train would = a lot more AFAB people and a lot more trans women catching public transport.

And the idea that the bus driver should never ever get out of their little perspex cage to assist a passenger who is being harrassed or assaulted is bullshit.

There was a case a few years ago in my city where a woman aged somewhere between 16 and 21 was sexually assaulted by another passenger on a bus, and the bus driver just stayed in his little perspex cage and called the police rather than getting out to help keep her safe. :(

Unfortunately, the drivers are told by the bus companies that if they get out of their little perspex cage to help, they won't be covered by worker's compensation if they get injured :(

My partner is close (basically an honorary father/uncle figure) to a young trans woman whose social life is severely curtailed by the fact that she doesn't feel safe catching the train alone at night since she transitioned. :(

The sad thing is, at least for the train line closest to my partner, the young trans woman probably WOULDN'T be safe - she'd be at significant risk of homophobic/transphobic violence. [There's another train line that she probably would be safe on, but the safe train line only goes to expensive suburbs that no one can afford to live in]

And yet there are no security guards at the train station, and security guards are only on about 10% of night time trains. (And 0% of day time trains)

[lilysea]

I wish there was more discussion of barriers to doing the thing that is better for the environment & how society could remove them, too

which is to say - more conversations about

building purpose-built bike paths so cyclists don't get hit by cars

more conversations about security guards on buses and trains and at train stations

rather than just placing the burden on the individual and pretending that there are zero risks/costs from doing the environmentally responsible thing

[timespirt]

Teaching them when they are young will follow them to adulthood as long as the parents don't teach them otherwise. I wish we learned stuff like that when I was younger. Sound like you had fun hon.