why we need holistic solutions for a world in crisis

Andy Goldring

The premise of this chapter is that our world is facing massive ecological crises, as well as the potentially disastrous social and economic problems that stem from this. In understanding how we can change our world it is important to outline some of the enormous problems it faces and every species that inhabits it. The point of this chapter is not to feel overwhelmed by the extent of the problems, but to examine existing, easy to implement and inspiring approaches that we can use to both improve the environment and the lives we lead, looking at the holistic approach of permaculture in particular as a mechanism in creating change. Sustainable living is more than just a nice life for those that attempt it. It also offers a vision of a better world, and a daily, practical protest against the cultural, corporate and state structures that lay waste to the world.

the ecological crisis and how we got here

That we are living within a rapidly escalating ecological, social, political and economic crisis is beyond doubt. This has been outlined rigorously over the last few decades in reports like The Limits to Growth (1972), Our Common Future (better known as the Brundtland Report) (1987) or landmark books like Fritz Schumacher's Small is Beautiful (1973), as well as the WorldWatch Institute's annual State of the World report (www. worldwatch.org). How we came to be in this situation is less certain. A summary of my view, informed by 15 years of practice working with the Permaculture Association is this. From its earliest beginnings, humankind lived in relative harmony with nature, ruled by its laws, in tune with the seasons and with minimal disruption to the overall ecological system. At the end of the last ice age, climatic conditions changed and productivity increased, and humans in the Middle East, East Africa and China moved from gathering and hunting in small groups to settled agriculture. Impacts were huge and many writers of social and human ecology such as Murray Bookchin, John Zerzan and Michael Sahlins see this as the origins of our present civilisation and its trappings such as hierarchy, division of labour, oppression, trading and specialisation, more complex social organisation, and the first cities. Ultimately these civilisations were unable to manage their resource base and failed. Reasons included soil and tree loss, the collapse of agriculture, war with competing civilisations or an inability to change inappropriate social and environmental practices. These ideas have been eloquently outlined by Jared Diamond in a number of books such as Guns, Germs and Steel (1997) and Collapse (2005).

The 'Medieval Warm Period', alongside new inventions from China, such as the horse chest harness, in the tenth to fourteenth centuries enabled increases in European agricultural yields and the rapid expansion of larger human settlements. Other Chinese inventions such as gunpowder, paper, printing and the compass also had a transformative effect on medieval society. The combination of increased agricultural yields and new inventions enabled small European kingdoms to form the first nation states. Environmental and social limits were overcome through colonial expansion into new lands. The use of millions of mainly African slaves during the seventeenth century allowed companies to exploit the new lands and set up vast trading empires. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries inventor-scientists started to harness the power of water in new ways, with a major leap in industrial capacity occurring when the power of coal was harnessed to create steam engines. The Industrial Revolution had begun, and ushered in a new scale of environmental and social change. Companies flourished and became huge enterprises. The 'enlightenment' and other philosophical movements decided that humans were above nature and therefore it was ours to exploit as we saw fit. In the nineteenth century, we discovered a seemingly limitless supply of easily transportable explosive energy in the form of oil. Human population levels soared and a considerable middle class emerged with aspirations for comfort and a huge appetite for consumer goods (see classic works such as E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class (1968). World wars, the worldwide industrialisation of farming through the petrochemical-based 'green revolution', the 'triumph of capitalism' across the globe backed by new forms of international financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF, and mass media-based propaganda completed our divorce from nature and left most humans reeling from the effects of over-consumption or a life of poverty. There are many excellent commentaries which outline these changes and are included in the resources listed in Chapter 2.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century we face a huge list of interconnected challenges. Here are just a few of them:

* Climate change: The burning of coal, oil and gas, and the clearance of forest for agriculture is changing the climate through the 'greenhouse effect' and may soon reach a 'tipping point' beyond which humans can have no influence. There is now widespread agreement that climate change is the most urgent challenge facing the planet. The Stern report of 2006, written by former World Bank Chief Economist Nicholas Stern, suggests that there is now a 50 per cent chance of temperatures increasing by 5 °C, with catastrophic consequences for every species on the planet.

* Peak oil: A term popularised by scientist M. King Hubbert who, while working for the US Geological Survey, suggested that the world's supply of available oil would peak between 1990 and 2000. He got the date slightly wrong, but there is now wide consensus that we are within a few years of 'Hubbert's peak', with the gas peak following 15-20 years behind (Heinberg 2005). As a result of this peak the energy foundations of industrial society are dwindling. 'Alternatives like biofuels, ethanol or biomass can play a marginal supportive role but nowhere near on the scale required. When the oil runs out the economic and social dislocation will be unprecedented' (Michael Meacher, former UK Environment Minister, quoted in...