More off grid than ever with Solar energy. Panel output doubles 2009 to 2010 and still growing.

Though we have seen scandals with Solyndra and the Obama Whitehouse, the good news is that solar technology is on the rise and with many cities offering rebates and subsidies worldwide, this may be a better time than ever to get into solar. In the following article these interesting numbers and projections are discussed further. If you live in a city, having a grid tied system seems very attractive where what you are not using dumps back into the grid. I personally favour a system where you can switch from grid tied to personal generation and storage, at least for generating essential power such as lights and refrigeration.

Here is the article!

by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute

Solar photovoltaic (PV) companies manufactured a record 24,000 megawatts of PV cells worldwide in 2010, more than doubling their 2009 output. Annual PV production has grown nearly 100-fold since 2000, when just 277 megawatts of cells were made. Newly installed PV also set a record in 2010, as 16,600 megawatts were installed in more than 100 countries. This brought the total worldwide capacity of solar PV to nearly 40,000 megawatts—enough to power 14 million European homes.

Made of semiconductor materials, PV cells convert solar radiation directly into electricity. Rectangular panels consisting of numerous PV cells can be linked into arrays of various sizes and power output capabilities—from rooftop systems measured in kilowatts to ground-mounted arrays of hundreds or even thousands of megawatts. (One megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts.)

There are two main types of PV—traditional crystalline silicon and newer thin-film PV. In 2010, crystalline silicon production was more than double the output of 2009, accounting for over 80 percent of all PV produced. While thin-film production did not keep pace, it still grew by more than 60 percent. First Solar, a U.S. firm, maintained its leadership role in thin-film production, accounting for over 40 percent of world output, most of it produced in Malaysia.

Data provided to Earth Policy Institute by GTM Research show that Chinese manufacturers again dominated the global industry in 2010, with close to 11,000 megawatts of PV cell production. (See Excel data.) This was the seventh consecutive year in which China at least doubled its PV output. Taiwan was a distant second with 3,600 megawatts produced, followed by Japan with 2,200 megawatts, Germany with 2,000 megawatts, and the United States with 1,100. The top five countries thus accounted for 82 percent of total world PV production.

While Germany ranks fourth in solar cell manufacturing, it towers above all other countries in terms of actual electricity generation from solar panels. Germany has widened its lead in this category each year since overtaking Japan in 2004 and, after adding 7,400 megawatts in 2010, now boasts 17,200 megawatts of installed PV. This is more than 40 percent of global capacity and over four times the 3,800 megawatts in Spain, the number two country. PV in Germany now generates enough electricity to meet the power demand of some 3.4 million German homes.

Japan installed close to 1,000 megawatts of new PV capacity in 2010. It is the third-ranked country in installed PV, with a total of 3,600 megawatts. As solar adoption accelerates in Japan, its national target of 28,000 megawatts by 2020 may be easily surpassed, especially as the country weighs energy alternatives following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

By nearly doubling its total PV power capacity in 2010, Italy vaulted past the United States to claim the fourth position in the world solar rankings, with 3,500 megawatts. With an expected 8,000 megawatts of new PV in 2011, likely overtaking Germany in new installations, Italy will have already exceeded its official 2020 goal of 8,000 megawatts. Enel, Italy’s leading utility, sees the country reaching 30,000 megawatts by 2020—enough to satisfy half of its current residential electricity needs.

PV capacity in the United States also saw strong growth in 2010, increasing by more than 50 percent to reach 2,500 total megawatts. California, which now has more than 1,000 megawatts connected to the grid, again led all states in new PV installations. But a number of other states, including New Jersey, Nevada, and Arizona, are ramping up their solar capacity as well, driven by programs and incentives at the state and federal levels.

Until very recently, China’s status as PV manufacturing powerhouse had not translated into much solar generation at home, as panels were seen as too expensive in the domestic market. While the vast majority of Chinese-made PV is sent abroad, a growing government commitment to increasing solar power as part of the energy mix is now catalyzing substantial PV capacity gains. Total installed PV in China grew 140 percent to nearly 900 megawatts in 2010. This was the first full year for the national Golden Sun program, which covers half the investment and grid connection costs of a solar project. It is expected to result in at least 1,000 megawatts of new installations each year after 2012.

Furthermore, in August 2011 China’s main economic planning agency announced it was implementing a national PV feed-in tariff. This policy tool, now used by more than 60 countries, is behind most of the PV already installed worldwide. A feed-in tariff typically guarantees generators of renewable electricity a long-term purchase price for each kilowatt-hour they produce and “feed into” the grid, providing a powerful incentive for installing such systems. Together the Golden Sun program and the new feed-in tariff are likely to push China’s PV capacity to at least double again in 2011—and may help explain why the country’s solar power targets for 2015 and 2020 have reportedly risen to 10,000 and 50,000 megawatts, respectively.

Although the cost of PV has fallen substantially over the decades, solar-generated electricity is not yet widely price-competitive with electricity generated by heavily subsidized fossil fuels. If the full cost of burning fossil fuels, including health effects and the costs of climate change, were incorporated into the price of electricity, PV would quickly be revealed as one of the least expensive sources of power.

As system costs continue to drop, the PV landscape is evolving to include not only traditional small-scale PV installations but also utility-scale parks of tens, hundreds, or even thousands of megawatts. An 80-megawatt PV park completed in Canada in 2010 was the world’s largest until September 2011, when a newly-expanded PV complex of close to 150 megawatts in northeastern Germany claimed the title. As of late 2011, the United States had 48 PV projects of 100 megawatts or more in the pipeline, including a 5,000-megawatt park to be sited on degraded farmland in California’s San Joaquin Valley. At peak generation, this solar facility’s electricity output would rival that of five large nuclear power plants.

Multi-megawatt projects are also under development in India as part of the National Solar Mission that was announced in late 2009. Though the country had just 100 megawatts of installed PV capacity at the end of 2010, the goal is for some 22,000 megawatts of solar power—half PV and half concentrating solar power—to be installed by 2022. The western state of Gujarat alone plans to have 3,000 megawatts installed by 2015.

Part of the National Solar Mission’s PV expansion is destined for rural areas where millions lack access to electricity. As is the case in many other developing countries, there is vast potential in India for PV to provide power in places without an electric grid. Installing small solar systems on homes is often much less expensive than building a central power plant, with the added benefit of greatly reducing indoor air pollution from kerosene lamps.

Industry analysts forecast that some 21,000 megawatts of PV will be installed globally in 2011. This would be a marked slowdown from the doubling of the market in 2010, but the pool of countries with rising demand for PV still continues to grow. New markets such as Slovakia and the United Kingdom are among the 20 countries expected to add 100 megawatts or more in 2011, up from 13 countries in 2010.

As PV costs drop, as concerns about climate change grow, and as countries look to replace finite fossil fuels with energy sources that can never run out, the growth in solar power should continue. The potential is practically without limit: a 2011 article published in Energy Policy (PDF) shows that solar PV deployed in suitable locations could generate 30 times the electricity currently produced worldwide.

Creating Designer Life and Remaking the World from the Atom up

 

By Barbara H. Peterson

Farm Wars

The same species that brought to life Chernobyl, Fukushima, Agent Orange, 2 world wars, mass genocides, and planetary death via poisons and genetic manipulation, now thinks it has the expertise to “remake the world from the atom up,” and actually get it right.

The plan? World domination, of course! What else? Let’s see, if I was a psychotic megalomaniac with oodles of spare cash just lying around, and a bit of time on my hands, I just might concentrate on my favorite pastime. And that is…. ruling the world, of course! But I would need someone to rule. How about say…… this scenario:

The degredation of the human species into two categories: A “higher” order of transhuman created by designer life technology, and a “lower” order of man fit for certain mundane tasks, created through atmospheric poisons and genetic manipulation at the molecular level.

Remaking the world from the atom up

Nano products – Click to expand

Nanotechnology is a powerful new technology for taking apart and reconstructing nature at the atomic and molecular level. Nanotechnology embodies the dream that scientists can remake the world from the atom up, using atomic level manipulation to transform and construct a wide range of new materials, devices, living organisms and technological systems. http://nano.foe.org.au/node/198

And we are surrounded. Yes, nanotechnology is here, live and in person. Has been for years. We’ve all seen what the world has made of other such scientific dreams, and I shudder to think of what is coming with this one due to our inability to know our own weaknesses. Especially with that other sticky little problem of greed always seeming to enter into the equation.

…”bottom-up” nanotechnology is closely associated with developments in genetic engineering and the creation of biocomputers. Medical research in nanotechnology is already also fairly advanced. http://explainingthefuture.com/nanotechnology.html

“Future biocomputers will have living microprocessors, possibly crafted from synthetic DNA.”

Transhumanism

Will future transhumans be the ultimate biocomputer with intelligence derived from microprocessors using synthetic DNA and “human modification and enhancement technologies?”

We favour allowing individuals wide personal choice over how they enable their lives. This includes use of techniques that may be developed to assist memory, concentration, and mental energy; life extension therapies; reproductive choice technologies; cryonics procedures; and many other possible human modification and enhancement technologies. http://humanityplus.org/learn/transhumanist-declaration/

Will a future sub-species of non-enhanced humans be phased out as more useful and compliant forms of synthetic life that have been manufactured to feel no pain, or lift 400 pounds, or stand in one place for hours and not need a break, or work waist deep in an open pit mining operation become the norm?

Factors that should be considered when you alter life in this manner are:

1. Where does the human begin, and the machine and synthetic life end?
2. Will transhumanism eventually phase out the human race if allowed to continue unabated?
3. What percentage of “human” will it take to be considered an organic life form?
4. And the biggest question of all…. where is the part that makes us truly human – the soul? Are we really that arrogant to think that we can create an artificial soul, or simply do without?

Understanding Synthetic Biology

“Synthetic biology either builds new life using standardized genetic building blocks, or makes radical changes to existing life forms.” Christopher Barnatt

Synthetic – That means no soul, no spark of intuition or artistic intelligence. Nothing resembling ‘humanity’ or real life at all. A lump of artificial matter, designed for a particular function, that’s it. Point and click, and the designer DNA takes over.

Future Shock

As this world becomes more and more polluted and uninhabitable for the rest of humanity, those that can afford it will be able to upgrade. Those of us who can’t will undergo a genetic hailstorm designed to lower our I.Q.s, stunt our growth, sterilize us, and turn us into a good little slave race of sub-human troglodytes, ready, willing and able to do the dirtiest of tasks that the “super race” of genetically superior transhumans wouldn’t think of doing. Not a pretty picture, but one worthy of a psychotic megalomaniac with oodles of spare cash just lying around, and a bit of time on his/her hands.

So, before we go down this road, think of this: No one snowflake is alike, and no one man is alike. A higher intelligence than man designed it that way. We do not have the knowledge nor the ability to arrogantly take over creation and remake the world in our own image without messing it up. We are simply not that damned smart.

Technology is good. Technology is fun. But there is a line that should never be crossed. And that is the line that exists between dominating our technology and letting it dominate us. Do we really want this kind of future? Do we really want to fulfill some oligarch’s demented dream of Utopia, and lose our humanity in the process? If the criminal oligarchy and technocrats get their way, we won’t have a choice.

© 2011 Barbara H. Peterson

A novel and super efficient model for the new agriculture- food forests

As part of my permaculture design training, one very interesting subject that we touched on is that of food forests, a novel and efficient manner of producing food that is completely removed from our current forms of agriculture and which is much more in harmony with our origins in nature. Many consider it to resemble a created garden of Eden, where all plants live in harmony with one another and where pesticides and herbicides are not even part of the equation. In fact, an established food forest needs very little care, only passive care and harvesting and its yields far surpass those of traditional agriculture. Have a look at this interesting article by Angelo Eliades, an expert in this subject.

We’re all familiar with the concept of forests — lush, abundant expanses of pristine wilderness, teeming with life, a richness of biodiversity and awe-inspiring to behold. Trees and plants intertwined, filling every possible space, the very well-spring of life itself!

Forests exist fine on their own. There’s no mowing, weeding, spraying, or digging required. No pesticides, fertilisers, herbicides or nasty chemicals. No work and no people either. They somehow do very well, thank you.

Now, imagine if everything in this lush, abundant, spectacular forest was edible!

If you can imagine what this would look like, if you can picture this in your mind’s eye, then you’re not far from the mark of what a food forest is like in real life.

By understanding how forests grow and sustain themselves without human intervention, we can learn from Nature, copy the systems and patterns to model our own forests — ones filled with trees and plants that produce food we can eat. We can design and construct the most sustainable food production systems possible; perfected, refined and cared for by Mother Nature herself.

If this concept brings up any doubts or scepticism for you as to whether this is something that works in real life, let me reassure you that food forests are a provenconcept. Yes, they’re up and running around the world, and they even work in urban areas. I should know, I design and build them!

So, you’re probably wondering how it all works, what the benefits are, whether it’s more productive or cost effective than regular commercial agricultural systems, and so on. Well, we’ll address all these questions and more as we explore the case for food forests in this article, so I welcome you to read on!

Why Forests?

It’s either this…

Or this…. The difference is obvious!

 The difference is – LIFE!

Forests are life

• Forests are home to approximately 50-90% of all the world’s terrestrial (land-living) biodiversity — including the pollinators and wild relatives of many agricultural crops (Source: WWF Living Planet Report 2010)
• Tropical forests alone are estimated to contain between 10-50 million species -over 50% of species on the planet.
• Rainforests cover 2% of the Earth’s surface and 6% of its land mass, yet they are home to over half of the world’s plant and animal species.

From these basic facts, it should be evident that forests themselves are synonymous with life, biodiversity and fertility. Where life gathers, complex and mutually beneficial relationships are created between organisms; natural harmonious communities form, and life forms multiply and proliferate.

If forests are where most of the life on the planet is, then anything less than a forest is most likely less suited to supporting life. Life supports life, yet we have forgotten that we are in fact part of the web of life itself, and depend on other life to sustain ours.

Humans tear down forests to create ‘fields’. The word derives from the idea that everything in the area has been ‘felled’ – that is cut down and cleared. In these cleared areas we build cities and farms. How much life and biodiversity do you see in your surroundings day to day compared to what exists in a forest? The answer should be self-evident, and the concept that ‘forests are life’ axiomatic.

Forest facts

• Nature has been growing plants for 460 million years, and trees for 370 million years — Modern humans first appear in the fossil record in Africa about 195,000 years ago.
• Trees once covered nearly all of Earth’s land mass, today they cover about 3.9 billion hectares or just over 9.6 billion acres, which is only about 29.6% of Earth’s total land area.
• Today, there are only three great forests left on Earth: the Amazon Forest of Brazil, and the boreal forests in Russia and Canada.

Trees have been around for much longer than humanity. All the oil and coal we are burning away at a frantic rate was formed from the decomposed remain of ancient forests, millions of years old, which is why they’re called fossil fuels!

We are relative newcomers on this planet, yet we think from the perspective of a single lifetime, and so often from a much shorter time span. Forest have formed a balanced ecosystem that spanned the length and breadth of the planet long before humanity appeared, but now forests are in a pitiful state. What we seem to forget is that these forests were responsible for nursing and rearing all life on this planet at one point or another, and still function as the planet’s life support system.

Forests are the perfect design

• With 460 million years experience, and a 9.6 billion acre garden, Mother Nature has refined the way to grow self sustaining gardens better than anyone! No weeding, spraying or watering!!!
• Nature has supported, fed, clothed and sheltered humanity for 95% of its existence – agriculture only first emerged 10,000 years ago.
• It stands that Nature is obviously the best (and only!) model available for us to imitate for growing gardens.

Here is where some real perspective can radically change our view of the world and our sense of place in it.

In our day to day lives, when we want to learn how to do something, we usually (hopefully!) intend to do whatever it is that we want to do well! That is, with a degree of competency, efficiency and effectiveness. We may even strive towards mastery, chasing the elusive goal of perfection.

This seems to be the case whether we are learning to play a sport, take up a new hobby, or starting a serious enterprise. Obviously, the best place to start is to see if someone has already done what we’re trying to do, and then we look to the best to learn from. We look for people to model ourselves on – Exemplars. By definition, an exemplar is a model or pattern to be copied or imitated. If we’re learning to play a sport, we naturally won’t want to model amateurish or incompetent people. Instead, we choose to imitate the champions in the area. So, what makes them champions? Their scale and quality of their successes, their experience, and their credentials.

So what if that enterprise we were undertaking was that of growing food?

Think of the best gardener you know, how much skill, experience and success do they have under their belt? What system of growing plants have they devised,  and how sustainable are these systems? Are they energy intensive or energy neutral?

Now, lets reflect back to Mother Nature herself, hundreds of millions of years of growing every plant in existence, thriving without human intervention (without human existence for the greatest part), without any inputs of energy other than those supplied by natural systems — truly an exemplar to model.

What do we do then as a people? The most illogical thing imaginable, of course! We try to reinvent the wheel. But not only do we try to do the absurd and match nature, we delude ourselves that we can better nature in our insignificantly short lives, in our insignificantly short industrialised society, in its insignificantly short trial period where we are yet to determine whether this path taken by human society is even a viable one!

Humans in modern societies have the misconception that nature has to be fought, conquered and controlled. That’s a far cry from the ancient or more ‘primitive’ societies who see the Earth as their Mother. An interesting point to reflect on.

Why Food Forests?

Improve on Nature???  If this is an improvement on a forest for sustaining life, I think we’re in trouble….

Can we do better?

Here are some of the consequences of out inept attempts to ‘better’ nature (see pictures below). Modern agriculture creates unbalanced monocultures that are preserved through relentless chemical warfare. Not only are we doing a terrible job of it, but we’re poisoning Nature and ourselves in the process.

 

• Somewhere between 8500 and 7000 BC, humans in the Fertile Crescent in Middle East began the systematic husbandry of plants and animals – a system we call Agriculture.
• Surely we can do better than bare field row-planted monocultures after 10,000 years of practising agriculture?

Nature is referred to as ‘Mother Nature’ for a reason, it’s what mothered us; that is fed, clothed and sheltered us for most of our relatively short existence on this planet. Perspective can be a threatening thing to our slumbering minds! Somewhere along the line, we lost our reverence for Nature, our belief in the connection to all living things, and our sense of harmony with our surroundings. We discarded those ‘primitive’ beliefs because we gained ‘progress’. We had our supposed ‘Age of Enlightenment’, religiously followed the cult of rationalism where we swapped our reverence for Nature with a misplaced reverence for the human mind, and while we lay prostrated at the altar of human reasoning, we lost our place in the world. Regrettably, since we became convinced that nothing existed that was higher than the human mind, our arrogant thinking led us to believe that ‘our place’ was above Nature. Being in such an exalted place meant we ruled Nature, and if it disobeyed, we would beat it into submission.

We may laugh at the true story of the Roman Emperor Caligula had declared himself a god and had the sea whipped with chains for its disobedience, but how different is modern humanity’s approach to Nature – as something to be fought, conquered and controlled. The same brutal wars we wage on each other, with the same deadly weapons, we do to Nature also. We wage chemical and biological warfare on Nature and her creatures, and while it appears to be the most futile, pointless and destructive of wars, we persist even to our own detriment. Such is our short-sightedness as a species. With this anthropocentric perspective, where everything revolves around mankind, no good can come of this.

Humanity is collectively guilty of trying to twist and deform the facts about how nature works to fit into what are predominantly closed minds filled with ill-founded beliefs.

These distorted beliefs are very real. Biotechnologists firmly believe that humanity’s ‘salvation’ lies in them ‘engineering’ staple crops through genetic modification to provide all our needs and save humanity from starvation. This form of messianic thinking is seriously deluded, and their corporate overlords couldn’t care less  other than from the profits these patented life forms could potentially generate. Call me critical, but these claims are not scientific, and as a person with qualifications in the sciences, I frankly find these claims offensive, for they are simply ‘faith based statements’ without any evidence to support the veracity of such claims, masquerading as science.

Meanwhile, traditional agricultural practices are destroying large tracts of land through soil erosion, salinity, overuse of chemical fertilisers, destruction of supporting ecosystems (that bring rain for example). If one takes off the ideological blinkers, and steps outside of the context of our current age and society, it is glaringly obvious we’re heading for a dead-end and quickly gaining speed, hastening an ominous conclusion.

Just to add a bit more perspective to the picture about how lost humanity is, I have heard academics arguing against the ‘green movement’, raising the preposterous argument that “nature (and therefore life) has no value above its usefulness to humanity” – need I say more….

Now, if anyone thinks our current path is “improving on nature”, and has placed their faith in this process, I seriously urge them to critically examine their world view. If you can see that things aren’t quite right, but want to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem, then read on!

There is a better way!

• Why reinvent the wheel when a better one already exists, look to Nature!
• We can design and build natural ecosystems full of life, that look after themselves, just like a forest — but which contain plants of our choosing.
• The design system of Permaculture looks at natural systems and patterns, and emulates them to design food production systems and human settlements that integrate harmoniously with Nature.

Why dig like this?

 When the experts are available….

How Nature grows plants

We look at Nature’s system, and we copy them, so nature does our work for us, just like using earthworms to dig! That’s the spirit of Permaculture. No need for hard work…

Nature grows in a highly optimised pattern, utilising multiple layers and making the most of both horizontal and vertical space.

A food forest typically is comprised of seven layers, the uppermost layer being the canopy layer. The canopy layer is comprised of tall trees — typically large fruit and nut trees. Between the tall canopy layer trees, there is a layer of low growing, typically dwarf fruit trees. Mind you, a dwarf fruit tree can be up to 4m (12’) tall, so don’t think these are necessarily very low trees! Nestled between all the small trees are the shrubs – which are well represented by currants and berries. Filling the remaining space are the herbaceous layer, these are the culinary and medicinal herbs, companion plants, bee-forage plants and poultry forage plants. Any remaining space is occupied by ground cover plants. These form a living mulch that protects the soil, reduces water loss to evaporation, and prevents weeds growing. We can still go a level deeper to the rhizosphere, or root zone, the underground level which is occupied by all our root crops, such as potatoes, carrots, ginger, yacon, etc. While that might seem like a lot of plants in one space, we still have one more to fill, the upright vertical space. This is filled by climbers and vines, which can be run up trellises, arbours, fences, trees or any other vertical support. This category includes grapes, climbing beans, many berries, passionfruit, kiwi fruit, climbing peas, chokos and many other species that love to climb.

Now there are a lot of misconceptions about what a food forest actually is that I would like to clear up.

 The difference is – LIFE!

Forests are life

• Forests are home to approximately 50-90% of all the world’s terrestrial (land-living) biodiversity — including the pollinators and wild relatives of many agricultural crops (Source: WWF Living Planet Report 2010)
• Tropical forests alone are estimated to contain between 10-50 million species -over 50% of species on the planet.
• Rainforests cover 2% of the Earth’s surface and 6% of its land mass, yet they are home to over half of the world’s plant and animal species.

From these basic facts, it should be evident that forests themselves are synonymous with life, biodiversity and fertility. Where life gathers, complex and mutually beneficial relationships are created between organisms; natural harmonious communities form, and life forms multiply and proliferate.

If forests are where most of the life on the planet is, then anything less than a forest is most likely less suited to supporting life. Life supports life, yet we have forgotten that we are in fact part of the web of life itself, and depend on other life to sustain ours.

Humans tear down forests to create ‘fields’. The word derives from the idea that everything in the area has been ‘felled’ – that is cut down and cleared. In these cleared areas we build cities and farms. How much life and biodiversity do you see in your surroundings day to day compared to what exists in a forest? The answer should be self-evident, and the concept that ‘forests are life’ axiomatic.

Forest facts

• Nature has been growing plants for 460 million years, and trees for 370 million years — Modern humans first appear in the fossil record in Africa about 195,000 years ago.
• Trees once covered nearly all of Earth’s land mass, today they cover about 3.9 billion hectares or just over 9.6 billion acres, which is only about 29.6% of Earth’s total land area.
• Today, there are only three great forests left on Earth: the Amazon Forest of Brazil, and the boreal forests in Russia and Canada.

Trees have been around for much longer than humanity. All the oil and coal we are burning away at a frantic rate was formed from the decomposed remain of ancient forests, millions of years old, which is why they’re called fossil fuels!

We are relative newcomers on this planet, yet we think from the perspective of a single lifetime, and so often from a much shorter time span. Forest have formed a balanced ecosystem that spanned the length and breadth of the planet long before humanity appeared, but now forests are in a pitiful state. What we seem to forget is that these forests were responsible for nursing and rearing all life on this planet at one point or another, and still function as the planet’s life support system.

Forests are the perfect design

• With 460 million years experience, and a 9.6 billion acre garden, Mother Nature has refined the way to grow self sustaining gardens better than anyone! No weeding, spraying or watering!!!
• Nature has supported, fed, clothed and sheltered humanity for 95% of its existence – agriculture only first emerged 10,000 years ago.
• It stands that Nature is obviously the best (and only!) model available for us to imitate for growing gardens.

Here is where some real perspective can radically change our view of the world and our sense of place in it.

In our day to day lives, when we want to learn how to do something, we usually (hopefully!) intend to do whatever it is that we want to do well! That is, with a degree of competency, efficiency and effectiveness. We may even strive towards mastery, chasing the elusive goal of perfection.

This seems to be the case whether we are learning to play a sport, take up a new hobby, or starting a serious enterprise. Obviously, the best place to start is to see if someone has already done what we’re trying to do, and then we look to the best to learn from. We look for people to model ourselves on – Exemplars. By definition, an exemplar is a model or pattern to be copied or imitated. If we’re learning to play a sport, we naturally won’t want to model amateurish or incompetent people. Instead, we choose to imitate the champions in the area. So, what makes them champions? Their scale and quality of their successes, their experience, and their credentials.

So what if that enterprise we were undertaking was that of growing food?

Think of the best gardener you know, how much skill, experience and success do they have under their belt? What system of growing plants have they devised,  and how sustainable are these systems? Are they energy intensive or energy neutral?

Now, lets reflect back to Mother Nature herself, hundreds of millions of years of growing every plant in existence, thriving without human intervention (without human existence for the greatest part), without any inputs of energy other than those supplied by natural systems — truly an exemplar to model.

What do we do then as a people? The most illogical thing imaginable, of course! We try to reinvent the wheel. But not only do we try to do the absurd and match nature, we delude ourselves that we can better nature in our insignificantly short lives, in our insignificantly short industrialised society, in its insignificantly short trial period where we are yet to determine whether this path taken by human society is even a viable one!

Humans in modern societies have the misconception that nature has to be fought, conquered and controlled. That’s a far cry from the ancient or more ‘primitive’ societies who see the Earth as their Mother. An interesting point to reflect on.

Why Food Forests?

Improve on Nature???  If this is an improvement on a forest for sustaining life, I think we’re in trouble….

Can we do better?

Here are some of the consequences of out inept attempts to ‘better’ nature (see pictures below). Modern agriculture creates unbalanced monocultures that are preserved through relentless chemical warfare. Not only are we doing a terrible job of it, but we’re poisoning Nature and ourselves in the process.

 

• Somewhere between 8500 and 7000 BC, humans in the Fertile Crescent in Middle East began the systematic husbandry of plants and animals – a system we call Agriculture.
• Surely we can do better than bare field row-planted monocultures after 10,000 years of practising agriculture?

Nature is referred to as ‘Mother Nature’ for a reason, it’s what mothered us; that is fed, clothed and sheltered us for most of our relatively short existence on this planet. Perspective can be a threatening thing to our slumbering minds! Somewhere along the line, we lost our reverence for Nature, our belief in the connection to all living things, and our sense of harmony with our surroundings. We discarded those ‘primitive’ beliefs because we gained ‘progress’. We had our supposed ‘Age of Enlightenment’, religiously followed the cult of rationalism where we swapped our reverence for Nature with a misplaced reverence for the human mind, and while we lay prostrated at the altar of human reasoning, we lost our place in the world. Regrettably, since we became convinced that nothing existed that was higher than the human mind, our arrogant thinking led us to believe that ‘our place’ was above Nature. Being in such an exalted place meant we ruled Nature, and if it disobeyed, we would beat it into submission.

We may laugh at the true story of the Roman Emperor Caligula had declared himself a god and had the sea whipped with chains for its disobedience, but how different is modern humanity’s approach to Nature – as something to be fought, conquered and controlled. The same brutal wars we wage on each other, with the same deadly weapons, we do to Nature also. We wage chemical and biological warfare on Nature and her creatures, and while it appears to be the most futile, pointless and destructive of wars, we persist even to our own detriment. Such is our short-sightedness as a species. With this anthropocentric perspective, where everything revolves around mankind, no good can come of this.

Humanity is collectively guilty of trying to twist and deform the facts about how nature works to fit into what are predominantly closed minds filled with ill-founded beliefs.

These distorted beliefs are very real. Biotechnologists firmly believe that humanity’s ‘salvation’ lies in them ‘engineering’ staple crops through genetic modification to provide all our needs and save humanity from starvation. This form of messianic thinking is seriously deluded, and their corporate overlords couldn’t care less  other than from the profits these patented life forms could potentially generate. Call me critical, but these claims are not scientific, and as a person with qualifications in the sciences, I frankly find these claims offensive, for they are simply ‘faith based statements’ without any evidence to support the veracity of such claims, masquerading as science.

Meanwhile, traditional agricultural practices are destroying large tracts of land through soil erosion, salinity, overuse of chemical fertilisers, destruction of supporting ecosystems (that bring rain for example). If one takes off the ideological blinkers, and steps outside of the context of our current age and society, it is glaringly obvious we’re heading for a dead-end and quickly gaining speed, hastening an ominous conclusion.

Just to add a bit more perspective to the picture about how lost humanity is, I have heard academics arguing against the ‘green movement’, raising the preposterous argument that “nature (and therefore life) has no value above its usefulness to humanity” – need I say more….

Now, if anyone thinks our current path is “improving on nature”, and has placed their faith in this process, I seriously urge them to critically examine their world view. If you can see that things aren’t quite right, but want to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem, then read on!

There is a better way!

• Why reinvent the wheel when a better one already exists, look to Nature!
• We can design and build natural ecosystems full of life, that look after themselves, just like a forest — but which contain plants of our choosing.
• The design system of Permaculture looks at natural systems and patterns, and emulates them to design food production systems and human settlements that integrate harmoniously with Nature.

Why dig like this?

 When the experts are available….

How Nature grows plants

We look at Nature’s system, and we copy them, so nature does our work for us, just like using earthworms to dig! That’s the spirit of Permaculture. No need for hard work…

Nature grows in a highly optimised pattern, utilising multiple layers and making the most of both horizontal and vertical space.

A food forest typically is comprised of seven layers, the uppermost layer being the canopy layer. The canopy layer is comprised of tall trees — typically large fruit and nut trees. Between the tall canopy layer trees, there is a layer of low growing, typically dwarf fruit trees. Mind you, a dwarf fruit tree can be up to 4m (12’) tall, so don’t think these are necessarily very low trees! Nestled between all the small trees are the shrubs – which are well represented by currants and berries. Filling the remaining space are the herbaceous layer, these are the culinary and medicinal herbs, companion plants, bee-forage plants and poultry forage plants. Any remaining space is occupied by ground cover plants. These form a living mulch that protects the soil, reduces water loss to evaporation, and prevents weeds growing. We can still go a level deeper to the rhizosphere, or root zone, the underground level which is occupied by all our root crops, such as potatoes, carrots, ginger, yacon, etc. While that might seem like a lot of plants in one space, we still have one more to fill, the upright vertical space. This is filled by climbers and vines, which can be run up trellises, arbours, fences, trees or any other vertical support. This category includes grapes, climbing beans, many berries, passionfruit, kiwi fruit, climbing peas, chokos and many other species that love to climb.

Now there are a lot of misconceptions about what a food forest actually is that I would like to clear up.

 

• Rows of trees are not food forests. They are instead what is described as an orchard.
• Rows of trees with some other plant underneath are not food forests,  they are orchards with under-plantings.
• Rows of trees with rows of other plants alternating between them are not  food forests, they are orchards employing intercropping.

A food forest my not necessarily have all seven layers, but it does have multiple layers, and even more importantly, it is a virtually self-sustaining living ecosystem.

In terms of form, the very thing that differentiates it from a two dimensional field of lettuce or any other monoculture is that it is a three dimensional structure.

In terms of function, being a living ecosystem gives it properties and attributes that are not present in agricultural systems and many gardens.

The benefits to be realised from food forests are as follows:

High Productivity

• High density planting ensures high yields.
• Biodiversity ensures continuous food supply throughout the year.

Natural Mulch, Compost & Fertilizer

• Just like a forest, food forests are self-mulching and cover the soil on their own to retain moisture.
• With such a high plant density, a high volume of fallen leaves accumulates and rots down to add organic matter to the soil.
• Decomposers, the class of insects that break down organic matter, such as earthworms, wood lice (pill bugs, slaters), and  millipedes, work to help the natural composting process.

Natural Pest Control

• No chemicals required! Food forests use natural predators to get rid of pests – letting the experts do the work, naturally.
• Predatory insects have a permanent home (a natural ecosystem) and abundant food sources (nectar rich flowers) in a food forest. Provide these and they will come on their own! A regular veggie patch is a home only for pest insects, there’s nowhere for good bugs to live!
• An abundant, living ecosystem will attract birds and other larger predators, further contributing to natural pest control.

Resilience Through Biodiversity – Strength in Numbers

• Nature does not grow large areas of one plant species (or plants in neat rows either!), Nature prefers biodiversity, not monocultures! Mixing different types of plant together makes them grow better, period. It creates a natural synergy that benefits all the plants involved. The plants as a result are more resistant to pests and disease, and are more productive (and nicer to look at!).
• The use of Companion planting allow us to recreate nature’s biodiversity to gain these benefits

Easy Soil Repair – Chop n’ Drop

• In Nature, when plants die off, they stay in place. They’re not uprooted and binned! Don’t uproot annuals that have finished, cut the stem at soil level. The roots rot away to create thousands of intricate air and water channels in the soil. The tops of the chopped plants create a natural sheet compost system like the forest floor
• Preserve your soil, build paths. Don’t step in your garden beds, the soil is alive!!! (It’s actually a more complex ecosystem than anything that exists above ground). Stepping in your garden beds compacts the soil, closing all the air and water channels, making it harder for water and air to reach plant roots, which impairs the growth of plants.

Putting it all together…

A Food Forest is built to emulate a real forest — only we fill it with the food plants and trees that we want.

Real forests don’t need any work, they self-maintain — no pesticides, herbicides, weeding, crop rotation, mowing or digging. Food forests don’t need any of this either! Less work, more food, all natural! Why would you do anything else?

In conclusion, if we look beyond our modernised culture to Nature’s most advanced and life-abundant plant growing systems, it is clearly evident that working with Nature isthe wisest and most productive path to sustainable food production.

 

New alloy could split water to make fuel

Dutch Scientist Creates Bulletproof Human Skin

A Dutch scientist has made a very unique claim that the oldest science fiction, which showed that Bulletproof vests worn by popular super hero, would soon be converted into reality as with a combination of spider silk and goat milk they have successfully have made bulletproof human skin.

However, providing detailed information about the experiment, reports further claimed that in order to make the experiment findings more reliable, researchers hereditarily examined sample of goat milk which contained the same silk spider protein, and surprisingly they discovered the material from weaving both the proteins. It was apparently ten times stronger than steel.

Full Article

Public Law 105-85 – We Object to The Chemtrails Being Sprayed

 

• overview
• petition

• Target: United State Congress
• Sponsored by: “Divinely Toxic” – Educational Services for the health of the Public

Please read through this public law before signing this petition to stop DOD from Spraying Bio-hazardous chemicals, fungi and waste over our heads each day. It is important as an active participant in government to read the Public law often, as this is the article needed to stop the possible spraying of Chemtrails.

As it is public law, and for our open viewing, the government considers that’s our agreement to be tested upon if we do not voice our objection. Biochemicals, Fungi, Infectious diseases possibly are being spread over our homes often, and without any true notification; Please sign this petition to stop the government from doing such things as the law requires civilian participation. If and when this occurs, if we choose to state we are against it, it will not continue, or start.

PUBLIC LAW 105-85 – SEC. 1078. RESTRICTIONS ON THE USE OF HUMAN SUBJECTS FOR TESTING OF CHEMICAL OR BIOLOGICAL AGENTS.

 

(a) PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES.%u2014The Secretary of Defense may not

 

conduct (directly or by contract)
(1) any test or experiment involving the use of a chemical agent or biological agent on a civilian population; or
(2) any other testing of a chemical agent or biological agent on human subjects.

 

(B) EXCEPTIONS: Subject to subsections (c), (d), and (e), the

 

prohibition in subsection (a) does not apply to a test or experiment carried out for any of the following purposes:

 

(1) Any peaceful purpose that is related to a medical, therapeutic, pharmaceutical, agricultural, industrial, or research activity.

 

(2) Any purpose that is directly related to protection against toxic chemicals or biological weapons and agents.

 

(3) Any law enforcement purpose, including any purpose related to riot control.

 

(c) INFORMED CONSENT REQUIRED: The Secretary of Defense may conduct
a test or experiment described in subsection (b) only if informed consent to the testing was obtained from each human subject in advance of the testing on that subject.

(d)PRIOR NOTICE TO CONGRESS: Not later than 30 days after the date of final approval within the Department of Defense of plans for any experiment or study to be conducted by the Department of Defense #whether directly or under contract# involving the use of human subjects for the testing of a chemical agent or a biological agent, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on National Security of the House of Representatives a report setting forth a full accounting of those plans, and the experiment or study may then be conducted only after the end of the 30-day period beginning on the date such report is received by those committees.

 

(Which means that we aren’t directly asked on how we feel about this. The government requires participation in posted public laws, and if sections of government bet on us not reading the public laws, then they can continue in what they desire to do. Technically as it is posted as a Public Law, if we do not object to this, it’s as if we condone it. How many people out there read public laws on a daily basis? This is their loop hole. So we should be aware and petition against this and tell them, “No Thank you on this issue.”)

 

(e) BIOLOGICAL AGENT DEFINED.%u2014In this section, the term

 

“biological agent” means any micro-organism (including bacteria, viruses, fungi, rickettsiac, or protozoa), pathogen, or infectious substance, and any naturally occurring, bio engineered, or synthesized component of any such micro-organism, pathogen, or infectious substance,whatever its origin or method of production, that is capable
of causing)

 

(1) death, disease, or other biological malfunction in
human, an animal, a plant, or another living organism;
(2) deterioration of food, water, equipment, supplies, or
materials of any kind; or (3) deleterious alteration of the environment.
(f) REPORT AND CERTIFICATION: Section 1703(b) of the National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994 (50 U.S.C. 1523(b)
is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
(9) A description of any program involving the testing
of biological or chemical agents on human subjects that was
carried out by the Department of Defense during the period
covered by the report, together with
(A) a detailed justification for the testing;
(B) a detailed explanation of the purposes of the
testing;
(C) a description of each chemical or biological agent
tested; and
(D) the Secretary certification that informed consent
to the testing was obtained from each human subject in
advance of the testing on that subject.
(g) REPEAL OF SUPERSEDED PROVISION OF LAW Section 808
of the Department of Defense Appropriation Authorization Act,
1978 (50 U.S.C. 1520), is repealed.

If this is an issue, the simple fact that most Americans are not reading this PUBLIC LAW collection, is the reason why. Not because its some conspiracy, but because average Americans are not responding to the laws posted to be objected.

THANK YOU

666 – CERN Officials May Have Witnessed ‘God Particle’

 

Saturday, 23 July 2011, 05:40 CDT

RedOrbit.com

Scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) may have gotten their first look at the so-called “God particle” — the fabled massive elementary particle known as the Higgs boson — according to BBC News reports published Friday.

According to BBC Science Correspondent Ian Sample, officials at the Geneva-based particle physics laboratory announced the possible discovery during the 2011 Europhysics Conference on High-Energy Physics (HEP 2011), which opened Thursday in Grenoble, France.

“Speaking at the meeting, teams working on two of the collider’s huge detectors, Atlas and CMS, independently reported unusual bumps in their data that could be the first hints of the particle,” Sample reported.

“Physicists stressed that it was too early to know whether the signals were due to the missing particle,” he added. “Bumps that look like new discoveries can be caused by statistical fluctuations in data, flaws in computer models and other glitches, they said.”

“We cannot say anything today, but clearly it’s intriguing,” Fabiola Gianotti, spokeswoman for the 3,000-strong Atlas team, told BBC News, adding that they would know more after CERN personnel from both the Atlas and CMS teams were able to obtain more information and compare their results.

According to a press release, officials working on the LHC have scheduled a press release for Monday, July 25. Representatives from all CERN teams involved on the project are expected to present data at that conference, the research organization announced on Thursday.

“Discovery or exclusion of the Higgs particle, as predicted by the Standard Model, is getting ever closer,” CERN Director for Research and Scientific Computing, Sergio Bertolucci, said in a statement. “Both occurrences will be great news for physics, the former allowing us to start the detailed study of the Higgs particle, the latter being the first proof of the incompleteness of the Standard Model, requiring new phenomena to be happening within the reach of the LHC.”

“We’re taking our first steps in this new physics landscape,” added CMS experiment spokesman Guido Tonelli, “and it is great to see how fast we are producing new results. I am confident that soon there will be only a few regions left where the Higgs boson, as postulated by the Standard Model, might still be hiding.”

CERN was founded in 1954, and according to the organization’s official website, it is among the largest and most esteemed research centers on the planet. Through the use of particle accelerators and decelerators, they observe and record the results of collisions. The experiments using the LHC are not only seeking for the Higgs boson particle, but also searching for dark matter and hoping to gain a greater understanding of anti-matter.

—

On the Net:

• European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
• Europhysics Conference on High-Energy Physics (HEP 2011)

Scientists urge rules for human-animal hybrids

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