Facing up to the challenges of our changing climate goes much deeper than erecting a few wind turbines and switching to a Honda Prius, it challenges the very heart of our economic model. The transition before us will require active involvement from everybody. Some people believe our environmental woes are due to the sheer weight of population but the truth is more complex, a small percentage of the global family are responsible for the vast majority of emissions and we are faced with the reality that it is not possible for India, China, Brazil and Mexico to follow the same economic path as the West without tipping the balance into a catastrophe. What if, we can find new ways of working that are actively beneficial, that lock carbon away in plants and soils whilst also meeting the needs of the 7 billion of us. If each person can have a net benefit on planet and climate then maybe at this moment that we face our greatest challenge the many hands available to us become a big part of the solution.
We are bringing these ideas into the mainstream curriculum. Kids at school today are growing up into a different world than the one we did and will need to be equipped with new concepts and ideas. I call it permaculture, it goes beyond agro-ecology and green technology and fashions a mindset, it provides design tools that facilitate this great change. We are saving the planet one school at a time, we are working with schools in Powys – children of farmers and rural communities where we hope to start a revolution. That is an emotive word – let’s call it transition, evolution maybe, one that embraces our planet’s ecology and understands that society and economy are a subset of a healthy living biosphere. Everything falters and fails when the rains stop, the soils erode, and our stable weather systems collapse. Join us.
This piece was written on request for ARWAIN lead funding partner in this project for promotion of the outcomes of their LEADER programme.
