Hardcover - 576 pages
Reprint edition (1997) Ten Speed Press; ISBN: 0908228015
Dimensions (in inches): 1.50 x 10.96 x 8.60
by Philip S. Wenz, Publisher
Books come and go. This year's must-read, best seller can be found
on the remaindered table by next summer. While such "book books"
often add value to our lives, opening our eyes to new horizons,
making us laugh or cry, informing us about the important issues
of the day or decade, perhaps even uplifting us spiritually, they
don't fundamentally change the world. But while most books are,
in their final disposition, just books, some are monuments which
define those moments when history takes a turn.
Monuments, in my view, are not simply classics such as War and
Peace that engage us by decrying the human condition. The litmus
test for monuments is that they actually change the way we think,
and live. How many people, after reading as great a tale as Dr.
Zhivago, for example, or Gone With the Wind, actually struck out
anew?
Monuments alter our perception of the possible, whether in the
material realm, that of intellect or spirit, or all three. The Notebooks
of Leonardo Da Vinci come to mind, as does the Origin of Species
or Fuller's Synergetics. Ultimately, they influence the course of
human history-and renew our hope.
Laid out and organized more like a textbook than a literary classic,
bound not with cloth but unassuming cardboard, Bill Mollison's Permaculture,
A Designer's Manual's appearance, though attractive, belies its
monumental status. There is no hype on the cover of this hefty underground
best seller, no raves from critics (at least on my 1988 version),
no reference to the New York Times or any other legitimizing authority.
The back cover has a picture of Mollison with his illustrator and
photographer and the following definition:
Permaculture (Permanent Agriculture) is
the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive
ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience
of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape
and people providing their food, energy, shelter , and other material
and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent
agriculture, there is no possibility of a stable social order.
. . . . .
The philosophy behind permaculture is
one of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted
and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless
action; of looking at systems in all their functions rather than
asking only one yield of them; and of allowing systems to demonstrate
their own evolutions.
It is impossible to separate the life of an original thinker like
Mollison from the product of his or her thoughts. Leonardo's attempts
to translate his direct observations of nature into the design of
mechanisms for human use, Darwin's extensive voyage on the Beagle,
Fuller's half-blind explorations of his childhood environment that
ultimately led to his understanding of natural geometry all demonstrate
the essential connection between the self and the planet that thrives
in the creators of monuments. Because of the depth and intensity
of their connection, such creators seldom view themselves as geniuses,
or especially deserving of praise, as much as simple instruments
of conveyance, messengers of the gods that be. They know that without
the wellspring of nature they are nothing. Ultimately they are humbled
by a presence larger than themselves, and partaking of their humility
can reconnect the rest of us to our roots.
Like the great creators of intellectual monuments before him,
from Thoreau to Einstein, Mollison led an original life. Ever searching,
changing careers, driven by an unbounded curiosity and the need,
and will, to survive, he worked as a "forester, mill worker, trapper,
snarer, tractor driver, and naturalist"*
as well as a wildlife biologist, museum curator, bouncer at dances,
professor of biogeography specializing in Tasmanian aborigines,
and, for the past thirty plus years, the "father" of Permaculture.
He also spent a certain amount of his life on "walkabouts"—lengthy,
one man treks in nature living off the land, observing, thinking.
It was from these solitary adventures, more than anything else,
that he came to understand nature's secrets.
What his vast experience gave him, and he as been generous enough
to give us, is not only an in-depth understanding of how natural
systems sustain themselves, but, more importantly, the reduction
of natures "operating principles" into a coherent, readily understandable
"manual," for designing our own systems in accordance with those
principles. Mollison gives us ecology, in the broadest meaning of
the word, not as an abstract science burdened with baffling equations,
but as a rich practicum, participatory and within the grasp of anyone
who cares to make the effort of reading, then trying, then reading
again. Permaculture is to ecology as medicine is to physiology,
the good of it.
Beginning with a discussion of individual responsibility for stewardship
and ethics toward the land, moving through fascinating chapters
on patterns, climate, soil, and water and the specifics of designing
for various climate types, and ending by offering environmentally
and socially sound alternative to our current, crazy political and
economic systems, this huge book is almost impossible to put down.
Impossible, at least, for anyone who has a passion for saving the
planet.
If we begin farming and managing the land as Mollison explains
we should, there is still time to turn our global environment around.
His monumental book does nothing less than show us how we can replenish
the earth and make her healthy once again.
* from
a biographical note on Mollison in the front pages of Permaculture.
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