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An anonymous do-gooder in Berlin transforms a city-street eyesore (and improvised public toilet) by building a Givebox, a cheery phone-booth-sized structure where community members can donate, take, and trade items from books to high heels. Now, Giveboxes are catching on....

Many have heard of EM mixtures, sold worldwide with cultures of effective microorganisms, that due to their symbiotic relationships with each other can benefit the microorganisms’ ecosystem in our soils, compost piles and toilets. They are known to boost yield and speed the composting process and are sold worldwide for their positive effect. You can [...]

Mashing cooked soybeans It is now the middle of winter here in Japan and time again to make another year’s supply of miso. The deep flavour of miso soup (misoshiru) remains for many in Japan a daily dish. Traditionally the first meal of the day consisted of a steaming bowl of miso soup, a [...]

As an offering to the planetary permaculture movement we have created a workbook of permaculture worksheets. This educational tool kit will help support your learning and teaching practice. In the spirit of a genuine love for permaculture education and in gratitude to the world community, this new learning tool is intended to help heal and [...]

Carbon pirates bury black gold… so future generations will be richer. – John Rogers Biochar is being promoted as the soil saving miracle of the century promising outrageously high yields of crops as well as removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The first video ‘The Promise of Biochar’ explains what biochar is, how valuable it is [...]

Honesty has ceased to be a virtue, and in its absence "our society risks a future of moral numbness," writes William Damon.

The Bedouin of the Negev are an ancient people whose cultural history spans centuries, if not millennia. Historically, the Bedouin have been semi-nomadic pastoralists, who made the desert their own through a combination of dry-land farming of forage crops and cereals, rainwater harvesting and seasonal mobility: rotating their presence between their winter and summer grazing [...]

Bustan Qaraaqa is a community permaculture project in the Palestinian West Bank. The project consists of an experimental permaculture farm in the town of Beit Sahour close to the historic city of Bethlehem, and several community projects where staff and volunteers work together with Palestinian community groups and individuals to implement permaculture initiatives that [...]

What: Extended Permaculture Design Course When: The itinerary is based on weeks of 5 days where the weekends are free for advancing individual projects, rest or travel in Israel. Program starts on the 11th of March and ends on 15th of August 2012. Where: The course and accommodations will take place at the [...]

Guitar manufacturers are shredding the rainforest faster than a Van Halen solo...

I was visiting Byron Bay on my last Sunday off in conditions where we have had a large amount of rain and some very unsettled weather with lots of storms. With the winds from the north, the surf conditions where very messy and unfavorable, as also were the fishing conditions, the sea was really unsettled [...]

This presentation makes a radical departure from many previous approaches to permaculture education in schools. It does not include gardens or design principles. Instead it considers the main purpose of schools — students learning — and the main factor that influences that purpose: the teacher. Most teachers feel overworked and are reluctant to add anything [...]

When a PDC turns from a certificate course into a journey of change. When I first registered for my PDC there was a sense of excitement in what I would potentially learn and the new skills I would gain and be able to apply. As time got closer, the focus then turned to [...]

Drone warfare can be used to thwart democratic movements, anywhere. by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom. The ancient Greeks, unlike the Jews or the Christians, invested their gods with human failings. Divine judgement, they believed, was neither flawless nor dispassionate; it was warped by lust, vengeance and self-interest. In the [...]

We built a solar oven made out of cardboard, and showed the pygmies how to purify water through a solar disinfection unit (the SODIS System). We also showed them how to make a filter with a bucket full of sand, gravel and active carbon. by Xavier Fux Who said last days weren’t productive? Before leaving, we wanted [...]

by Janet Larsen and Sara Rasmussen The global average temperature in 2011 was 14.52 degrees Celsius (58.14 degrees Fahrenheit). According to NASA scientists, this was the ninth warmest year in 132 years of recordkeeping, despite the cooling influence of the La Niña atmospheric and oceanic circulation pattern and relatively low solar irradiance. Since the 1970s, each [...]

Introduction Back in 2008 I spent 6 weeks in Venezuela. I have a Venezuelan friend who believes as I do that permaculture could and should be a driving force for positive change. We both also believe that the Bolivarian Revolution, championed most famously by the charismatic and controversially colourful personality of Hugo Chavez, despite [...]

I admire the efforts of the permaculturists at the Occupy Wall Street camp, and I think, judging by his statement way back in 1983 (see below), that Bill would admire them also. Hunger is rising, absolute hunger is rising, food’s badly distributed, not distributed at all often. The waste of food, the whole deal [...]

The weather forecasters used by the Daily Mail and other papers don’t appear to exist. by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom. The talented line-up of weather forecasters at ‘Positive Weather Solutions’ Click for larger view Earlier this month, I questioned the credentials of the alternative weather forecasters being used by the [...]

To the power brokers of America's right, climate change poses a dire threat to business as usual.