Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

This Introduction section provides some of the meta-issues or global perspectives relevant
to ecovillage designing. Ted Trainer, a long time proponent of the ecovillage solution,
continues in this vein by offering the rationale for instituting his Simpler Way. Professor
Trainer claims that most ‘greening’ doesn’t go far enough, that the transition to any truly
‘sustainable’ society will require a complete dismantling and replacement of current
market economies and social systems based on the uninhibited acquisitiveness of a few.
Ted is sharp in his critique of these outworn systems; yet it becomes apparent that his
motivation is an underlying compassion. The article closes with an urging for ecovillage
designers to apply their ‘craft’ to the larger scales of societies and political systems.
8
Introduction
The Global Significance of the
Ecovillage Movement
Ted Trainer – University of New South Wales, Australia
The basic argument in this article is that when the nature of the global
predicament is understood it is obvious that the alarming problems now
threatening to destroy civilization cannot be solved unless we move toward
the ideas and practices evident within the global ecovillage and permaculture
movements. Thus it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of
these movements and the role they have played over recent decades in the
transition to a sustainable and just world.
My argument will be that the alarming global problems we face cannot
be solved in a society that is obsessed with affluent consumer lifestyles,
production for profit rather than need, letting market forces determine
society, and especially with a growth-forever economy. We cannot solve
the big problems unless and until we accept the need for vast and radical
transition to some very different systems, ways and values. My hope is that
this article will persuade permaculture and ecovillage designers that this is
the appropriate perspective from which to operate, and that their craft is
therefore of far greater importance than is generally realized. Their field
is nothing less than the design of not just gardens, homesteads, farms and
villages, but of whole satisfactory societies. Sustainability and justice on a
global scale cannot be achieved unless we build very different economies,
political systems, geographies, and indeed cultures. Hopefully this article
will embolden future designers to work with this very big vision in mind.