Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

Albert Bates, founder of the Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm, reveals his store of
encyclopedic knowledge in this upbeat and optimistic essay. The essay is upbeat and
optimistic because Albert has seen for himself sustainable food growing systems in operation
as part of larger ecosystem restoration strategies. What’s more, there are historical
precedents to choose from. You can tell by the way he uses the word that Albert is proud
to be a ‘permaculturist’. This group of eco-pioneers already possesses all the tools and
knowledge we need to transition into ‘sustainability’. What’s lacking, in the author’s opinion,
is the will to move from Civilization 1.0 (Globalization) to Civilization 2.0 (Glocalization).
14
The Problem
Civilization 2.0
Albert Bates – The Farm, Tennessee, USA
Assume that, all of a sudden, we were to awaken to the existential threat
posed by our addiction to exponential growth as an economic prerequisite.
What changes in our arrangements might, even at this late hour, offer some
prospect of survival? It seems altogether obvious that it would involve
some combination of bioregionalism, permaculture, and ecovillage design
science. Frankly, I cannot imagine any alternative excluding those strategies
that would remain viable for very long.
Fortune has been our constant companion. We enjoy the rare condition
of having water in all three states of repose, and lots of it. It took water in
liquid form to permit the evolution of our multicellular organisms. Several
major extinction events passed before we had the Cambrian explosion,
the Chixcalub impact, the die-off of the dinosaurs, and the ascent of the
mammals. Only over very long periods of geological and climate stability
could we have evolved our elaborate metabolism, our long in-utero
gestation, a childhood lasting more than 25 percent of the average life span,
and a holographic brain. We have benefited from stable climate and dense
biodiversity. That biodiversity has given our linear thought limitations a safe
refuge within a non-linear web of life that minds the store when we are out
to lunch.
This stability is something we will soon have a lot less of and adjusting
to the suddenness of changed circumstances will likely become our greatest
challenge. By and large, the scale of the emergency is yet unrecognized.
Gaia is infirm, needs time to convalesce, and would improve faster with
some healing therapies. If we continue draining her vital essences while we
slowly come around to recognizing the situation we risk losing her.