Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

22 Designing ecological Habitats
Notes
1 Diamond, J., Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (New York: The Penguin Group,
2005).
2 Dull, Robert A. , Nevle, Richard J. , Woods, William I. , Bird, Dennis K. , Avnery, Shiri and
Denevan, William M., “The Columbian Encounter and the Little Ice Age: Abrupt Land Use
Change, Fire, and Greenhouse Forcing,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers,
100(4):1-17; (2010); and see Ruddiman, W.F., Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took
Control of Climate (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005).
3 www.i4at.org.
4 Robert Jensen, “Sustainability and Politics: An Interview with Wes Jackson,” Counterpunch, 10
July 2003; T. X. Cox et al., “Prospects for Developing Perennial Grain Crops,” Bioscience, August
2006, pp. 649–59.
5 Nigh, R. Trees, fire and farmers: making woods and soil in the Maya forest, Journal of
Ethnobiology 28(2) Fall/Winter 2008; etbi-28-02-06.3d
6 Bates, A., Going Deep in Belize, The Permaculture Activist 71 (Spring 2009).
7 World Agroforestry Centre Communications Unit, “Trees on Farms Key to Climate and Food
Security,” press release (Nairobi: 24 July 2009); K. Trumper, et al., Natural Fix? The Role of
Ecosystems in Climate Mitigation: A UNEP rapid response assessment (Cambridge UK: UNEP-
WCMC, 2009).
8 http://ena.ecovillage.org
9 Carvajal, G., Descubrimiento del río de las Amazonas: relación de Fr. Gaspar de Carvajal (1584),
exfoliada de la obra de José Toribio Medina (1851), edición de Sevilla por Juan B. Bueno Medina
(1895); Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, Madrid; L.A. Clayton, V. Knight and E. Moore,
The De Soto Chronicles Volume II: The Expedition of Hernando De Soto to North America 1539-
1543 (Birmingham: Univ.of Alabama Press, 1994); G. Menzies, 1421: The Year China Discovered
America (New York: Harper Collins, 2006); G. Menzies, 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese
Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance (London: Harper Collins, 2008).
This article first appeared in a publication preceding the conference: ‘Study Panel on
Localizing Environmental Anthropology: Bioregionalism, Permaculture and Ecovillage Design
for a Sustainable Future’, Communal Studies Association Annual Meeting, New Harmony,
Indiana, October 1, 2010.
Albert Bates is author of The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change,
The Post Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook and numerous books, films and new
media on energy, environment and history. A former environmental rights lawyer,
paramedic, brick mason, flour miller, and horse trainer, he received the Right Livelihood
Award in 1980 as part of the Steering Committee of Plenty, working to preserve the
cultures of indigenous peoples, and board of directors of The Farm, a pioneering intentional
community in Tennessee for the past 35 years. A co-founder and past president of the
Global Ecovillage Network, he is presently GEN’s representative to the UN climate talks.
When not tinkering with fuel wringers for algae, hemp cheeses, or pyrolizing cookstoves,
he teaches permaculture, ecovillage design and natural building and is a frequent guest on
the ETC Podcast. He tweets at @peaksurfer and blogs at peaksurfer.blogspot.com