Hey peeps:hibye:
I'd like to offer this thread from two different perspectives.
1. Sustainability. We're running out of fossil fuel, so what does the future hold? How can we continue to feed ourselves and otherwise survive when the oil is gone.
2. The Kingdom outlook. How do we think the land will be managed under God's Kingdom. How may we provide for ourselves sustainably without ruining the earth? Are there any solutions that are manifesting themselves today?
Here is a link to the first video. It is totally beautiful, thought-provoking and hopeful. Do enjoy it.
Permaculture -- Farms for the Future
Here is the introductory text:
More than 96 per cent of all the food grown in Britain is reliant on synthetic fertiliser. Without it there would be serious trouble.
But without artificial fertiliser there's not enough nutrients for the crops to grow, and without ploughing there is nothing to aerate the soil. So how can we manage without them?
The answers are in nature. As Charles Darwin pointed out, earthworms have been ploughing and aerating the soil for millions of years. And as for fertilisers, just look at how a forest flourishes: by using the natural fertility created by billions of living microbes, fungi, plants and animals.
The non-destructive, low-energy methods are elements of a wider system known as Permaculture, which challenges all the normal approaches to farming. One of its central principles is that you work with the land, rather than against it.
What are your thoughts? Please feel free to add your own video finds.
love,:love:
Rez
Here are a couple more videos:
Permaculture in the Tropics
Greening the Desert
Permaculture in Action - Greening the Desert - Geoff Lawton's Ground Breaking implementation of Permaculture in The Dead Sea Valley. This video illustrates how Permaculture design techniques can restore a Salt Ridden Degraded Landscape to a flourishing and diverse Oasis. For more information about Geoff and his Permaculture work please visit; http://www.permaculture.org.au
It's really quite amazing how quickly this type of horticulture produces in the darndest places.:P
Rez:thumbup:
Are you tired of the same old house designs and their large carbon footprint? How about this sort of home.
I never did like the WT artists' concept of the ideal home (the suburban split level) When I envision my ideal home it looks something like this:
A low-impact Woodland Home
'Course, I always loved Hobbits!:thumbsup:
Rez:D
Hi Rez,
I have been giving a lot of thought to that in recent months.
Modern agriculture seems more dependant on fertiliser and irrigation.
In ancient times the cultures were more dependant on the seasonal rains.
Many of these ancient cultures lived or died as a result of their crops.
Almost all of these cultures would have worship ceremonies where they hoped their efforts might have divine blessing for success.
These ancient methods in my opinion are the ones we should focus on rather than modern technologies as far as agriculture is concerned.
My opinion is driven by a large amount of scriptural support.
Deuteronomy 11:13-14
13 “And it must occur that if YOU will without fail obey my commandments that I am commanding YOU today so as to love Jehovah YOUR God and to serve him with all YOUR heart and all YOUR soul, 14 I also shall certainly give rain for YOUR land at its appointed time, autumn rain and spring rain, and you will indeed gather your grain and your sweet wine and your oil.
Isaiah 30:23-24
23 And he will certainly give the rain for your seed with which you sow the ground, and as the produce of the ground bread, which must become fat and oily. Your livestock will graze in that day in a spacious pasture. 24 And the cattle and the full-grown asses cultivating the ground will eat fodder seasoned with sorrel, which was winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.
Jeremiah 3:2-3
Alongside the ways you have sat for them, like an Arabian in the wilderness; and you keep polluting the land with your acts of prostitution and with your badness. 3 So copious showers are withheld, and not even a spring rain has occurred.
Jeremiah 5:22-24. 23Â
But this very people has come to have a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and keep walking in their course. 24 But they have not said in their heart: “Let us, now, fear Jehovah our God, the One who is giving the downpour and the autumn rain and the spring rain in its season, the One who guards even the prescribed weeks of the harvest for us.†25 YOUR own errors have turned these things away, and YOUR own sins have held back what is good from YOU people.
The above scriptures are just a small sampling of scriptures which show the vanity of modern agriculture.
All it takes is one massive crop failure in North America and the world will spend more time thinking about this (or will they?).
In Christ
abe
Aspects of this book are valuable; presenting problems/conflicts and solutions/resolutions:
"A Pattern Language"
http://downlode.org/Etext/Patterns/index.html
(
by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, with Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King and Shlomo Angel. Published by Oxford University Press.)
Click on 118 Roof Garden (or any other topic) and follow the links...for example: 163 Outdoor Room then click on 243 Sitting Wall then 245 Raised Flowers etc.
This book covers an amazing variety of human activity...(including layout/use of social (and other) space, construction, design, ornament; etc.)
:coffeeread:
Hi Rez,
I think it is naiv to believe that things will go on so smoothly with us humans if fossil fuel is not available any more.
First of, there is not going to be a gradual running out of fuel. It will happen so suddenly, that we all will be caught by surprise.
Secondly, without fossil fuel, not only the Transportation system and agriculture are going to be affected, but practically every aspect of our life. Not only will we be unable to sustain ourselves agriculturally. Absolutely nothing will function without fossil fuel. It is amazing how fuel has changed the world.
We will literally be thrown back to the dark ages. It will be complete darkness. Because this time we are not just a couple of millions of people on earth, but almost seven billion. So, it will be the end of the World we know. Governments will collapse. The calamity that is going to follow is not something we can imagine. Very very freightening. I really marvel how people who don't have faith can actually sleep.
So it is not going to be fun, this transition from the modern world with its mechanized agriculture to the primitive form of farming.
As to "the management of Land under God's kingdom", I don't believe that the coming life will have even the slightest resemblance to today's world. Farming? what is it? I really would even wonder if we are going to remember how we lived in this world.
:heartbeat:
AR
Forgive my ignorance.
But I do not see how our revamping the way we farm as a solution.
First of all I see a few major problem areas.
A) the people who make boat loads of money don't want it.
B) People are becoming less capable of working due to all the "easy life" or should I say they don't want to work at least where I live.
C) Due to all the chemicals we use people are not physically up for it.
we have more allergies now, peoples immune systems are weaker it seems.
D) People are coming to gether on one hand while becoming light years apart in many other ways.
I could go on but I think you may see where I am going.
I am not trying to be a pesimist. I am just being real about it.
Also if we believe our heavenly father he said he would step in and take care of those who destroy the earth.
I am not against learning to have less impact on nature by any means.
I have entertained many options to utilize the sun.
from solar vacum tubes "which in my opionion" should become the rule for heating water.
betwen the sun and geothermal ideas I think we could cut our energy use by an enormous amount.
what about a 4 day work week. I have promoted this idea for awhile at my job.
the problem seems to be money.
people are afraid of loosing profit if the competetor stays open.
never mind the electric savings. and for areas like where I live the gas from driving would be cut by 20% on average. 4 out of twenty daysa month I would be off the road.
Politcs, love of money and the easy life seem to be the problem to me anyway.
But what do I know.. :funnyface:
Are you tired of the same old house designs and their large carbon footprint? How about this sort of home.
I never did like the WT artists' concept of the ideal home (the suburban split level) When I envision my ideal home it looks something like this:
A low-impact Woodland Home
'Course, I always loved Hobbits!:thumbsup:
Rez:D
Im with ya, Aunty Rez -- green is good! :friends::friends::friends:
what about a 4 day work week. I have promoted this idea for awhile at my job.
the problem seems to be money.
people are afraid of loosing profit if the competetor stays open.
never mind the electric savings. and for areas like where I live the gas from driving would be cut by 20% on average. 4 out of twenty daysa month I would be off the road.
Total Dismay,
The amount of money and time spent by North Americans to just get to and back from work is outrageous.
The entire design of our cities and suburbs force most of us to commute.
If North America could get back all that time spent just getting to work the amount of man hours would be incredible.
I think much better things could have been done with that time.
Could have built a hobbit house like the one Rez posted above.
I will be happy to see all the cars gone.
abe
Could have built a hobbit house like the one Rez posted above.
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots of lots of pegs for hats and coats — the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill — The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it — and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.
- J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Hobbitâ€
Are you tired of the same old house designs and their large carbon footprint? How about this sort of home.
I never did like the WT artists' concept of the ideal home (the suburban split level) When I envision my ideal home it looks something like this:
A low-impact Woodland Home
'Course, I always loved Hobbits!:thumbsup:
Rez:D
Im with ya, Aunty Rez -- green is good! :friends::friends::friends:
Green is my favorite colour. :thumbsup:
And how's my reign-beau neph?:love:
love,
auntie:siskiss:
More real neat homes
You know; I used to worry about such things when I was among JWs, because the AWAKE! kept shouting doomsday reports about virtually everything, to show that we are at Armageddon's door. But now I realize that it's all in the hands of our God and in prophecy, and He won't allow it to go any farther that what He has purposed.
Because of their doomsday scenarios, JWs tend to be environmentalist nuts who worry about things that are in God's hands. This doesn't mean that I believe in "ruining the earth," because that would surely lead to my ruin.
Of course, I don't trust in men when it comes to their use of fossil fuels, or atomic energy, or whatever. I just trust that whatever happens is in the hands of Jehovah.
As an example; as many of you know, I just returned from three weeks in Africa. And while I was in one of the national parks, two of the nine remaining rhinoceros were killed for their horns, and they are so dangerously close to extinction. Yet, I don't worry, because I know that man can't outwit Jehovah.
I also write a monthly column for a national business publication, and I often have to address environmental concerns when it comes to the atmosphere. And while I once won a national journalism award for a series of articles I wrote about the need to protect earth's ozone layer, I now find nuttiness predominating among JW-types who still preach that "the sky is falling," when it doesn't truly appear to be doing so from a scientific viewpoint. However, you can never convince them, because "Armageddon is at the doors!!!!" And i know that many who read this will never be convinced.
Is Armageddon at the doors? Possibly, but "the Great Babylon" hasn't really fallen yet (Sorry, JWs, but the facts just don't prove this), "Elijah" hasn't come yet (nope, Pastor Russell wasn't him), there has been no major Jewish conversion, there are currently few "wars and rumors of wars," and Christians can still "buy and sell" without needing "the mark of the beast." So, perhaps (hopefully) we'll see this in the near future.
As to seeing better agricultural methods and having environmental homes; I believe that's what God's Kingdom will bring. In the meantime, I will continue to ignore the screams of environmentalist extremists and their doomsday scenarios, and to those who hope that the sky is falling, because that will bring Armageddon during our lifetime. For I just trust that it is all in the hands of our God and His King, as I do what I can in our present "age" and conditions, not to do anymore harm to our earth that what is normal for modern men.
Sorry if this viewpoint offends some, but I'm allowed mine.
RE: You know; I used to worry about such things when I was among JWs, because the AWAKE! kept shouting doomsday reports about virtually everything, to show that we are at Armageddon's door. But now I realize that it's all in the hands of our God and in prophecy, and He won't allow it to go any farther that what He has purposed.
You said it all, Jim. Although, I must say being excited at what is lays ahead is only human, especially if you are leading a "Real life" :D
:heartbeat:
AR