Comments on: Greening the Desert

By: CCRES AQUAPONICS

CCRES AQUAPONICS — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 11:57:46 +0000

We like your work.
All the best from Croatia

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 06:49:51 +0000

Thanks Geoff, you are an inspiration to many!

Thank you for not letting Bills work go to waste!

This truly is the future, if there is going to be one at all, first all that centralization and now all the decentralization is where its at. We are all going to have to grow our own food, produce our own electricity etc etc.

The old way is dying….

By: DJ

DJ — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:40:09 +0000

The damage done by a 100 years or more of media manipulation is going to play a major factor when it comes to trying to get people to move in a unified direction. Many people still think man made climate change is a con, because they are in denial over changing their lifestyle, a lifestyle that their forebares have fought and died trying to provide.
In my area of N Wales there is little farming left, i’m 40 and can just remember the cows walking thru the village to be milked, in my parents day their was still the community ethic of the local miners(majority of population) helping the local farms at the busiest times of year.
Now what’s left of the farming land hasn’t been worked for years, satellite migration of retiring, mostly middle class “townies” along with the settled families moving away to find work (because of the mine closure in the ’80s) has changed the fabric of the community, this combined with the centralisation of food and service provision and the rapid technological change of society has it could be said left that fabric in tatters.

It’s great to think of the exposure permaculture is starting to get, i’ve joined a local CSA and we are starting on a forest garden. I think many locals see it as something for others to do, rather than themselves. Can’t blame them really, the local church has given over use of some scrub land to start the CSA, while a mile away acres of easily adaptable mature deciduous forest lie dormant and unused, the old playgrounds of my youth and my forebares youth, the battlefields of inumerous poachers dead and gone and a place which once sparked much debate over the generations due to the tactics used by the local gentry to “acquire it”.
Now it’s paths lie overgrown and disused despite thousands in grants a decade ago, the children play there no more, the dangers of life have lost out to the alure of pleasure island and the mind bombs have been planted.
I guess when the ratio of affluent middle class retirees increases, something may change, we will get subsidised wood carvings and sunday strolls that will effervesce with the self righteous satisfaction befitting of the great victorian explorers.

To think that Cameron and the economic and political elite are going to lead this country at the “forefront” of the green revolution….We had far better sustainability here in even the eighties than now, when they closed the mine did they provide retraining in local green industries, the technology and the calls for its implementation were there, no they invested abroad, they exported their greed and our pollution, on the back of international developement, where they destroyed even more sustainable communities, now they pat themselves on the back for adopting “green” sensibilities, i wonder if they realise what’s going to happen to their souls, of course they could come clean and open, bare their burdens to those they have failed and stand equal in the line of those who live in the real world…oops slipping off into dream world again

Anyway good luck to those who care i say, may the great spirits watch over you and your fires warm the cold places in this world.

By: Harry

Harry — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 23:05:58 +0000

This looks good , would be great to see this scaled up and taken on mainstream!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 11:07:12 +0000

Desert greening projects appear small scale,labour intensive and unsustainable. Is aerial seeding of larger sections of desert during high rainfall events practical?

By: Sonia

Sonia — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:04:29 +0000

This is a great project! I love the videos.

There’s people doing desert restoration work in Nevada and Arizona with high intensity, short duration animal impact. Their website is here: http://www.managingwholes.com/

By: TF

TF — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:24:21 +0000

Does anyone know what kind of mushrooms were growing in that mulch. If its true that noone had ever seen them before in that area, it would be interesting to know what kind they were and perhaps how old the spores were, or where they travelled from.

By: Geoff Lawton

Geoff Lawton — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 11:33:18 +0000

Hi Rossendo
yes that is no problem.

By: Rosendo D. Parreñas

Rosendo D. Parreñas — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:02:50 +0000

Ive just read some articles related to Permaculture and being an advocate of sustainable agriculture and an organic farmer practicioner in our community its more interesting to study the concepts and principles of Permaculture by theory and practice and its significance with our present agricultural practices.

I understand that there are Permaculture Design Courses offered by your institution, Well it be possible that a simple farmer in a tropical country in Asia like the Philippines be allowed to participate on your training programs. Im interested to attend such courses so that I may be able to share these knowledge and skills to my fellow farmers in our country.

Thank you and more power

Rosendo

By: Mikkel Ottersen

Mikkel Ottersen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:48:03 +0000

First thank you all for the good work.
My question is if this video on youtube with arabic subtitles?
I hope this has already been done, but i cannot find it on the internet (maybe becourse i do not speak arabic).

Mikkel Ottersen