Maybe its no coincidence that at a time when gas prices reach $3 a gallon and an American city is flooded with hunger and despair as a result of climate change, that here in Seattle a growing number of people are rallying around the desire to bring the concepts of permaculture home to the city. We need healthy, fair, sustainable examples of how humans can live on the earth, and we need them now. And for many, permaculture is the articulated solution we've known must exist.

"Permaculture" is a somewhat awkward word used to describe a holistic process by which people learn from and design sustainable human settlements and ecosystems. It began as a movement 27 years ago when two Australian ecologists hypothesized that perhaps the efficiency and integrity of living in an ecosystem could be brought back into our modern culture's conversation with the earth and its' resources. We have simply forgotten a lot of basic life skills that are non-harming to the earth's cycles, and it is no wonder that permaculture is now a worldwide tool that millions of people use. Permaculture teaches everything form food preservation to running photovoltaic systems, from creating food "forests" to constructing green buildings, to urban planning. Permaculturists have created sites all over the world, and locally, that demonstrate how to live abundant lives using considerably fewer resources. The results nourish us individually as well as having far-reaching relevance for cultural change as a whole.

In Seattle, there has been a strong resurgence as we were visited last week by David Holmgren, who co-wrote the first permaculture manual when he was 23 years old. Now as a man in his 50s, with in-depth experience and refined techniques and concepts under his belt, he came to Seattle to speak about the arrival of peak oil and energy descent. In the long view, he says, the experiment of modernity that we live in has been made possible by living out of holes in the ground and resources that cannot be replaced. Undoubtedly, from here on new energy sources will be exploited, but these resources will dwindle and everything (transportation, food, raw materials) will become more and more expensive. As resources continue to be depleted, wars will be fought and diversity will decline to feed the insatiable greed of our lifestyles. And the message that Holmgren and permaculture bring to Seattle is this: our lifestyles are causing unfathomable destruction, but it is easy (and even fun, smart, and sexy) to change our lifestyles. It is a project that we can all learn and enjoy.

Out of the woodwork of this city came landscape architects, engineers, teachers, therapists, city planners, business owners, grandparents, and baristas. Many people in the past 30 years have been influenced by the simple yet radical principles of Permaculture. The conversation Holmgren ignited here is a powerful one. How do we do we build ecologically ethical communities? How can we share the skills that we know? And most importantly, Will it make a difference??

And while there are no clear answers, the importance of just asking them, and at the same time knowing that all the tools are within reach, guides us to an answer: no matter what, hope makes a difference. And that's easy. There is immense joy in harvesting the fruit from a tree you have grown. There is much tenderness in building a mud oven with your neighbors. Here we have forests and mountains and rivers that are always teaching us and our children how we can best live. We always have the choice to listen

To find out more about permculture look to seattlepermacultureguild.org and many more resources on the web. To get updates about local permaculture events, or also to hear when Holmgren's KEXP and KUOW interviews will be aired, send an email to kelda@riseup.net. David Holmgren's latest book is a highly recommended read: Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability