Energy (earth) & Awareness (people). Energy is external, physical world, awareness is internal.
Energy is required to interface between systems; the energy cost of interaction increases the further apart systems are from each other in terms of storing energy and/or awareness.
Permaculture is a tool that increases our awareness so that we can capture and/or store more energy and cycle it through the system in a greater number more and efficient ways.
We have available a fixed energy budget based on the sunlight that hits the earth. There is also a limited supply of energy stored by live on earth.
Our ever growing awareness is the only thing that can increase.
Published by Milton Dixon & Sarah Spotten
Milton Dixon is an permaculturist, forager, educator, and and all around computer savvy guy. Having relocated to Ann Arbor from urban Chicago he is syncing with the rhythms of permaculture in his new location. You can read about his latest projects at Permaculture Productions. He has taken a PDC with Midwest Permaculture, a teacher training course with David Jacke, and besides working with the GLPDC, he has taught PDCs with Midwest Permaculture, The Permaculture Project , and a two year Educators PDC co-designed with Jesse Tack. He is a farm consultant for Polliwog Farm and co-manager at the emergent The Cooperative at Dawn Farm. You can reach him at or 773.789.8887.
Sarah Spotten is a permaculturist and website builder living on Colorado's Front Range. She and Milton developed much of the social permaculture content on this site. Currently, she is a student of Biology and Computer Science at CU Boulder. You can reach her at . View more posts
