Not sure how I stumbled upon it, but I am very happy to have come across this term ’permaculture’ and learn more about it.
According to the NYC meetup site for it, it’s defined as: Permaculture is a “whole systems” view and design system that connects the dots to being green and leading a green life.
It shows us WHY refusing, reducing, reusing, repairing, and recycling, growing food, composting, buying local, supporting “alternative” energy and transportation, cooperative economies, etc. all make sense; AND it shows us HOW these things fit together to form the bigger picture.
PRACTICING permaculture (or “permaculture design”) means learning how to apply the patterns to your life and surroundings, bringing them into alignment with ecological principles and creating systems that provide abundance and surplus.
The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with, rather than against, nature.
Getting involved: There are permaculture projects worldwide. They involve varied topics like sustainable agriculture, water harvesting, creating a farmer’s handbook for the Himalayan region etc. The site to get more details on various projects is: http://www.permacultureusa.org/
Related courses: I didn’t find any standard course giving an overview of this trend and how to be an integral part of it. There are however a few meetup, ning groups and plenty of forums to participate in and learn more. more information on everything related to permaculture is available on: http://permaculture.org.au/courses.php
