This puts the world at risk of nutrient lacking soils, meaning much less nutrients in fruits and veggies, increasing disease and immune system depletion for the people. Soil erosion also gives way to desertification a devastating phenomena. Desertification is the rapid conversion of cultivable land into arid useless land. This can lead to unprecedented famines around the world.
Nearly 3.6 billion hectares of agricultural land across 100 countries have been affected by desertification causing a huge food crisis. Africa, Asia and Latin America are largely affected. North America will soon reach its peak at the current soil degradation rate. You can see this in the form of increased drought in American farmland.
Did you know you can play a part in bringing back soil fertility and food security to your family and loved ones ? How ? By composting making soil ! Localizing food systems of local edible gardens for your community. You can also share this knowledge, with others in order to prevent us from continuing going down the path of our own self destruction.
As if the grade of top soil erosion was not enough to deal with, we also have a decrease in the colony of bees with up to a 30% of bee collapse, and in California up to a 60% in bee colony collapse. Bees are important pollinators necessary for the production of fruits and veggies. With out bees there is no food production.
As if that was not enough
We have a water crisis : Out of the worlds water supply 97% is in the form of salt water in the ocean, 2% is locked into the ice caps and 1% in fresh water form.
While our thirst for water steadily rises, the water supply does not. During the 20th century, the world’s population tripled, but its consumption of water increased sevenfold.
From the 1% of fresh water available for utilization, this is how it is used: 1. (70% ) Industrial Agriculture. (39% of that is lost in evaporation from unsustainable farming practices) 2. (20%) Industry 3.(10%) Domestic use
The sources of the pollution of our planet’s water are varied and include aggressive agricultural practices, industry and municipal uses.
In the United States, 40% of waterways from rivers to brooks are polluted, 90% of sewage is dumped untreated into bodies of water.
Water pollution threatens ecosystems and access to water for our future generations and those to come.
All over the world, water is becoming less suitable not only for human consumption but also for agricultural and industrial use.
Making water potable is increasingly expensive; and requires non renewable embedded energy for the toxic fluoride , chlorine filled ¨cleaning¨ process, and electric pumping for distribution.
Our food is shipped to us requiring the exploitation of un-renewable resources such as petroleum , for every plate of food that we eat there is 16,000 miles invested in transportation. 1 calories of food = 15 calories of oil.
Petroleum is Mother Earths way of storing excess carbon deep into the ground to prevent the Earth from heating up to much , when we pump the carbon back into the atmosphere it increases the temperature of the planet. Today we are pumping carbon dioxide back out into the atmosphere at startling rates.
We also have a problem with genetically modifies seeds ! Genetically modified crops (also called biotech crops) have been intentionally altered through genetic engineering—the elimination, alteration, or introduction of new genetic elements, including from one unrelated species to another. GMOS taking up a current 2.4 billion acres, GM crops include soy (94%), cotton (90%), canola (90%), corn (88%), Hawaiian papaya (more than 50%) zucchini and yellow squash (over 24,000 acres), sugar beets (95%) there is the possibility of cross-pollination and GM contamination into other beet varieties and near relatives, such as chard.
It seems like many of the environmental problems we are facing are daunting , but there are many solutions!
We can plant edible sustainable gardens for local food production EVERYWHERE ! We can catch the water from the sky and filter it for our own use as well as for our gardens, plant flowers for bees and butterflies and sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by increasing the amount of vegetation. We can all play a role in preserving the biodiversity of NON GMO seeds, for our future generations.
There is a wonderful quote from a great permaculture designer and teacher that says : All the worlds problems can be solved in a garden
Permaculture offers us a host of sustainable design strategies, to create a sustainable and abundant future !
Permaculture is about:
It is a way of living where people and nature are preserved, these attributes create surplus energy and create an environment where untold generations can thrive.
Permaculture is about leaving the planet in better shape than we found it, at least the little piece of land we get to work with, even if it is just a porch, a few acres, or some huge plot, we can do our part .
