January 5

Published by Panetary Health Initiative on 05/01/202205/01/2022

Today we chose to accelerate our succession to planetary health

This week we were faced, yet again, with the heart-wrenching dilemma of how to respond to the public health crisis being caused by the Pandemic.

We couldn’t face cancelling yet another opportunity for young people, but we also couldn’t take the risk of spreading a disease that’s decimating our hospital system and pushing so many of our hardworking hospital staff to the edge.

So, for the first time, with the amazing group of Permaculture teachers we trained last month, we took a deep breath and, literally overnight, pulled together our first-ever online Permaculture Design Course. Everyone collaborated and rose to the occasion …. Zoom-weary young people and teachers who’d never taught on Zoom. We all became teachers and learners, sharing our skills and wholehearted commitment to doing what we can to restore planetary health together.

Participants, who had planned to spend the month in Katoomba, Zoom-ed in from Bathurst, Orange, Kanimbla Valley, Blackheath, Hazelbrook, Mid-Mountains, Yellow Rock, Berry, the Central Coast, Marrickville, Newtown, South Coogee, and Sydney. More are joining us next week. These young people are passionate, inspiring and extraordinarily motivated.

Thanks to the ‘Zoom-experienced’ teachers who stepped up to help us all, we were able to explore a range of online tools to create an enjoyable, informative and interactive experience, and we’re all collaborating to design the course going forward over the next month. We’re thrilled that young people will be creating a range of designs for a Planetary Health Leadership Centre, to be included in the Masterplanning of the old Katoomba Golf Course site. We’re also thrilled that we can mentor them to design meaningful livelihoods and a better future.

In our Ecology Unit we learnt about Succession, and drew together collaboratively online to explore ways we could all make interventions in natural systems to restore planetary health more quickly.

To create a healthier garden we can introduce funghi and nitrogen-fixing species; to create a healthier society we can train more people in the ethical, ecological design principles of permaculture.

In his book ‘How to Live Forever’, Encore.org CEO Mark Freedman wrote, that if you want to live forever, don’t drink from the Fountain OF Youth, drink from the Fountain WITH youth. Today we began to drink from that Fountain.

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