1. 1.
   • • Exploring Sustainability in Southern Israel
   Permaculture in the Desert through the eyes of Eden Vardy
2. 2. ahhhh.
3. 3. b sustainability is beautiful!
4. 4. Where?
5. 5. somewhere dry...
6. 6. The Arava Desert
   • Second most extreme desert in the world!
   • • Average of 20mm of rainfall per year
   • • • Actually, 13mm has been the record over the past 10 years
   • • • Daily evaporation in the Arava exceeds annualrainfall!
   Ara Arava
7. 7. The Arava Desert
8. 8. Kibbutz Lotan
   • Founded in 1982
   • Has maintained financial cooperation and socialist model
   • Founders chose the Arava as there is no political conflict over this harsh desert; political stability and minimal conflict seemed a logical foundation for community sustainability...
9. 9. Sustainable?
10. 10. flourishing habitat around Kibbutz Lotan
11. 11. abundant life
12. 12. With access to water limited to aquifers (between 40 and 600 meters below the surface), water consumption may exceed replenishment. In the hot desert, no water = instant death.
    • Essentially all plants rely on irrigation, the dripper is the lifeline!
13. 13. Kibbutz Lotan Organic Garden (drip irrigation)
14. 14. But...
    • Incredible breakthroughs happen in the most challenging situations!
15. 15. Earthen wall and geodessic dome Like innovative and beautiful structures!
16. 16. and flourishing gardens
17. 17. Desert Garden
18. 18. Kibbutz Lotan amidst the harsh Arava
19. 19.
    • Learning to grow food and live comfortably in such an extreme environment simplifies the challenges of moderate climates
    sheet mulch garden- building soil fromwastes (manure, weeds cardboard)
20. 21. The Green Apprenticeship
    • • An intensive 11 week hands on program in ecological community living taught on Kibbutz Lotan.
21. 22. Ecological components of the Green Apprenticeship:
    • Permaculture!
    • • Loads of Mud building!
    • • Ecological technology
    • • Organic gardening
    • • Water and waste management
    • • Group dynamics / problem solving / community (eco village) living
22. 23. Green Apprentices (GA's) learning to work together
23. 24. GA's
24. 25. GA group picture
25. 27. What is Permaculture?
26. 28.
    • Everyone has his / her own definition
    • The term (coined by Bill Mollison) originally developed as PERMAnent agriCULTURE expanded to mean permanent culture (refering to human culture)
    • I understand permaculture as an environmentally regenerative system designed to sustain itself
27. 29. Closed Nutrient loops
    • In a permaculture system, all wastes...(manure, food scraps, weeds, waste water, junk, etc.)...become resources(compost, animal feed, irrigation, building material, etc.)
28. 30.
    • Permaculture design includes:
    • • Sustainable natural shelters
    • • Regenerative agriculture (working to constantly improve soil conditions for future generations)
    • • Waste elimination
    • • Working together!
29. 31. food scraps for sheet mulch garden (old food will soon grow new food!)
30. 32. Permaculture Ethics:
31. 33. listen up!
32. 34. Care for the Earth! planting trees, eliminating waste, improving soil
33. 35. Care for People! helping each other out
34. 36. like a friendly massage
35. 37. Sharing of Resources!
36. 38. sharing pizza
37. 39. sharing a broom
38. 40. sharing tractors
39. 41.
    • • and most importantly, sharing ideas
40. 42. Permaculture in the Desert
    • It's not how much you have, its how many times you use it
    • • Use all resources to their fullest potential
    • Use shade whenever possible- on buildings and crops
    • • keep things cold
    • • prevent water loss
    • • prevent sun damage / burning
    • Use the sun whenever it can be beneficial
    • • solar cooking
    • • passive heating (using sunlight as heat source... thermal battery)
    • • energy
41. 43. future living shade structure
42. 45. Ecological Building and Technology
43. 46. parabolic solar cooker
44. 47. taboon (earthen) oven geodessic domes solar oven
45. 48. solar powered mud tea house
46. 49. wind catching desert coolers onhomes homes with wind catching desert coolers
47. 50. MUD!!!
    • Earth's prime building material easy to work with, abundant,and strong
    • A mixture of clay, sand, and fibre (proportions depend on clay content of local soil)
    • • fibre is generally straw- however hair, paper, dry grass and other alternatives can be used depending on local availability
48. 51. making mud (its fun)
49. 52. Gettin' dirty is OK!
    • Dirt, Soil, Mud, Earth... we must get over our paradigms that this is yucky, it covers all that is under us, it is our foundation!
    • In Hebrew, adam (man) comes from the word adama (earth)
    • Plus, its fun!
    • LET YOUR KIDS GET DIRTY!
50. 53. making cob
51. 54. weee!
52. 55. worms!
53. 56. and the finished product is beautiful!
54. 57. Straw
    • Potentially the easiest construction method
    • Straw Bales are an agricultural by-product, the stock of all grains we eat!
    • • renewable resource
    • • when compressed, straw is very strong, comparable to bricks
    • Excellent insulation
55. 58. building a straw bale room
56. 59. in the room
57. 60. InsulationVSmass ...
    • Insulation (straw, fur, etc.) slows heat transfer, Mass (mud, concrete, stone, etc.) holds heat and slowly releases it
    • For optimum temperature consistency, place insulation on theoutsideof a structure and thermal mass on theinside
    • • • this principal is true for heating and cooling:
    • • • • houses
    • • • • refrigerators
    • • • • solar ovens
    • • • • taboons (earth ovens)
    • • • • green houses
    • • • • etc.
58. 61. solar oven thermal mass insulation
59. 62. Dome, Sweet Dome
    • Geodessic dome hybrid
    • Straw bale insulated
    • 5 cm mud covering straw bales applied in 3 coats for fire protection (thicker mud on inside)
    • Effective for passive cooling and heating using a light, easy to build structure... and it feels great inside!
60. 63. geodessic straw bale mud dome
61. 64. building the frame
62. 65. my beloved home... after 3 coats of mudand beautification
63. 66. inside the dome
64. 67. Believe It or Not:
    • • You can build your own home...
    • • It's affordable, easy, and FUN!
65. 69. Bustan Neighbourhood
    • • Eco Village of Kibbutz Lotan
66. 70. neighbourhood west view: domes
67. 71. dome entrance ways (before beautification)
68. 72. After Beautification
69. 73. future classroom
70. 74. dining area / social quarters: (community space is very important!)
71. 75. composting toilets (1) (where all the shit goes down!)
72. 76. composting toilet
73. 77. composting toilets (2)
74. 78. wash area showers
75. 79. neighbourhood (north view)
76. 80. Northwest view
77. 82. Fun Projects: Practical experiments in sustainability and laughter during the Green Apprenticeship
78. 83. mud bench stage 1:fill tires with junk
79. 84. mud bench stage 2: first coat (sticky mud)
80. 85. mud bench stage 3:rock and concrete good shoes base
81. 86. mud benchstage 4 and 5:thick second coat mudandaesthetic (no straw) final coat
82. 87. finished with reusedveggie oil and turpentine
83. 88. neighbourhood sheet mulch garden
84. 89. personal veggie gardens (after 1 month)
85. 90. double dug compost trench garden
86. 91. children play dome
87. 92. cob wall
88. 93. new domes frame construction
89. 95. Organic Gardening
    • • Why Not Conventional Agriculture?
90. 96. nice and peaceful..
91. 97. kinda scary...
92. 98. Desert Everywhere!
    • Conventional agriculture is creating desert characteristics all over the world...
    • The United States number 1 export is SOIL (topsoil). Lost to erosion, pouring into streams, Life sustaining soil is being thrown away.
    • Ever increasing industrial farming is causing large scale desertification
93. 99. desertification of what once was lush (where did all the trees go?) studying gardening in the desert doesn't seem so crazy anymore...
94. 100. pesticides and fertilizers have killed themicro- organisms in the soil, leaving it dry and sad... healthy ecosystems need topsoil!
95. 101. topsoil lost to wind erosion after clear cut
96. 103. There Is Hope!
97. 105. Soil Solutions= Waste and Water Management
98. 106.
    • Erosion control can be as simple as planting trees.
    • Organic wastes (food scraps, weeds, humanure, etc.) can be made into compost- man made topsoil!
    • • builds fertile, nutritious soil for healthy, nutritious food
    • • reduces the concept of waste which is not prevalent in nature (WASTE = FOOD!).
99. 107. A word on humanure composting
    • All fecal microorganisms, including enteric viruses and roundworm eggs, will die if the temperature exceeds 46 C (114.8 F) for one week Joseph Jenkins, p. 14The Humanure Handbook.A well maintained compost pile will have no trouble heating itself to this temperature.
    • Composting toilets are increasing in popularity and are become very aesthetic, easy to maintain, and have no bad smells! Imagine if they would replace those nasty port- a- potties...
100. 108.
     • Composting may be the best way to deal with our excrement... not only does it produce asanitary environmental commodity (VS a hazardous waste), but it prevents five to six gallons of drinking water from being thrown away (every time we flush).
101. 109. Compost (Human created Topsoil): Can Save the World Today! make your own pile at home!
102. 110. 3 feet by 3 feet pile is ideal size
103. 111. Mix Carbon and Nitrogen(thin layers are best):
     • Carbon: Brown (Dry) material
     • • straw
     • • dry leaves / dry weeds
     • • paper / cardboard
     • • sawdust
     • Nitrogen: Green (wet) material (always cover with Dry layer)
     • • food scraps
     • • kaka / urine
     • • green weeds
     *If smelly, add Carbon...
104. 112. home (continuous) compost system: ready compost at base
105. 113. The Bottom Line
     • • healthy, living soil= healthy food = healthy, happy people!
106. 114. Water Management
     • Using rainwater catchment systems (from roof run off) for home and agriculture use reduces tension on aquifers
     • Building rainwater catchment swales (ditches on contour) allows water to slowly infuse the land, in some cases alleviating the need to irrigate at all.Swales have proven to raise the water table... and they even work in the dead sea valley!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk
107. 115. Greywater
     • Shower, sink, and laundry water can easily be reused in the garden or yard... this reduces water usage, waste, and pressure on sewage treatment plants, keeping chemicals like chlorine out of our watershed.
108. 116. PLANT TREES
     • Planting trees stores CO 2 , provides food, fuel, fodder, nutrients for soil, building materials, fencing, animal habitats, mulch, and shade for humans, animals, and plants!
     • It is probably the best thing we can do for the world (Mike Kaplan Permaculture guru of Kibbutz Lotan)
109. 117. 7 year old trees Neot Smadar
110. 118. planted Oasis: Naot Smadar
111. 119. Elaine Solloway's desert compatible tree orchard: Kibbutz Ketura
112. 120. trees in the desert yielding topsoil!
113. 121. So ...
     • Itispossible to improve living conditionsandsolve ecological dilemmas!
114. 123.
     • But wemust work togetherin order to achieve it.
     • The world is not going to change for us, we must change for the world...
     • The change is as simple as seeing ourselves as part of the system (permaculture principle), and thus affected by our every action
115. 124. volunteer work with Bedoin near Beer Sheva
116. 125. We can not go back to tribal ways, but we can learn a lot from where we have been. Lets moveForwardTOGETHER- using technology appropriately, focusing on our potential, and be the stewards of regeneration!
117. 126. its fun to work together!
118. 127. your turn!
119. 128. help put the common back into sense!