- 3 weeks ago
Explores regenerative living and features real-world examples of people pioneering sustainable solutions in their daily lives, such as permaculture, time banking, community-supported agriculture, and zero waste.
激励人心的故事
激励人心的故事
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TVTranscript
00:00:26The current system has to go through a
00:00:28collapse unless you believe that infinite growth is possible on a finite planet.
00:00:32The system is growth dependent, so there's going to be a collapse in one form or another.
00:00:40If you just look at what's happening in terms of deforestation, resource overconsumption,
00:00:47waste streams and climate change, I mean these are all phenomena that are brought about by
00:00:53our overconsumption, overexploitation of resources.
00:01:05We have to leave 80 percent at least of the fossil fuel that we know about and that we
00:01:12know we could make money digging up, we have to leave it in the ground for the entire century
00:01:16at least.
00:01:18The ecological crisis comes from treating the earth as an other, as just a bunch of
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00:01:27We've been so powerful and we've impacted on so much of the wild world around us that if
00:01:33we don't do something fairly soon, the wild world is going to consume us.
00:01:43You know, these are the massive issues, climate change, you know, energy and food, all of
00:01:47these things that are converging on us, and yet, you know, you pick up the paper every
00:01:52day and there'll be nothing about this stuff.
00:01:56If you look at our global economic system, I guess you'd have to first think of it as
00:02:00a system by accident.
00:02:02Nobody sat down and designed this thing, and in a lot of ways, it's sort of the worst of
00:02:08all possible combinations, because what you have is something that is supposed to be based
00:02:13in the real world, but behaves as if it were in a fantasy world.
00:02:19It's really exploitive, extractive, damaging, not only to people, but to the environment,
00:02:28and to the economy too.
00:02:35I think we're heading for some very deep water if we don't make these changes.
00:02:44Being sustainable is not just a nice thing to do.
00:02:48Being unsustainable isn't just a bit unfortunate, it is an existential threat to our species.
00:02:54People don't seem to get that.
00:02:56We actually need to do something about it or we're gone.
00:03:01You've probably had those moments of despair where you think it's just hopeless and the
00:03:06world is always going to be this way, and anything we do is not enough.
00:03:09But there's also, and I would say that this is maybe more of a heart-knowing that understands
00:03:16that a more beautiful world is possible.
00:03:18The course that's about today.
00:03:19We have been factoring.
00:03:19Go and do all the pessoal now.
00:03:37Do all of may loseengels along the world,게요,
00:03:43so without Associates or without missesarmarmarmarm. Thank you,
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00:07:50as well in the process way more than would be necessary if it wasn't for interest.
00:08:06For a lot of the things to keep running, to keep the finance
00:08:09engine ticking along and keep economies moving, we have to have lots and lots of energy.
00:08:26Energy for extracting natural resources, energy for shipping things around the world,
00:08:31energy for manufacturing, energy to promote them, energy to keep them going,
00:08:36energy to maintain things, so it's a lot of energy used in the system.
00:08:46Fossil fuel energy is energy from the sun that's been stored in plants or other living things,
00:08:52and has been stored under the ground usually for millions and millions of years. When you dig it
00:08:57up you get a free bonus basically, you get this amazing wealth of energy which you can do all kinds
00:09:04of creative and amazing things with, but the problem is is that when it runs out that's it, it's gone.
00:09:12The other aspect of that of course is the process of getting it and digging it up
00:09:16is both destructive and also expensive and requires energy to do.
00:09:39Peak oil is a concept that is quite simple. What it means is that you have a finite amount of
00:09:48something and if you consume it at a steady rate then there kind of isn't a peak, you just consume
00:09:56it,
00:09:57but if you consume it with a with an increasing rate then you'll hit a point where you can't increase
00:10:02anymore and that that would be a peak and then the consumption would necessarily drop off in some way.
00:10:11The energy return on investment from fossil fuels when we first discovered it was so big
00:10:16and that's that's why we have the abundance that we have now is just that free energy
00:10:21and we've been having this crazy party you know for a hundred years now on fossil fuels. It's just a
00:10:27crazy binge that we've been on and we're at the end of the binge now because the the energy
00:10:31return on investment is is dwindling all the time.
00:10:37It's how our our food system works we we talk about this green revolution that fed all these
00:10:42people but it's not a green revolution it's an oil revolution.
00:10:49The entire system is hugely dependent on fossil fuel inputs.
00:10:55You pull those out and I guarantee you within days the whole thing is going to fall down.
00:11:05If you take into account fossil fuels and the transport the tilling the you know everything
00:11:10the packaging the movement the whole you know food system that we have in the developed world
00:11:16so-called developed world then you know there's at least 10 units of energy for every one we get out
00:11:23of it.
00:11:24Basing a food production system that's meant to feed the world
00:11:27on something which is temporary
00:11:31brings obvious problems.
00:11:35As a result of that is the huge loss of biodiversity and while not a lot of people care about
00:11:42bugs and all
00:11:43this other stuff biodiversity is critical.
00:11:49So when you strip that away by having what we call monocultures then you get you know you get massive
00:11:55problems with monocultures we are talking about growing one crop or farming one animal or and you
00:12:02know you don't see that in nature nature doesn't work that way it's evolved diversity for resilience.
00:12:11When you take that away these systems become really brittle and they're very prone to breaking.
00:12:18Now we kind of stave off the worst of those effects but we try to with fossil fuel inputs.
00:12:25We put in fertilizers, we put in herbicides, fungicides, pesticides.
00:12:29We go to great lengths to try and protect these very fragile food production systems.
00:12:42I think what a lot of people don't realize is that our food system
00:12:46is incredibly vulnerable.
00:12:49We do a pretty good job most of the time of getting food where it needs to go.
00:12:56Managing supplies, managing surplus transportation, all that sort of stuff.
00:13:00But it is quite vulnerable to major upsets, all kinds of crises, particularly economic crises.
00:13:11If the shops, the supermarkets stopped selling food for three days for some reason, how would you survive?
00:13:21What would that be like? How would that feel? What would you do?
00:13:26You know, it's happened to me in a major city just one day and it really made me think.
00:13:34You begin to realize that there is a series of things which all need to be in place and all
00:13:38need
00:13:38to be functioning properly all the time for things to run smoothly.
00:13:44In a world of increasing climate volatility and the economic pressures that that can bring,
00:13:54it's really easy to see how a bad situation could develop.
00:13:59So this is the kind of scary reality and it's coming fast. Unless we really, really quickly
00:14:06change our food system and how we do it, you know, then, you know, there's going to be huge
00:14:11impacts on humans, let alone the other animals on the planet.
00:14:20To a certain extent, people who really do understand the problem of climate change and resources and equity,
00:14:28it's really easy to get focused on the miracle technology solution to that because that's what we do.
00:14:35That's what society is asking us to do.
00:14:39I think if technology could have solved all of our problems, then it would have already solved all of our
00:14:44problems.
00:14:46Theoretically, we have all the technology we need to live beautifully on earth and beautifully with each other.
00:14:52But we have not lived beautifully on earth and beautifully with each other.
00:14:58So something else has to happen.
00:15:23A hundred years from now, every solar panel we build will be rubbish. It'll be toxic waste,
00:15:28in fact, somewhere. I hope somebody figures out what to do with it.
00:15:33Every windmill we build now won't be running anymore. It'll it'll be hopefully a lot of it'll be recycled.
00:15:39I don't know. But the carbon we put in the air will still be there.
00:15:45You're never going to have air travel with renewables. You're never going to have steel with renewables.
00:15:51You're never going to have electronics with renewables because you need diesel.
00:15:57So making sure that you leave some diesel for later is kind of important.
00:16:05I'm not disillusioned with solar or wind or anything.
00:16:12I know that the substitution of those things for fossil fuels isn't possible.
00:16:18So as long as we keep telling ourselves the story that it is, we aren't actually doing the thing we
00:16:23have to do,
00:16:24which is to just leave the stuff in the ground, which means what?
00:16:27There's only one thing you can do then, which is to use less of it.
00:16:34If there's an industrial civilization out there a couple centuries from now, then they're using fossil fuel.
00:16:43Tiny amounts of it. And they're using renewable energy.
00:16:47And that renewable energy they are using is hydro and geothermal.
00:16:54And wood that they are harvesting and husbanding very, very carefully.
00:16:59All right. And what we notice most about them is how little they're using of most everything.
00:17:09That's what has to happen. It doesn't matter how many solar panels you ever put on anything.
00:17:14The only thing that matters is leaving the coal in the ground, leaving the oil in the ground,
00:17:18leaving the gas in the ground, all of it, and planting back every bit of forest that you possibly can.
00:17:24That's the only thing that matters.
00:17:39The history of civilization has been kind of like a history of an increasing power
00:17:47to dominate and control the other, the cultural other, and also the natural other.
00:18:32And this was supposed to bring us into utopia.
00:18:36We were supposed to live in paradise by now. A paradise of electrified comfort, robot servants,
00:18:42space colonies, artificial food, infinite lifespans, etc., etc. The breakdown that's happening today
00:18:49in part is happening because this glorious promise of technology and also social engineering
00:18:56was never fulfilled. And in fact, things are getting worse and worse. And in fact,
00:19:01our technologies of control now look to be seeding our destruction.
00:19:24We don't know anymore what the answer is. We don't know who we are. We don't even know what's real.
00:19:31Because on every level, the story that answered those questions is breaking down.
00:19:37Politically, economically, and especially technologically and in our relationship to nature.
00:19:43So that leaves us not knowing. And it leaves us open to another story.
00:20:31If we want to solve health crises, food quality issues, economic issues, we really have to change
00:20:43the system and the infrastructure of the system. And we have to create our own infrastructure.
00:20:59I've been studying sustainable farming systems for over 25 years. There are no real issues. We can solve
00:21:07all of them all of them. There are really easy answers to grow food quality and do that with good
00:21:14environmental care. That's the easy bit.
00:21:21We are in a position to do it properly because of the CSA. Our members allow us to create that
00:21:29diversity.
00:21:29That other old system doesn't allow you to create that diversity.
00:21:37CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.
00:21:43It means that a farmer starts growing food. And growing food, there's a lot of
00:21:51unknowns in there. And you have to start at the beginning of the season. And you don't know
00:21:55for whatever reason, if you're going to harvest all the things that you've planned to harvest,
00:22:00that you've started sowing months back.
00:22:07So the idea is that a group of people support the farmer, so the farmer knows he's got an outlet.
00:22:15And the members that we have, they know that every week they're going to get a box
00:22:20of healthy, fresh foods that have been harvested just before they got them.
00:22:28For us, it means we have stability in the fact that the plants we sow, that they are sold.
00:22:35We don't have the issue of food waste, because if a broccoli is small and it normally wouldn't be able
00:22:43to go to the supermarket, we can give people too.
00:22:52As a farmer, you want to create healthy soils and healthy plants and healthy animals and
00:22:58further up the food chain, you make sure that you create a soil that invites the right sets of microbes.
00:23:12That for us means we have soil, which is the mineral component. In the soil,
00:23:18we've got the microorganisms which are governing the system. We just create a habitat for them.
00:23:24Then you've got the plants growing out of there, be it annuals, perennials and trees.
00:23:35Then, amongst that, you've got the insects living in there, and then we've incorporated pigs, sheep, cows,
00:23:43ducks, geese, and I'm sure we're forgetting a few bits and bobs, and every single item adds value.
00:24:00So on the closed loop systems, they will have tree crops and all that nuts, fruit,
00:24:06all that kind of thing happening on the fringes or in shelter belts.
00:24:12A whole really diverse approach to farming that is way more sustainable, but also it closes that
00:24:21nitrogen or that fertiliser loop so you don't have to bring it in from the outside. You just don't waste
00:24:26it.
00:24:37While eating less meat is a really important thing to do, it's important to recognise that
00:24:44you can't have a healthy ecosystem without animals. A truly environmentally friendly and ecologically
00:24:51healthy food production system must have animals, because as soon as you take animals out of that
00:24:56system, all the jobs that those animals did in that functioning ecosystem now needs to be done
00:25:02some other way, whether that's by people or chemicals. The health of these food production
00:25:09systems is supported by the natural and healthy interaction between plants and animals,
00:25:17animals. And that can take the form of pest control, fertility cycles. There's lots of interactions
00:25:25between animals and plants which we can and should use to support a healthy and resilient food production
00:25:35system. So really what that boils down to is we need to eat less meat. We don't cut it out,
00:25:43but the best thing that anyone can do is try and find producers that are operating systems which are
00:25:51looking after the health of their environment, including the animals, and supporting them.
00:26:18What comes out the back end of a worm is really good stuff. And then it's just really cool just
00:26:24seeing this hyphae of fungus and that just growing on the surface of the soil.
00:26:40So holistic grazing is a management technique that's been devised by a Zimbabwean man, Alan Savory,
00:26:46and he was observing the large herds of buffalo in Africa, and it could be bison in America,
00:26:52and just massive herds of ruminant animals. And these animals were constantly on the move because
00:26:59there's generally some lions or something just on their back and wanting to pick off any of the weak ones.
00:27:07We have large mobs of cattle that are shifted every day, but instead of lions, you know,
00:27:13keeping them bunched together, we have electric fences. And each day they're going onto fresh grass,
00:27:19and it's long grass, and so they're not eating at all. Some of it's getting trampled and with the dung
00:27:24and urine and that, it's just all forming that kind of compost heap on the ground.
00:27:33Other farmers might be looking at us and saying, well, you're just wasting all that grass because
00:27:37it gets dry and stalky and what have you. But, you know, my reply is that waste is a human
00:27:42concept.
00:27:43Nature doesn't do waste. And so we are using that pasture as part of our fertiliser programme,
00:27:50because that's what's getting put down on the soil and broken down and going back into building soil.
00:28:02When the grass is grazed into the holistic lawn grazing system, it gets cut off short by the
00:28:08animal and it also sheds its roots at that time. And that's what is releasing carbon into the soil.
00:28:17And I guess one of the most exciting things and drivers of what we're doing is the potential
00:28:22that that has for helping with climate change issues.
00:28:31Some of those CAFOs that they call in America, or the feedlot,
00:28:34cattle fattening operations are a climate disaster. But again, you know, under this system,
00:28:41they are sequestering more carbon and are part of a natural cycle that is actually beneficial.
00:28:51Conventionally, farmers, it's all about keeping the grass short in a vegetative state,
00:28:56so it's growing vigorously. And that system works while you're putting on, you know,
00:29:01lots of imported fertilisers, particularly phosphate fertilisers, largely from North Africa,
00:29:06and a whole system that requires digging up that fertiliser and trucking it and then shipping it
00:29:11and then trucking it and then processing it and then flying it onto hills. It's a system that's not
00:29:15going to work in our future with less fossil fuels.
00:29:26What we're doing on the farm here is trying to reduce the amount of fossil fuels that it takes
00:29:31to produce food. We've got the cattle going around. We have, you know, hens following along behind the
00:29:38cattle. There's pigs on this farm too. And we're milking a few dairy cows. And all that is really about
00:29:47using a perennial crop like grass pasture with, you know, forage from trees and that around as well.
00:29:53So we can, you know, produce eggs from the chooks and pork, you know, without relying on so much of
00:30:00the annual grains and all the energy that's involved in producing them. So just trying to get, you know,
00:30:07the fossil fuels out of our food system as much as we can and producing healthy natural food.
00:30:18The powerful thing is that with regenerative agriculture, we can not only produce food and
00:30:23we can not only produce an abundance of food, but we can do it in a way that regenerates the
00:30:28land,
00:30:29that replenishes the aquifers, that sequesters carbon, that nurtures and supports biodiversity.
00:30:38Regenerative agriculture, permaculture, holistic management, there's nothing magical about the
00:30:43way that these things work. It's all based upon sound science and about having a point of view that
00:30:51is looking at your ecosystem in its entirety, not just individual aspects of it. So really,
00:30:58what this breaks down to is that anyone who's looking after land, whether you're a farmer or a gardener,
00:31:04whatever, you're an ecosystem manager.
00:31:29My philosophy about what to do in the world isn't go to a pristine area and live there and enjoy
00:31:36your life.
00:31:37It's to find a place that's degraded and fix it up.
00:31:4723 years ago, we started developing the food forest system here.
00:31:51We've got 480 different species of plants at last count. That doesn't include the 80 different
00:31:57types of apples and the 60 different types of gooseberries. And so it's lovely to have that diversity.
00:32:03And it means that every time of the year, there's things flowering, things giving fruit,
00:32:08you know, root crops you can eat. And so having diversity is special,
00:32:11and that's what makes a forest garden resilient.
00:32:19This property had been abandoned for probably 40 years. No one lived here,
00:32:24an old house had burnt down on the spot.
00:32:29And the top area, this area where the house is now, was completely covered in junk,
00:32:35and the remains of the old house. Most people would have not even crossed the threshold of the
00:32:41property to have a look at that, I don't think, because it didn't look very appealing. But to us,
00:32:46it did. Because I thought, well, for one thing, nobody wants it, so it's probably going to be cheap,
00:32:51and it was cheap to buy. And secondly, I thought, I can fix this.
00:32:59A food forest is a permanent planting, so you want to set up just like a forest system. So a
00:33:06forest system can be there always. The big trees and the middle-sized trees and the bottom layer
00:33:11and the ground layer, they work together. Some plants pick up some minerals and give others back,
00:33:16another one does something else. Growing out in the forest garden there, aside from the native trees,
00:33:25which I've used as a framework or a platform for building everything else, and those provide me
00:33:30with shelter from the wind and also nest sites for the birds. And the birds are a really important
00:33:36player in the management of the garden. In the tikoka, the cabbage trees that I've got growing there,
00:33:43starlings nest in almost all of them. And those starlings, as they're feeding their yunkers,
00:33:48their babies, are flying out and finding any soft-bodied caterpillar or grub they can. So
00:33:53there's our pest management for that kind of thing. And then as an understory, or the second layer down
00:34:01to that, we have our fruit tree layer, which is our heritage apples and pears and plums and nectarines and
00:34:07peaches, apricots. And then below that, a layer of berry fruits and currants, red currants, black currants,
00:34:17white currants and gooseberries, Worcester berries, all of those sorts of shrubby
00:34:23plants that like to grow in the semi-shade.
00:34:27And then wrapping around all of that are the biennial and perennial herbs, some of which are edible,
00:34:34some of which are medicinal. And then below that, there are bulbs and root crops that grow, such as
00:34:42parsnips and wild carrots, those kinds of things. And then winding their way up through these things are
00:34:50vines, like grape vines and kiwifruit and minturine gooseberries and hops and all sorts of things,
00:34:56which kind of bind everything together and tie the forest, tie the forest together.
00:35:07It's so peaceful when you walk about and it's just all the different flowers and the energy and
00:35:12action and all the insects and the birds have their own life. And so the birds are doing all
00:35:16their thing up in the trees and coming down to feeding and insects are flying around and
00:35:19having babies and flying off emissions. It's like being in another universe, really. It's just amazing.
00:35:26And it's to me, it's how life should be with that livingness and the interconnectedness of all the
00:35:31plants and the bees and the herbs.
00:35:36In a forest garden like ours, the major player is wildness, is, you know, the natural world and all of
00:35:43those things that happen in there. And my job is just to kind of mould that to suit our purposes
00:35:49to a certain extent.
00:35:54We are not separate from the wild world. We are as wild as it is. But we've worked towards a
00:36:02form
00:36:03that is not fitting in with the wild world at all well. And it's going to realign us fairly soon,
00:36:11in my view, unless we can recognise that we need to be fully integrated into that world.
00:36:30People in indigenous societies, in tribal societies or in agrarian villages, they were enmeshed in
00:36:38a matrix of relationship that gave them a strong identity. Everybody who they saw on a daily basis
00:36:45knew them really well.
00:36:50And we also were in intimate connection with the land. We knew every plant, we knew every animal,
00:36:56every bird, we knew its song, and when it sang, and what bugs it ate, and where those bugs lived,
00:37:01and what the soil smells like where the bugs live, and what plants grow there, and what medicine the
00:37:06plants are used for. We were in this web of interbeing. We felt as if we were at home in
00:37:14the universe.
00:37:16That is missing in our current society. We're surrounded by a sea of strangers,
00:37:22people that we know only very superficially, if at all.
00:37:37For Māori people, the ancestors in the land are all part of one. We come from the land. And most
00:37:45people,
00:37:46humans on a planet, relate to land one way or another, because they belong to it. And they
00:37:52forge their own identity out of it as well. And that will always continue to happen.
00:37:58It's like a biological bond between a mother and a child. You can't break it. That bond is enforced
00:38:06when the genealogy of the ancestors, of their families, grandparents, is emotionally installed in
00:38:13it. That they feel that they belong here.
00:38:25Interbeing is a very natural term. It means more than interconnection or interdependency,
00:38:30which kind of suggests separate selves having relationships. Interbeing is more of an understanding
00:38:36that we are relationship. That my very existence depends or draws from or includes your existence.
00:38:47My well-being is intimately connected to your well-being or to the well-being of the river,
00:38:53the ocean, the forest, people across the world, and so forth, because I'm not really separate from you.
00:39:03And that means that in the story of interbeing, I know that whatever I do to the world will come
00:39:10back to me somehow. So if our true being is the totality of our relationships and includes
00:39:19everything in the cosmos, if we are truly maybe a holographic mirror of all that is,
00:39:26then when we cut ourselves off from any aspect of nature, other people, we create a wound, we create
00:39:34a cutoff. And this is painful. And we yearn to recover our wholeness. However, due to ideology,
00:39:47due to the economic system that we're immersed in, due to cultural factors, due to many, many, many reasons,
00:39:53the reunion that we long for is unavailable to us. That is good for business because it drives
00:40:04consumerism, it drives acquisitiveness, it drives greed, it drives all kinds of neurotic behaviors that
00:40:10seek to compensate for the missing relationships.
00:40:27I felt myself being drawn into this materialistic world because all the people that were around me
00:40:34had material possessions and it was all there's this wanting and creating of attachment and wanting
00:40:40and wanting more stuff. So I sort of got swept into that in a way.
00:40:50So yeah, I studied business and I was involved in finance and more specifically stock market.
00:40:55So we used to help people manage their money. And one of the organizations I worked with,
00:41:02we used to manage hundreds of millions of dollars for people.
00:41:05I wasn't from that background, from a sort of a conservative sort of upbringing,
00:41:10then all of a sudden I'm involved with guys that are driving luxury cars and living in an expensive
00:41:17house in Sydney suburbs. It's sort of a bit overwhelming.
00:41:23A lot of the guys that I'd worked with, you know, they were multi-millionaires. But, you know,
00:41:2920 million wasn't enough. So they have to have the, you know, three cars, they have to have, you know,
00:41:35a holiday home, they have to have a boat. And what happens is you can get trapped in that lifestyle,
00:41:41hey.
00:41:48So the idea is to, you know, have native plants mixed among fruit trees. So we've got, you know,
00:41:56natives here. We've got, we've got a tamarillo here. We've got manuka and carnuka in and pitosporums,
00:42:02natives. We've got a cabbage tree here. This is a pine nut. So those are really expensive nuts you get
00:42:10in the supermarket. This is one of those that takes about 10 years to get any fruit on it or
00:42:15any nuts.
00:42:16So that's a long-term project. And then we've got over here, we've got a fig tree, which is fruiting
00:42:22quite nicely. And then for the monarch butterflies, we've got a couple of swan plants, which they really
00:42:30enjoy and we might be lucky to see one. Here he comes now. It was only after Beth and my
00:42:38wife and I
00:42:39moved, made the move to New Zealand. We just had enough of the whole corporate life and we wanted
00:42:45a slower, simpler lifestyle. It was then the realization sort of hit home. I started to research
00:42:52more, read, you know, hundreds of articles and watch hundreds of documentaries and all sorts of stuff.
00:42:59Then I started to really understand, wow, we've got some serious issues here and no one's really
00:43:05talking about this stuff. And it's quite scary.
00:43:11I guess with realization of some of the broader issues such as, you know, climate change,
00:43:19peak oil or resource depletion, and the extinction crisis we're currently going through. And
00:43:25it's sort of like it's these massive issues are being given lip service by governments and
00:43:32organizations. And it's like, oh, it'll just won't happen or it'll just, the system will solve this
00:43:39problem. And that's what it sort of feels like. So I guess that brings up a lot of emotions like,
00:43:46you know, frustration and anger and guilt. And it's like, why isn't someone doing something about this?
00:43:52Oh, here we go. Here's strawberry, here's strawberry. So here's a nice one. I can look at the colour of
00:43:56that thing.
00:43:58Then I started to research permaculture and realized that it was an integrated approach to how we're living.
00:44:06So at the moment, our current society, it's a fragmented approach to living. So everything's
00:44:13compartmentalized or separated. Whereas permaculture is a holistic approach to how we're living.
00:44:20It integrates food, environment, with your lifestyle and taking care of, you know, people, the planet and the natural resources.
00:44:32So a lot of people come over to our property and have a look around. They go, what about all
00:44:37your fruit trees?
00:44:38Do you get pests and stuff like birds that eat them? And I said, yeah, sure. But we don't mind
00:44:42that.
00:44:43You know, that's why they were here first. And, you know, we're a part of nature. And, you know,
00:44:47we've had comments from other people that live around near us on the farms, and they say they can't
00:44:53believe how much wildlife and bird life is here. And their properties just, you know, a few hundred meters
00:45:00away have almost no wildlife or bird life.
00:45:18So, you know, we're attracting bird life and wildlife through just letting nature be,
00:45:25as opposed to wanting to control it. Permaculture links into other aspects like collaboration,
00:45:34localization, food resiliency and networking. So it's not just about growing food. It's about
00:45:41connecting a whole system and integrating a whole system into one's life.
00:45:48This lifestyle, working on the land and doing permaculture, it feels more rewarding and like
00:45:54I'm putting something back. We also live a less consumerist lifestyle, so we don't need as much
00:46:02stuff. So I haven't got this constant craving for more and more things to make me feel satisfied or happy.
00:46:09So there you have it. We have homegrown salad, fruit salad, green salad and some eggs. And I can't believe
00:46:19still that I don't have to go to a supermarket. We've grown all this ourselves in just three years.
00:46:26I'm still amazed. So anyone can do it.
00:46:37When I was living in big cities, it was like I had to get away to connect with nature. But
00:46:44when I wake up
00:46:45in every morning, I come outside and I'm immediately in nature here, I don't have that void anymore.
00:46:51I've just got this instant connection and satisfaction. It's hard to explain.
00:47:02Maybe you've had this experience feeling like I'm not living my life. I'm living the life I'm paid to live.
00:47:09But what about my life? So this is a different dimension of human nature that we need to invoke.
00:47:19We need to implement. We need to create conditions for that part of human nature to blossom.
00:47:39We had been living in Katikati and I was working a regular job as a GP in the practice there.
00:47:51And then I just found these kind of warning signs that I was trying to get out of balance.
00:47:55You know, I'd be lovely with my patients, but I'd come home and be kind of shitty.
00:48:00I was feeling quite depressed.
00:48:03Just kind of the internal cogs weren't running together very well.
00:48:10And we started talking about it and thought maybe we really need to kind of
00:48:15radically rethink how we want to live.
00:48:20So the house is 20 square metres.
00:48:23It started with sheep shearers quarters just to the side of us here.
00:48:29And that was maybe 20 years ago that that was built.
00:48:33So our bedroom is the original cabin.
00:48:35And then this L-shaped space is our kitchen, lounge, library, office,
00:48:44day bed, everything, yeah.
00:48:4920 square metres.
00:48:51We've got a shower just adjoining and a bit of a deck out the back.
00:48:56A few months ago, a friend of mine helped me put a 300 watt panel up on the roof.
00:49:00And so that powers the broadband and telephone and a bit more light.
00:49:07And what else? Now we can use a sewing machine, which is very exciting.
00:49:11Yeah, we can use a sewing machine, which is good.
00:49:16A lot of people, when they hear about it, they think, oh my gosh, how is that with a baby?
00:49:21And even before that, how is that just the two of you?
00:49:23And I think actually it's great with a baby living in a small space and that
00:49:29wherever she is, she's never that far away.
00:49:33So it's quite easy to be doing whatever I need to be doing and keeping an eye on her.
00:49:39And when she's sleeping, she'll be close by.
00:49:46We have a, I don't know the term for it, like a work trade arrangement with the owners.
00:49:53And we've been living here just over a year. So about three or four days a week, I'm on the
00:49:58farm.
00:49:59And then part-time I work as a GP. So our costs are fractional to what they were living in
00:50:07town.
00:50:10I don't have any stress about money, which is a huge benefit. Emotionally, I'm healthier.
00:50:28It was, it was a choice wanting to be more immersed in my environment and more directly
00:50:35connected with my needs, where my food was coming from. And I love going out and seeing the garden
00:50:40each day and seeing how things have changed. And yeah, it's like having a relationship with a living
00:50:45thing. Well, lots of living things.
00:50:51Regularly attending in the garden, I had this feeling of almost being in love with the garden,
00:50:57which blew me away.
00:51:01The future of humanity is to return to that relationship to nature and to all beings and
00:51:08all human beings too, to fall in love with the world. Its well-being is my well-being.
00:51:18If we really were in love with the planet and incorporated that love into all of our systems,
00:51:24into our money system, we would not have an ecological crisis.
00:51:32If an economy is operating outside of ecological limits, then the inevitable conclusion is that it's
00:51:40going to completely erode the resource space until it implodes or collapses.
00:51:49So really, the choice that we have is to design and develop an economy that operates within ecological limits.
00:51:57That's our only safe bet. It's our only bet at all.
00:52:02So if we think about the whole problem of deflation and what could happen post-collapse,
00:52:09in a country that experiences a sudden reversal and this loss of liquidity where the money supply
00:52:15really, really gets chopped down, people still have needs. People still have goods and services.
00:52:21They're going to find a way to exchange those. What you want is the easiest possible way to
00:52:27make this happen. And this is where alternative currencies would plug the gap. If a central
00:52:34government were quick thinking, quick off the mark, and actually had a plan for dealing with this stuff,
00:52:40they could introduce a new currency, maybe a parallel currency, maybe a replacement currency,
00:52:46to counteract the disappearance of all the bank money. That probably won't happen though,
00:52:51so it's going to be up to local and regional currencies to fill that void.
00:53:05I woke up one morning and jumped out of bed without even being conscious yet, saying,
00:53:10I'm going to start a local currency. And I just felt so much joy. There was just like this energy
00:53:17moving through me. LOVE stands for Local Origin Asherist Voluntary Exchange System. It's one of those
00:53:25acronyms that you fit the words to the acronym instead of the other way around. It is meant to be
00:53:31a voucher system that circulates in Asherist and the Bahangana Valley as a voluntary alternative to using
00:53:39money for exchange. So Lowe's is primarily trading at the Asherist community market,
00:53:45and we have about a dozen or so businesses that are accepting it there. We've got the cheesery,
00:53:51we've got the fudgery, we have several plant businesses, we have a business consultant who
00:53:56accepts it outside of the market, and there's half a dozen others that are accepting it as well.
00:54:03One of the primary benefits of the currency in my mind is the awareness raising that goes along with
00:54:09it. We're after not the currency itself, but the relationships that come out of the currency.
00:54:15So one of the major things is this awareness campaign around the benefits of buying local,
00:54:20the benefits of having a commitment between customers and businesses, of knowing what's
00:54:26available in your own community, of going to town instead of the city when you need something,
00:54:32of supporting your neighbours and looking to your neighbours and their businesses as a primary
00:54:36need, a way of meeting your needs.
00:54:40The wealth generated by using our local currency, a hundred percent of it stays here. There's no interest
00:54:48and it just keeps circulating and recirculating in the local community.
00:54:53And rather than being considered in competition with the national money,
00:55:01it's actually complementary to it.
00:55:06So you strengthen these local connections. Of course, that's a very resilient thing to do because
00:55:12it just means that if things are rough, you've got friends, neighbours and people in your region
00:55:19that are able to help one another out.
00:55:24Time banking is a very interesting development in that it uses a very egalitarian basis. It says
00:55:32everybody's time is equal. That it doesn't matter how skilled you are or what your qualifications are
00:55:39or what you do for your day job, that your hour is worth the same as my hour.
00:56:04I'm Maria Lee from Te Mahi Kai at Diamond Harbour School, which is a gardening to cooking programme.
00:56:11So we teach the children how to grow everything themselves and they put the seeds in, then look
00:56:19after the garden. And then when it's my turn, we harvest what they've grown and turn it into lunch.
00:56:32So today we're making kale chips and broad bean dip and each week it's different.
00:56:39The idea is just to teach them some basics of cooking. And in order for that to work,
00:56:43we use Time Bank volunteers. And we couldn't do it without them. Our volunteers are paid one credit
00:56:52per hour that they come and volunteer for us. So we take those from the school Time Bank credit
00:56:58system and give it to them. And then they use that to trade for whatever they need.
00:57:07It's always easier to build your barn while the sun is shining than try to put it up in a
00:57:13howling gale.
00:57:14So if you put these things together now, if you get a system up and running, and especially with
00:57:20something like a local currency where there may be some marketing involved, you know, trying to get
00:57:25buy-in from people and all that, you don't create one of these things out of whole cloth and get
00:57:30it
00:57:30widely accepted overnight.
00:57:36Look, there's no getting away from it. A huge part of this is that we just consume too much stuff.
00:57:44Our entire economy is built on getting us to buy and consume, dispose and re-consume things.
00:57:53I don't think it's realistic that we can expect to live in a world where we don't make things or
00:57:57use
00:57:58resources. Of course we do. But we need to use them in a way that is smart. You know, it's
00:58:02about
00:58:02intelligent use. It's about being efficient and not wasteful.
00:58:08The notion of waste is something that wasn't around two or three hundred years ago. You know,
00:58:14we just didn't have waste. Things had utility, things had value all the way through. And if they
00:58:21reached the end of productivity, they were, you know, reformed into something else.
00:58:33Welcome to Bayswater Repair Cafe. A repair cafe is a free pop-up event where local community experts in
00:58:43a variety of different areas offer their skills and services to other people in their local community
00:58:49for free. You know, every year we send a crazy amount of stuff to holes in the ground. And this
00:58:58is
00:58:58about maybe doing something to address some of that flow, but also in the process of doing that,
00:59:04bringing people together in a beautiful way that connects people, creates some networks and some,
00:59:11and maybe even some friendships. So we've got five different repair areas at the cafe today.
00:59:20We've got a electrical appliances repair space, and that is overwhelmingly the most popular area.
00:59:26So people bring in toasters and lamps and all kinds of random bits and pieces.
00:59:33We've got a clothing repair space, and we've got a team of seamstresses,
00:59:39and a seamstress, if that's the right word, who are mending clothes.
00:59:47We've got a guy who is repairing wood and pieces of furniture. And we've got general repairs,
00:59:55and we've also got two bike mechanics.
01:00:00I was speaking to the daughter of one of the volunteers who helped out with repairs,
01:00:06and he was an older guy. And he said to her that he felt a real sense of belonging and
01:00:16a real sense
01:00:17of feeling useful and having purpose. And I thought that was an amazing outcome from the day to make
01:00:26someone feel good about having shared their skills with local people.
01:00:34This is a beautiful example of a community initiative that brings people together and
01:00:40enhances connection, enhances a sense of community and neighbourhood. And, you know, we fix a lot of stuff.
01:00:49But more important than that, I think, is the building of connection and community.
01:00:59It's really important to remember that when you dispose of something, you can't throw it away.
01:01:04When you throw something, it goes somewhere. You might not know where that is. It may be out of your
01:01:10sight, maybe out of your mind, but there is no such place as a way.
01:01:18In 2007, we were really starting to think about our impact that we were having, just our regular
01:01:23day-to-day actions. And one of the things we focused on was how much rubbish we were producing.
01:01:28I mean, we could have focused on anything, but rubbish was so visual. And just every week,
01:01:34rubbish bags filling up. And so we somehow decided to challenge ourselves. We can't even remember
01:01:40whose idea it was now, but we did this crazy thing where we thought, right, we're going to try and
01:01:45make
01:01:45no rubbish for the entire year. We were genuinely not green people. We were putting out a bag of rubbish
01:01:54every week without fail. And we had literally never thought about it before. We sort of, it came to us
01:02:01one
01:02:01day and went, oh my gosh, this is terrible. In terms of the challenge was to try and live for
01:02:07one year
01:02:07with less than a city council rubbish bag. And most of it was made up of, yeah, items that were
01:02:12out of
01:02:12our control. So the radiator hose on the car burst. And so we had a radiator hose. And we tried
01:02:18to carry
01:02:18on doing things that you'd normally do. So we were renovating our home back then. And we had all the
01:02:24lead
01:02:24paint from scraping the weatherboards. So in practical terms, that's what we had left over at the end of it.
01:02:35I think when we look at the average rubbish bin, you know, or what people are putting out,
01:02:41at least 50% of it's generally organics. And so you take the biggest things out first, right? So deal
01:02:47with
01:02:47organics is the no-brainer. If you do that, you're 50% ahead of the average citizen. And then there's
01:02:56another sort of 30% of recyclable material generally these days in a rubbish bin. So that's the next
01:03:03thing. So you deal with the organics, then you recycle everything you can, and you're getting up
01:03:08there by that stage. You've made massive gains.
01:03:12People can feel overwhelmed and feel that what they're doing doesn't make a difference. But most
01:03:18of the waste we create, or we're kind of complicit in, is waste we've never seen. So we'll buy
01:03:25something, and there'll be a bit of packaging around it that we see. But in making that item,
01:03:30that's when the bulk of the waste is created. So if you're putting out a rubbish bag, it actually
01:03:36represents 70 rubbish bags of waste that you've never seen, that's gone into making that bag of
01:03:43waste. Consumers have it tough, right? A lot of money goes into marketing and sending them messages
01:03:51that you can buy our compostable packaging, and you're saving the environment. And of course,
01:03:58compostable packaging in the landfill's just as bad.
01:04:00It's the sort of thing that actually needs to be composted at very hot temperatures. So it really
01:04:06needs commercial composting to be done properly. One of the biggest problems in my business that I
01:04:13have to go to vendors and say, I'm sorry, I know you've paid more, and you've been promised that this
01:04:18is eco and compostable by the person that sold it to you. But they didn't actually go and do their
01:04:27product stewardship and find out whether the composting industry can take it in every place.
01:04:33I think we've actually got consumers that want to do the right thing. We've got
01:04:36businesses that are doing amazing stuff. We've got a government completely missing in action
01:04:41in terms of providing a framework to encourage those behaviours more and more.
01:04:47So when you do buy a container in the supermarket, you make sure it's a reusable container.
01:04:51And then you wash it out, and you take it into one of these stores, and you get them to
01:04:54weigh it,
01:04:55and then you fill it up with whatever you want, and they take the weight off it, and you've just
01:04:58stopped that plastic packaging. If people are combining composting and learning how to recycle,
01:05:05then they're just putting a bit of extra thought into how they're shopping, particularly considering
01:05:09that packaging. It's that choice when you're at the supermarket or at Bunnings or whatever,
01:05:19thinking about the item. Essentially, if it's plastic or got other composite materials in it,
01:05:26what can you do with that at the end of life? Not much. It's going to be rubbish. It's going
01:05:30to be
01:05:30around for thousands of years. Every time we spend a dollar, it's a vote. We have so much power, so
01:05:38much
01:05:38more power than what we realise. So it's like, keep on that knife edge. Like, yes, see that it's a
01:05:43big,
01:05:43that yes, there's big issues, but also, yes, we can make a difference.
01:05:50Like, there's part of me, you know, when I go to recycle my bottles, you know, or compost my waste,
01:05:58it's like, well, what good does it do? You know, I'm just subtracting one plastic bottle from the
01:06:04enormous trash heap that gets shipped to India and is making new mountains in India and China, you know,
01:06:11of waste. Like, what does it matter? One bottle different. You can say, well, if everybody did it,
01:06:20then it would make a difference. So you have to do your part. But part of you will say, well,
01:06:25I'm not everybody. And if everybody does it, then it doesn't matter if I do it.
01:06:31So we have to have another reason. For me, it comes down to relationship and ritual. I like to save
01:06:38my
01:06:39compost and use composting toilets, for example. Not because I've done some calculation that
01:06:47this is going to save the world, but because it's a different kind of relationship with the beings
01:06:54around me.
01:07:03Composting toilets, like composting your own ship, processing your own toilet waste, is a real basic
01:07:09fundamental thing that we should all practice. It's a simple way of demonstrating self-responsibility.
01:07:19So with a flush toilet, basically, you take really nice clean drinking water and our ship and mix the
01:07:26two together. Both, you know, both wonderful resources. When you mix them together, you create a toxic problem.
01:07:34So with a compost toilet system, you're able to capture that amazing resource and
01:07:41take care of it and treat it in a way that removes any pathogens or problems and create a wonderful
01:07:48resource.
01:07:53OK, so welcome to our toilet. For a start, it's a composting toilet bucket batch system.
01:07:58We've got cover material, which we use old sawdust from the mill. It's already got bacteria and a bit
01:08:05of fungus in it. So you go make your deposit, put a bit of cover material on, leave it. And
01:08:11then when
01:08:12we've got a certain amount of buckets, we go to the compost and add straw and garden waste and kitchen
01:08:17waste.
01:08:21And this is one I did maybe a week ago, and we'll put the compost thermometer in here
01:08:27and see what we're looking at. We're still looking at 50 degrees. It's going up. It got up to 65
01:08:33degrees
01:08:33the other day. I recorded a bit of that. You know, there are pathogens you have to consider. There's
01:08:38roundworm eggs and all these different kinds of worm eggs that can exist in your manure. If you do
01:08:46a hot compost, that's the safest way because you can nuke all those things within hours.
01:08:54And over here is what you get. I'll put it in a bag, but you don't need to.
01:09:08That there is about a year old. It's got lots of worms in it. We put all our garden waste
01:09:15and all our
01:09:16kitchen waste in here. But the worms are a good sign. If you've got worms, it means it's not too
01:09:21acidic and
01:09:22you know, good stuff. And that goes straight on the garden and the plants love it. And we love the
01:09:28plants.
01:09:32When it's finished composting, it doesn't look like or smell like anything like poo. It's just beautiful
01:09:38black compost. We've monitored it closely. We've watched the temperature. We know it's all the
01:09:44pathogens have been nuked. We feel confident in our process. So we feel safe to use it in our garden.
01:09:53Anyone can do this. It's just really a matter of being engaged and wanting to do it and getting
01:09:59the knowledge. It's a knowledge-based system. It's not technological or anything really advanced.
01:10:04I've seen people do it in cities, you know, with a wee backyard, small backyard.
01:10:10Yeah, and I've seen people do it in really rural settings. It's just a matter of being engaged.
01:10:15Yeah, it's for everyone. Everyone who wants to take more responsibility for themselves
01:10:22and not pass it off. Everyone who values their poo.
01:10:29I value my poo. I value your poo too, so you're welcome to leave a deposit before you go. It's
01:10:38sort of expected, actually. No pressure.
01:10:53I've come to see that in order to be part of the solution, we really need to
01:10:57use our everyday choices to change our behaviour. And it's a cultural shift that needs to happen in
01:11:04order for us to at least sustain ourselves, which isn't even enough, of course, because
01:11:09what are we sustaining? And so that's something I've really been putting a lot of time into recently,
01:11:15is designing my work so that it's actually regenerative.
01:11:25Sort of out of necessity, I started this organic waste collection.
01:11:29Check this out.
01:11:33Yeah, we're currently picking about two and a half tons up each week from local businesses,
01:11:39and instead of that all going into a hole in the ground, it gets returned back to the soil
01:11:45by way of windrow aerobic composting. So we currently have around 45 businesses
01:11:53on the Y-Waste collection, and they have a number of bins or buckets, mostly wheelie bins,
01:11:59and some have up to five wheelie bins at their business. And every week, Y-Waste comes and
01:12:06picks that up, and we take it to, we weigh it, we record all the data and things like that,
01:12:12we take it to a composting facility. And so, yeah, we're in partnership with them so that we can return
01:12:18that waste back to the soil. Recently, one of my clients rang me up and they were super stoked because
01:12:26they were able to cancel this big, like, skip bin for their rubbish, you know. And now they just use
01:12:33a 240-litre wheelie bin, which is much, much smaller. And that's as a result of all of their
01:12:41compostable waste going back to the soil.
01:12:53I'm really passionate about composting as a solution of minimizing our waste and our impact
01:12:58here on this one planet that we have. Food scraps and biodegradable waste takes up over a third of
01:13:09what we send to landfill. When biodegradable matter biodegrades anaerobically, it produces a lot of
01:13:18methane, which is 23 times worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. And not only do you get
01:13:26that gas going into the atmosphere, but you also get a liquid version of it leaching into our soils,
01:13:34into our water table. So what we're trying to achieve here is build a really hot compost
01:13:43around this drum and also all of this, build all this irrigation into it so that when that,
01:13:50when that aerobic hot compost heats up, we should be able to pump water through the system
01:13:57out and over to these bathtubs over here and have free biologically heated hot water.
01:14:09The reason why I'm so enthusiastic about compost is that it's fertility in its purest form. This is how
01:14:16nature builds soil and that enables us to grow more food. And if people are conscious of composting,
01:14:26they're probably going to become more conscious about what they're eating. And if they're opening
01:14:31less packets, that's good for everyone. That's good for the planet. It's good for our people.
01:14:37If we can get people to focus on eating better, then we're actually able to produce a lot less
01:14:43landfill waste and a lot more biodegradable waste, which in them can be turned into more
01:14:48fertility to produce more food. So the healthier we eat, the better our waste is and much easier to
01:14:56manage and return to the land. People talk about thinking global, acting local. I suppose I'm really
01:15:06sitting in that truth presently. I'd rather think global and act global, but we've got to start somewhere,
01:15:12you know. And so, yeah, that's the change that I'm wanting to see in the world. So I'm being it
01:15:22best I can.
01:16:04I see a lot of people who are very sensitive to the devastation, the damage or just civilisation,
01:16:12and it paralyses them. And that's sad because we need those people, all of those people.
01:16:21You know, there's lots of things that could depress you out in the world, but if you take each
01:16:25negative act as a, almost like an opportunity or provocation to do your thing, which is the
01:16:32opposite of that, you know, give more life, then it's fun. Then it's a, it's a winnable game. That's how
01:16:38I see it.
01:16:44It would be awesome to see our country before human contact. You know, the thousands and
01:16:52thousands, millions of birds, huge, huge kauri trees, just unimaginable. I think we all have
01:17:00done a, a misjustice to look in life at Papatua-luku. My ancestors were always exactly the best
01:17:08conservationists either, but we now have a chance to revive and recover those landscapes
01:17:14before it's too late.
01:17:19Over a three year period, we planted 85,000 trees. The majority of those are New Zealand
01:17:25native trees, which are now flourishing and really transforming the landscape.
01:17:30I just sort of would love to see what this place looked like a thousand years ago,
01:17:33which is such a, you know, brief period in ecological time. And in that time, we've sort of
01:17:39stripped most of the native vegetation and done a whole lot of damage. And we've gone about as far
01:17:46as we can down that road. And so now it's, it's time for us to try and find the balance
01:17:51and restore
01:17:52those ecosystems, but find a place for humans living harmoniously within it.
01:18:02You don't realise this, but this used to be a pastoral desert.
01:18:06What is grass? Yeah. And this is what people can do. You can create heaven on earth.
01:18:17Start growing food. Food is central to the way we live, our health and our whole ecosystem environment.
01:18:26Even if you're in an apartment, you can, you know, window sills, pots, whatever, you can start. And
01:18:31that's the first step. Once you engage with growing and experiencing nature, then things start to happen.
01:18:39I get asked this a lot. You know, what can somebody do if they're not a farmer or they're not
01:18:44on the
01:18:44land? What can they do to change it? Well, they can do a lot. The best thing that anybody can
01:18:49do
01:18:49is to vote with their wallets. While in some cases it may be more expensive, do what you can. You
01:18:55know,
01:18:55if you see people in your area that are producing food that is ecologically healthy, they're doing it in a
01:19:03way that is looking after the environment, then that adds up. You know, the more people that do that,
01:19:09the less expensive it will become as that becomes normalised.
01:19:17You know, from an individual's point of view, the biggest change by far that we can achieve
01:19:24in our own, by changing our own lifestyle, is to reduce the amount of meat we eat.
01:19:29That will have a much bigger effect than what we do transport-wise or almost anything else.
01:19:37There's a lovely poem that talks about we don't have to be good. We don't have to walk 100 miles
01:19:41on our knees, repenting in the desert. We just have to do what the soft animal of our body loves.
01:19:48And I
01:19:48really like that. I really like that. For me, this turns out to be what I love. And I have
01:19:55a suspicion
01:19:55that this is actually the blueprint and there's something when people get to it, everybody would
01:20:01want to live this way, I suspect. But it might be a really long journey for some folks to get
01:20:08to that knowing.
01:20:12Last year, I made a submission to a council long-term plan that I thought climate change was by far
01:20:21the
01:20:21most urgent and important issue that councils should be concerned about. And they said,
01:20:30and what would that look like?
01:20:34I got a reaction. So I ruminated on that for a while and I took it back to a group
01:20:42that I was part of
01:20:43called Project Wara Rapa. And they said, yes, let's do this. You should have heard the buzz at that first
01:20:56meeting. It was fantastic. And that feeds me, that encourages me that I'm doing something useful.
01:21:05It's my time to give back to the community that's been so good to me, where I've raised my kids
01:21:12and had
01:21:13such a good life.
01:21:17So my vision for the future, I have to be really clear, it doesn't have anything to do with things
01:21:22working the way they do now, but with renewable energy. That's actually not a possibility.
01:21:29Working on renewable energy and being quite different from what we do now, evolving into
01:21:34something else is the vision I see. Now, how well that's all working, how high a quality of life that
01:21:43is, how fair it is, how equitable it is, how stable the governments are, how much war has come between
01:21:49now and then completely depends on what we do right now.
01:21:55I think that the place that we're going is a place that we cannot see from where we are.
01:22:01It'll only emerge or become visible as we move toward it. But so I'm not going to say, okay,
01:22:08you know, here's the blueprint for the future system. I've thought it all out, you know,
01:22:12and now I'm going to tell you what it is. But I do catch glimpses sometimes, you know,
01:22:17one thing that comes to me is that in the future, we'll feel really at home in the world. We
01:22:23will
01:22:23be intimately familiar with the landscape around us. We will be in rich communities.
01:22:34The best experiences you've had in your life, the most authentic, the most vibrant,
01:22:40those don't have to be exceptions. Trust what feels loving, trust what feels good,
01:22:48trust what feels aligned with who you really are.
01:22:53If you live by that and spread that vibe and other people start living by that,
01:22:58then the whole planet is going to change.
01:23:00You are not going to change.
01:23:15So
01:23:28you