Designing Your Life Based on Permaculture Principles (Part 5): Using and Valuing Renewable Resources
In the natural world, it is rare for an ecosystem to use up all of its resources, leaving behind a depleted and unusable area. Natural ecosystems constantly interact, develop in a cycle, and reuse resources many times over. In the natural world, the waste of one thing is reused to nourish another.
If people overlook the importance of using renewable energy, we will also be unable to fulfil many other permaculture principles. When people deplete the resources within their ecosystem, the consequences directly affect our lives. Therefore, using renewable resources is the key to creating a stable and sustainable way of life, contributing to the protection of the ecosystem and the natural environment.
1. Time
This is a factor mentioned many times in the previous principles, because time is truly the most precious resource of all human beings. The only way to gain more time is to take good care of your mind and body. We must try to make the most of this resource by eating healthily and exercising regularly. When you have a healthy body and mind, you will make the most of the time available to you in your own life.
2. Movement
Our body is a renewable resource. If we provide it with good energy, it will supply the energy that enables us to act and to move. The amount of energy we get from our body depends on how well we have cared for it. You must stay active and flexible in order to make full use of the value of this precious resource. The more we choose to use renewable energy from our body instead of non-renewable forms of energy, the healthier we become. This is a unique and truly special resource. The more we use our body, the stronger the renewable resource within it becomes.
3. Energy
To protect the ecosystem in which we live, we must live in harmony with nature rather than against it. There are many options for shifting towards greater use of renewable energy in our lives, and you should try to incorporate as many renewable energy sources into your life as possible. Although these choices may sometimes feel as though they have no direct positive impact on you, both you and these energy sources are closely connected to one another. If people pollute the ecosystem, it will become less abundant. The natural world shows that when ecosystems are affected, all the animals that depend on the system are affected as well. Human beings are a part of that ecosystem – only when the ecosystem is healthy can people be healthy.
Reference: Designing Your Life with Permaculture, Josh David [online], available at: https://www.permaculture.co.uk/Designing-Your-Life-Permaculture?fbclid=IwAR3o5P5yfJ09U-9CzclJTi5lmiJKgaLxIMjguGJbuEDn_Gb4jsjIyXBsHfI
This article belongs to the Permaculture column – sharing methods for designing lifestyles and practising enduring agriculture according to Permaculture principles.
