Here is the short essay I wrote that connects preparedness, resilience and permaculture.  One could write a book on this topic.

Preparedness, Resilience and Permaculture

Preparedness is fast becoming a household word and for good reason. Few deny that natural events like storms and fires are becoming worse, and humans are good at putting themselves in existing danger zones and even creating new ones. There are governmental agencies, city programs, and public interest networks doing life-saving work, raising awareness and educating on how to prepare for disruption.

Almost all these preparedness efforts can significantly enhance their benefits with a small additional amount of education and perhaps a site tour. But first, it's important to consider the relationship between preparedness, resilience, and permaculture.

Here's the short story. Preparedness involves responding to a disruption when it happens and to its aftermath. That's good, but it is reactive and limited. Resilience and permaculture go well beyond mere reaction. Resilience calls for actions seldom included in preparedness discussions that can improve positive outcomes. Permaculture goes even further as a set of values and principles for designing systems to take care of human needs in ways that prioritize the well-being of people and the environment.

Consider existing city programs, Community Emergency Response Team [CERT], Neighborhood Watch and Map Your Neighborhood. Those worthy programs can be far more effective by adding just a couple of hours of class room and on site show and tell about permaculture and resilience. Home production of basic needs via [front yard] gardens, passive and active solar energy and rain water catchment adds a lot to standard preparedness. Permaculture also calls for coordinating our preparedness and home production actions with our neighbors to boost positive outcomes even more.

Digging deeper. Conventional preparedness programs seldom address the question, why are disruptions becoming more frequent and severe? A permaculture approach to preparedness might respond with reference to a carbon tax and eco-footprints. Our way of life is based on remarkably high levels of resource and energy consumption, often referred to as the consumer culture. What we eat, our transportation, our homes, recreation, what goes in the trash all affect the environment. A carbon tax begins to connect our personal and collective over-consuming behavior to its eco footprints and negative impacts, particularly, climate change.

Modest as carbon tax efforts have been so far, they still provoke strong opposition from economic interests because the tax calls for a small amount of accountability to address the external costs of over consumption. Social and environmental accountability is not good for a growth-based, over-consuming economic system. A permaculture approach to preparedness and resilience insists on a straightforward answer to the disruption question – human excess consumption of energy and resources is causing our problems and the economic system prefers over consumption and large eco footprints to solving these problems. Producing and coping with problems are very profitable.

Permaculture continues - climate change is not our only preparedness challenge. A look at the news and trends describing the endless variations of economic and political malpractice is telling us, without thoughtful changes in how we define and take care of our needs, we can only expect worsening disruption of all kinds. A society based on over consumption and perpetual growth is not built to last.

The way forward offers opportunity but no guarantees. First, producing more basic needs at home and nearby, consuming less, and building strong mutual assistance networks with our neighbors will boost preparedness and resilience, and it is also a valuable early step towards a social and economic paradigm shift for moving towards sustainability. We may be too late to avoid society-wide deep and long disruption, but that's even more reason to downsize, build civic culture, and pre-adapt.

Eugene is loaded with assets for creating a more resilient and sustainable present and future. Every public interest organization, faith group, service organization and more is on the same team. We have a city neighborhood program and 20 active neighborhood associations that have enormous capacity to assist resilience. We have awesome social well-being and permaculture talent, experience, and real-life examples of resilience that point the way. We have enormous regional food production capacity. All of Eugene's assets can greatly self-empower and boost each other. But above all, we have our own selves, friends and neighbors and what we do with our own time and money. Positive human potential is our greatest renewable resource for bringing about a more prepared, resilient and uplifting present and future.

The chart below is a short overview of moving from the consumer culture towards sustainability.