Tangled

In this interview, I speak to Zach Weiss, who runs a business called Elemental Ecosystems. I met Zach a few weeks ago when I took his workshop, where he taught some of his methods for understanding and managing water in the landscape. Zach works under the assumption that the core reason for many environmental problems is a misunderstanding and poor management of water. By building dams, repairing eroded stream banks and many other tactics, Zach helps people improve their land’s ability to catch and hold water. This has flow-on effects for local climate, drought resilience and financial stability. Show Notes 01:05 Zach describes his work02:01 Outline of the water cycle04:31 Sepp Holzer09:20 Zach's opinion of Holistic Management10:32 Tom Brown Jr. and Jon Young: wilderness skills, bird language 10:59 Ringing Cedars 11:57 Rajindra Singh, the waterman of India 12:53 Universal principles vs. specific tactics13:25 The Tao 14:23 Describing a typical re-hydration project16:26 Why pond liners are not ideal18:27 Building water bodies that fit in with the existing geology and hydrology, as opposed to digging dams in inappropriate spots. "Tying a water body to the natural veins of the Earth."20:48 Zach's thoughts on some aspects of permaculture22:57 Getting your hands dirty. Build models using the soil on your property.24:35 What to do in the suburbs?… Observe your property, create a rain garden, infiltrate the maximum amount of water.26:21 Hügelkultur 27:40 Zach's problem with swales30:14 The process of tapping springs, and why to drink spring water32:35 French drains 33:42 Evidence of revegetation changing climate and increasing rainfall34:44 Willie Smits, and his TED Talk 35:14 Convincing people that water is more important than atmospheric CO2 for climate36:57 Zach's experience in Australia: a perfect example of the watershed death spiral39:45 Zach's film, Elemental Change 42:00 Vicencia Dehasa, Spain 42:14 Tamera, Portugal 42:36 Peter Marshall and Terra Preta Truffles near Braidwood 42:54 Walter Jehne 43:22 Tarun Bharat Sangh, Indian NGO

On this episode I speak to Darren Doherty. Darren is one of the world’s most well-respected farm planners. He has developed a design system called the Regrarians Platform, which incorporates ideas and from existing frameworks with Darren’s own innovations. The platform was greatly influenced by people such as PA Yeomans, whose scale of permanence forms the basis of Darren’s framework. Darren’s approach also draws on Allan Savory’s work in holistic management and Bill Mollison and David Holmgren’s insights from permaculture. Darren has worked around the world in many different kinds of climates and also has extensive experience regenerating landscapes in Australia. Darren and his family have also produced an award-winning film called Polyfaces, which profiles Joel Salatin and his family on their innovative farm in Virginia. You can stream it at polyfaces.com. I wanted to talk to Darren about his own history, and also get his thoughts on the bushfires in Australia, and how we can try to mitigate them in the future. We don’t spend a lot of time specifically discussing the Regrarians Platform itself, so I encourage you to look up Darren’s lectures on YouTube, or go to regrarians.org to learn more about it. At some points, we do get a little bit into the weeds, but even if you’re not familiar with land management or farming, I think you’ll still find Darren’s insights on those topics interesting.

The ongoing bushfires in south-eastern Australia are a horrible reminder that we need to change the way we’re operating. But I don’t think it’s a simple as trying to reduce carbon emissions. So over the next few weeks, I’m going to talk to some people who have ideas about more tangible and effective ways of managing landscapes, including urban areas, farms and bushland. If we don’t re-instate a functioning water cycle, then things are going to get worse, no matter how much CO2 is in the air. This interview is with Michael Mobbs. Michael is a former environmental lawyer from Sydney who has become known as the “off-grid guy”. Because, in 1996, he began the process of disconnecting his inner-city home in Sydney from mains water, sewage and electricity. Show Notes 01:59 How cities change the water cycle 02:47 Michael’s house 03:49 Michael’s role in the 1993-4 parliamentary inquiry into Sydney’s water 04:43 what does “you can’t do that” actually mean? 06:16 A model of the house is in the Powerhouse Museum’s EcoLogic exhibition: https://maas.museum/event/ecologic/ 06:59 “It’s as though this culture has never landed here” 07:43 the problem with the education system; growing up on a farm 08:29 The Sydney Botanic gardens wastes millions of rainwater every year 09:46 Gutters are the main cause of house fires. Why don’t we use a different design? An example of the gutters Michael describes: https://www.eaveswatersystem.com/ 12:15 Bureaucracies never change 12:15 “If you wanted to set up a society, a culture, that’s doomed to fail, this is the one you would set up.” 13:49 People shouldn’t rely on governments. Do what you can, including catching and using as much rainwater as possible. 14:10 Leaky drains: Michael’s street saves 4 million L of water each year from going to the ocean. Here is a great video he made that shows you how to do it: https://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/community-gardens 16:51 A road garden in Bondi 17:57 Food waste and wasted water 18:57 Buy from farmers’ markets 19:25 Michael’s new project to design a pre-fabricated studio house with attached water treatment and solar electricity systems: contact Michael to learn more https://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/contact 21:13 How the house is resistant to bushfires 21:52 Using recycled timber, eg from “weed” species like camphor laurel 23:01 Michael’s recent travels through many areas in rural Australia 24:30 Do an experiment to catch for one day all the water that you would have normally let drain down the kitchen sink: it will be a lot 25:28 Drinking rainwater: it’s healthy and doesn’t have chlorine, which may be carcinogenic 27:05 In Australia, water utility companies are government-owned, so there is no competition. And the government does not fund research into the effects of chlorine on, for eg, gut health 27:53 Michael’s two books, Sustainable House and Sustainable Food: https://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/products 29:17 Archimedes, Newtown, Einstein: they came upon their insights through their interactions with the world around them 29:40 “The best university, the best reading, is where we walk and talk and see in our own environment, wherever that may be, each day.”

In this episode of Tangled, I talk to Dylan Gower. Dylan is an architect by trade, but in this interview, we discuss a community energy project that he leads. The organisation is based in Cowra, a town in central New South Wales, a few hours drive west from Sydney. The group is called CLEAN, which stands for Cowra Local Energy Action Network. The longterm aim for CLEAN is to develop a decentralised energy network for their local community, by digesting organic matter from agricultural, industrial and residential sources to produce biogas. This gas can then be used to generate electricity and thermal energy. And then by-products from the biogas production can be used by farms, factories and other businesses. This project interests me because Dylan and his collaborators are trying to look holistically at the way humans use resources. It’s a commonsense approach that we need if we want to design systems that can work for the long term, without relying on fossil fuels. There are good reasons why we have used fossil fuels for the past couple of hundred years. They’ve been cheap to mine. They’re extremely energy dense. And you can store and transport them easily. But if we want to have any chance of weaning ourselves off these sources of energy, we need to design elegant systems that effectively make use of locally available resources. This is what Dylan is trying to do with CLEAN Cowra. In theory, once the system is set up in Cowra, it could provide the community not only with renewable energy, but also a way to filter water, increase soil fertility, reduce reliance on government subsidies, innoculate them from geopolitical shifts with regard to trade and energy policies, regenerate local ecosystems, provide ongoing employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, and show other communities how they can implement similar systems. Dylan didn’t pay me to say this, but I honestly struggle to think of any downsides to pursuing the project. If you find the show interesting, please subscribe to Tangled in whichever app you use, and share it around with anyone you know who might also like it. Show Notes 02:50 Dylan introduces CLEAN Cowra, describing the group’s aims and how it originated 03:50 Dylan’s background as an architect interested in ecological sustainable development and renewable energy 04:30 Looking at how bio-energy is relevant to regional communities 05:36 NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, Sustainability Advantage program 05:50 Doing a resource audit to map the region’s known available relevant resources: agricultural, industrial, horticultural, animal husbandry, municipal waste 07:20 Some challenges Dylan has faced, eg getting traction with community members and potential stakeholders 08:20 Using principles and language of design thinking: iterating over time 09:04 Starting with a broad, overarching project, and then realising it was necessary to hone in and focus on specific aspects in isolation 09:36 How to distribute energy locally? 10:45 Microgrids allow distribution of electricity, but then how to distribute thermal energy? And CO2. And other by-products from the initial processes. 11:10 Discussing the distribution of thermal energy 12:00 Many greenhouses burn LPG just to produce CO2 for the plants 12:20 CLEAN proposes to co-locate greenhouses near the bio-energy plant, which would be mutually beneficial

Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | Android | RSS Walter Jehne is an Australian soil microbiologist, with decades of experience teaching and advising governments, farmers, students and communities. Walter is the director of Healthy Soils Australia, and is also part of NGOs including Global Cooling Earth and Regenerate Earth. I only came across Walter’s work recently, when I saw some of his lectures on YouTube (see here: one, two, three). And within the hour or two that it took me to watch those, he had managed to completely change the way I think about climate change. Walter’s main message is that we need to regenerate what he calls the soil sponge. Why is building soil so important? It’s because so many of the problems we’re facing: extreme weather events from climate change, desertification, loss of biodiversity, water shortages, food shortages, reduced food nutrition and many others, can all be minimised – if not entirely eliminated – if we can re-build the living skin of the earth: the soil. A particular point that Walter makes that shocked me was that carbon dioxide is only responsible for 4% of global heat dynamics. While the hydrological cycle (meaning, the way water moves between the atmosphere the ocean and the land) controls 95% of the heating or cooling of the planet. So even if we stopped burning fossil fuels completely tomorrow, it would barely make a dent in the overall temperature dynamics on earth. The only way we can really get the planet back to a stable climate is by building soil and letting the natural cooling processes that have been going on for billions of years, keep doing their work. This episode is timely, because just a few days ago the United Nations announced that the years 2021 to 2030 will be named the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. So clearly, Walter’s message has been reaching a lot of people, and now can hopefully reach even more. As always, if you enjoy listening, please subscribe in whichever podcast app you use. And share the episode with anyone you know who might also like it. SHOW NOTES 03:07 Walter’s early career as a microbiologist 04:37 The origins of climate change science and the shift to focus on carbon dioxide at the expense of the water cycle. 07:02 Stockholm 1972, World Environment Summit: All elements that play a role in global heat dynamics were discussed. But scientists in the mid 80s said there were too many variables to model easily. And that it was necessary to simplify the message for politics and the public. This led to the focus on CO2, which governs only 4% of global heat dynamics. A very simplistic analysis of the big picture. * This was continued on through to the IPCC. So we’ve trapped ourselves in a tunnel of only looking at CO2* We can’t solve the problem with the climate wit...

In this episode of the podcast, I speak to Abraham Cambridge. Abe is the founder and CEO of The Sun Exchange, which is an online solar energy marketplace. In short, the company provides a platform to buy solar panels in the sunniest places on earth. When the panels produce electricity, the owners receive payment in bitcoin. In Abe’s words, the company acts as a market maker between solar panel manufacturers, installers, buyers and customers. It’s a great model, because the work they do is accelerating the transition to clean energy while also helping communities and businesses access cheap energy – and also providing a good return on investment for the people providing the capital. The Sun Exchange bypasses the traditional networks of energy and finance using a few innovative new technologies, including bitcoin. And in our conversation, we assume a bit of knowledge about bitcoin. So, if you’re not familiar with it, I can highly recommend doing some reading. I’ve found that learning about bitcoin is actually a great way to learn about the world in general. Because you will touch on topics like history, economics, finance, cryptography, computer science, game theory and psychology. Here are a couple of resources I’ve found useful for understanding the history and technical aspects of Bitcoin: * Digital Gold – Nathaniel Popper* The Bitcoin Standard – Saifedean Ammous* The Internet of Money – Andreas Antonopoulos* The following video by 3blue1brown: * Taylor Pearson has collated more bitcoin resources here* As has Jameson Lopp, here And finally, more bitcoin resources, as well as links to all the books and websites we mention in the episode, can be found in the show notes below. You can find Abe and The Sun Exchange online here: * Twitter: @AbeCambridge and @thesunexchange* YouTube* LinkedIn* Medium SHOW NOTES 02:54 Abe explains the Sun Exchange concept 04:21 The decentralised nature of both solar energy and the bitcoin network 06:58 Abe’s dealings with the worlds of traditional finance and energy: banks refused to set up accounts for the Sun Exchange 10:31 Why the Sun Exchange uses bitcoin, as opposed to other cryptocurrencies 13:10 Bringing the model of leasing to the solar industry 14:33 The Sun Exchange enables people to own solar panels in areas of the world that are the sunniest – people are not forced to just put panels on their own roofs. 15:38 The energy use and sustainability of bitcoin. Comparing bitcoin energy use to that of the current global financial system.

Florijn de Graaf is an engineer at Spectral, a sustainable energy startup based in Amsterdam. Florijn’s work involves experimenting with ways to transition from the centralised and carbon-based energy system that we currently have, to a renewable and decentralised system. Part of this transition will involve developing smart micro-grids, in which communities produce, store and share energy amongst themselves, with minimal need to tap into the main grid. It’s a really interesting concept that has the potential to make communities more resilient, while also reducing reliance on fossil fuels. We also talk about Florijn’s experience helping to build an eco-village in the Dutch countryside, and his plans to take that concept further by designing a sustainable, self-sufficient neighbourhood that can produce almost all its own food, water, heat and power. And, we discuss nuclear power, and whether its benefits outweigh its possible dangers. Florijn has recently published a report, looking at four micro-grid case studies. You can read it here. You can find Florijn on Twitter @FlorijnDeGraaf. SHOW NOTES 02:08 French engineer Jean-Marc Jancovici lectures about the relationship between physics and economics (English subtitles). Jancovici gives a similar lecture in English is here. 05:21 Florijn’s path toward working in sustainable energy 06:36 Earthships 07:44 The Aardehuizen is the eco-village Florijn helped to build. It combines traditional architecture and design with modern technology. Here is his blog post about the project. 14:42 Criticisms of the Aardehuizen; what principles can be used in denser living situations? The difference between top-down and bottom-up approaches. 16:50 What are micro-grids? How can we transition away from coal, oil and gas? The decentralised nature of most renewable energy technologies… Wind and solar are inflexible, so we need to build a system that can keep supply and demand the same. 20:06 Nuclear power. What are the real risks? Whole Earth Discipline; Jancovici on nuclear. 25:22 Florijn’s conclusion that the risks of nuclear are much lower than the risks of climate change. 28:31 Florijn’s concept for a self-sufficient, closed-loop neighbourhood called SmartHoods. The project will focuss on technical aspects, such as solar power and aquaponics. But also social components of designing a functioning community. 33:59 The paradox of living simply and sustainably, while also using the internet and new technologies. 35:21 Increasing the resilience of neighbourhoods. An analogy with an organism: cells provide for themselves, but are also part of an organ. The organ is then also part of the organism… 38:08 What does Florijn wish more people understood about energy?… Only 18% of global energy use is currently electricity. And of that, it is only possible to derive perhaps one third from wind and solar. So in effect, we could currently only use renewables for around 6% of global energy use… How can we increase that number? 42:25 Teslas and solar panels will not save the world within five years. The transition will be multi-decade. 43:35

In this episode of Tangled, I speak to Nadine Galle. Nadine is a consultant at Metabolic, meaning she is a colleague of Thomas Mason, who I spoke to in episode 5. If you’ve listened to that show, you’ll know that Metabolic is a consulting and venture building firm that helps companies, communities and cities to move towards a circular – and more sustainable – economy. Nadine is also one of the academic directors of a summer school course at the University of Amsterdam, called The Circular City. The programme explores the urban metabolism – meaning the flows of materials and energy coming into and going out of cities. I recently took part in the first edition of the course, which involved lectures and field trips around Amsterdam and other parts of the Netherlands, hearing from people who are designing new and interesting ways of managing resources. On top of her other work, Nadine is somehow also managing to pursue a PhD. Her research is in a new field called ecological engineering, which she will explain during our conversation. We also talk about what a circular economy really means, why we need to redesign cities to take natural ecosystem processes into account, and what Rubik’s cubes can teach us about problem solving. You can find Nadine online at nadinegalle.com and on Twitter @earthtonadine

Growing food in and near cities has the potential to improve water management, filter the air, reduce reliance on industrial agriculture and increase social cohesion. Thomas Mason, a consultant at Metabolic in Amsterdam, is an expert. He's helped businesses, communities and governments all over the world to transform urban rooftops and carparks into productive plots.

Dr Brian von Herzen is a scientist, engineer and entrepreneur focussed on ensuring food security and ecosystem survival

Saumil Shah founded Bangkok company EnerGaia, which develops innovative techniques for growing spirulina in urban environments. Spirulina is a type of alga that is high in protein and important minerals. Saumil believes that if he can increase spirulina’s popularity as a food, fewer people around the world will go hungry, and the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere can be dramatically reduced.

Dr Michael Taylor is a mycologist and entrepreneur working with Australian native fungi.

Arief Rabik is a scientist, entrepreneur and conservationist whose expertise is bamboo.