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Dr. Leigh
Davison at Dharma Gaia Forum*, May 27
It’s one thing to recognise that our
carbon-fuelled lifestyle is, akin to an alcoholic’s, headed for global warming
disaster. And another to know how to move away from our addiction to all that
marvellous energy that we can simply dig out of the ground. We know it’s
unsustainable and our responses tend to shade from : revelling in fossil fuel
mania (V8 supercar racing), denial, despair, depression, through to engagement
with the issue, from faint acts of low-carbon living (turning off your
appliances at the wall) all the
way through to a carbon-neutral life style. Leigh Davison read the Club of
Rome’s report “ The Limits to Growth” in 1972 and was utterly persuaded by its argument. He was a maths
Ph.D. student at UNSW at the time and the mathematics of the study were
incontrovertible. He realised that he wanted to act on its findings, and live a
life that was simple and sustainable. Thirty-five years after he began this
experiment in living, he presented his reflections to a group of buddhists at
the Dharma Gaia Forum.
I first met Leigh in 1978, when we were
both zen students in Hawaii. He met his future wife, Ellen at the zen centre
there, and in September 1979, back in Australia, they bought shares in a 102
hectare community in the northern rivers region, on Terania creek near Lismore.
One of the delights of the evening was the Power Point pictures that he used to
illustrate his talk. We saw a youthful and gorgeous couple, on their land,
beaming into the camera. It was a time when intentional communities were being
set up all around the area, as an expression of the ‘back to the land’,
alternative lifestyle movement. The pioneers of Dharmananda, as their community
is called, had specific buddhist values. It is one of the very few that has
survived and thrived, and has been examined and studied often. The values it
began with were:
•
respect for the land
•
respect for each other
•
food self-sufficiency
•
no dope and no dole
Leigh emphasised that they have a strong work ethic on Dharmananda. But
part of their schtick is creative leisure - to have fun while meeting basic
needs. So for example, every Friday is a community work-day and Saturday
morning is garden morning. This builds community cohesion. I’ve been a member
of working bees here in the more conventional outer suburban fringe and it’s
been fun and satisfying to work, and then eat, together.
Leigh and Ellen had very little money. “We
had a freedom from choice.” Their first task was to
build a home. With his engineering background, Leigh designed a small post and
beam house which could be built by two people. Costing $7,000, their house
initially was 46m. square, but as time went on they realised that there is a
trade-off between environmental sustainability and social sustainability. You need space to have a party! The
average Australian house is 250 m. square, Leigh and Ellen’s house is now 75m.
square, walled in, with a 55 m. sq. verandah. Their water supply comes from a
spring in the steep hill behind them, which is like a sponge and has never
dried up, even in dry times. This
water also runs their power supply, which is a 12 V micro-hydro system.
On the Power Point slide, Leigh displayed a
facetious sign:
WELCOME
TO LISMORE
COMPOSTING
TOILET
CAPITAL
OF AUSTRALIA
They learnt much about sanitation and waste
management on Dharmananda. They wanted to not only manage the human health and
environmental health part of the waste cycle, but also recover and use the
resource. “We are a faeco-phobic society,” said Leigh. The NSW Department of Health was antagonistic to the
idea of a composting toilet, but when a report in 1991 showed that the Minimus
continuous flow toilet was no threat to health and did not smell, they changed
their attitude and came up with guidelines for owner-built composting toilets.
What goes into the top of Leigh and Ellen’s toilet comes out down the bottom as
compost, usable on the gardens. Their grey water grows fabulous bananas - it
runs straight out into the banana patch below the house.
Leigh talked about the history of the land,
which had been used for dairying
and bananas but was run-down when the group bought it. To keep the growth down
in the early days, they bought a couple of cows. This has developed into a key
part of their protein intake. Leigh and Ray get up early every morning to
hand-milk the cows (jerseys). The community makes two or three cheeses every
week. The cows (and the bull) are part of the nutrient pathways, for example
eating the remains of a lab-lab bean and pumpkin harvest. The gardens at
Dharmananda are located down by the creek where the soil is richer. There are
eight sections of 500 m. sq each. Everyone can harvest any mature crop, but
each person looks after only one crop. Carol Perry, one of the pioneers, is a
whiz at growing carrots.
Dharmananda has grown like topsy, with new
younger families building their houses on other ridges. It now has a tractor with
nine implements. Leigh said that 1 litre of diesel could accomplish the work of
one strong man over three weeks!! This means that it is a fantastic resource that we should be
using frugally - instead of with gay abandon. “The Limits to Growth” predicted that food production would peak in the
2000’s. But in fact it peaked in the late 90’s. We will reach peak phosphorus (
conventional agriculture is heavily dependent on phosphate) around 2030. Leigh
emphasised that frugality does not mean austerity, but it has a time horizon of
hundreds of years.
There are three criteria by which to judge
the success of a transition community:
•
re-localisation ( not global)
•
de-carbonisation (renewables)
•
resilience (social cohesion)
•
Leigh was asking the question, how does Dharmananda score as
a sustainable community? He ran through his analysis and I was interested to
see that he gives it an 8 out of 10 for resilience. That is something to be
very proud of. I think people tend to focus on the tangible aspects of
intentional communities such as food production and housing, perhaps because
they are easier to see. When one sees the power of the local movement against
CSG at the Bentley blockade nearby, this is how social cohesion manifests. A
number of highly effective movers and shakers have been nurtured at
Dharmananda. The Multiple Occupancy movement itself has bred some very positive
qualities like independence, the ability to act in accord with the values
expressed above - the renaissance man or woman has many skills and is committed
to their locality.
There were many questions after his talk,
some quite technical. I asked Leigh, “What have
you learned about conflict by living there? ” His
answer was succinct.
“You learn that your point of view is only
one among many.”
Bill McKibben of 350.org says it is
important to build a movement that is creative and hopeful. Yes -
“ You’ve got to dream it first,” said Leigh.
If you’d like to see a video of Leigh’s
talk, we are in the process of putting it on the web. At present, you can find
it on:
The best way to
view it is to download it first, and then
view it.
* The DG Forum was created this year as a
means to look at the buddhist response to the climate crises we are headed for.
Diana
Levy 25/6/14
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On the 22nd of July, a Tuesday evening, I will be the talker! Bluegum Sangha has invited me again to be a guest speaker, at 14 Ridge St., North Sydney, 7pm sharp ( they close the door to the street at 7:15 pm). There will be a 45 " period of meditation, a break for tea, and then I will give a talk entitled, "Right Action in a time of Contraction".
Here is their webpage, describing their schedule of Tuesday evenings. If you go to the 'Home' page, you will find a map and directions under 'location'. It is about a 15" walk from North Sydney train station.
http://bluegumsangha.org/the-semester/
1 comment:
It was a time when intentional communities were being set up all around the area, as an expression of the ‘back to the land’, alternative lifestyle movement. Fuelled Lifestyle
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