Sit down and be quiet.
You are drunk, and this is the
edge of the roof.
~ Rumi

This wonderful quote from Rumi was brought to our attention by the amazing Albert Bates. Albert is one of the reasons why you want to join us at Financial Permaculture: the Greening of a Rural American Community.

Albert Bates is a permaculture and appropriate technology instructor at the Ecovillage Training Center in The Farm community in Summertown, Tennessee. He is founder and past-president of the Global Ecovillage Network and a member of the International Biochar Initiative. Determined experimenter for 35 years, inventor of solar cars, pedal flour sifters and cylindrical tofu presses, and author of a dozen books, including Climate in Crisis: The Greenhouse Effect and What We Can Do, and The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times (2006).

In 1980, Albert demonstrated a hybrid Toyota wagon that could get 200 miles per gallon on the highway. In The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide. Albert offers a better path to the future than “more of the same” crisis and collapse being offered by, say, the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve. While not excluding the possibility for accelerating collapse and urging prudent preparation, Albert provides a formula for a soft landing based on a graceful shift to renewable energy and local economy, comparing the standard of living of the ancient Inca, the backyard garden of Wallace and Gromit, and the productivity goals of Hawaiian surfers to the black box plan for economic recovery being bandied about by Treasury Secretary Paulson. Truckers could be running their rigs on biofuels and ethanol and getting better gas mileage; China and India can compete with each other, not with us; and we can put a president in the White House who knows what garbage in – garbage out means. By 2012 we could have universal health care, full employment, fair mortgage rates, and be well on our way to reversing the climate crisis.

To find out more, visit Albert’s site at thegreatchange.com.