[Scpg] JAN 2007 South Coast Permaculture Monthly Mtg & Events Announcement List

Wed Jan 10 10:20:22 PST 2007

Hi Everyone-

Happy New Year to all! 

We start the new year with a visit from author Shay Solomon, with her newly
published book Little House on a Small Planet
(www.littlehouseonasmallplanet.com).  Wow, is it too late to think of small
houses in Santa Barbara and Southern California with our trend towards large
McMansion style homes?  Maybe not. Shay shares some startling statistics, she
says that if we returned to 1955 building and housing patterns of 350 square
feet per person, we wouldn't have to build another thing until our population
doubled again. Hmn, well that leaves a lot to think about, I'm sure many will
doubt or maybe even object to this statement, but come and listen, see what
she
has to say, bring your questions.  What we do know is our homes contribute
close to 40% of emissions that are linked to global warming & climate change
with all we use to build, heat, and maintain them.  Permaculture always
suggests design is the key---design well to live well.  Living well in the
future may mean how well we conserve our resources now.  

For more information about the event please see the calendar of events below,
which includes a press release about Shay's book tour.  We would love it if
you
passed along this information to others you may know in the other areas she
will be visiting. In our grassroots community organizing style, Santa Barbara
Permaculture Network offers press releases and posters adaptable for use by
all
the communities our book tour participants are going to, allowing these
communities to do their own programs with a little help from us.  Contact
us if
you would like a poster emailed to you. On Friday, January 12, Shay will be
interviewed by Jill Cloutier of KCSB's Sustainable World Radio, 9-10am.  Also,
for those of you who missed last months meeting with Marsha Hanzi, speaking on
Permaculture & Polycultures in the Brazilian Highlands, her interview on
Sustainable World Radio is now posted on the great website resource Radio 4
All
(www.Radio4All.net).  It includes other interviews about permaculture and
related sustainability issues, you can find easily by typing in Marsha Hanzi's
name, or permaculture to bring up those interviews.  Local Cable Access
Channel
21 is also showing some of our past programs this month.  For all these
wonderful resources, see below for more information.

We realize these email announcements are dense, with a lot to read.  One
members' suggestion is to print them out and put them in a binder for future
reference, as they contain so many valuable resources and contacts, and also
allows you to read in a more leisurely way when time permits.

Hope to see you at an event soon-
Margie Bushman
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network

<<<<<<<<
Events/Jan 2007:

Fri, Jan 12, 9-10am (encore program following Mon 9-10am)
Interview with Shay Solomon, Little House on a Small Planet
Sustainable World Radio, KCSB 91.9, streaming live at www.kcsb.org
<<<
Mon, Jan 22, 7:45-9:30, donation $5, no reservations needed
Slide Show & Booksigning with author Shay Solomon
Little House on a Small Planet
Santa Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery
40 E. Anapamu Street
(more information in press release below)

<<<

Press Release:

Contact: Margie Bushman
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
margie at sbpermaculture.org

SANTA BARBARA PERMACULTURE NETWORK
Presents:

Little House on a Small Planet

Slide Show & Booksigning with
Shay Salomon and Photographer Nigel Valdez

Monday, January 22, 2007, 7:45 pm
Santa Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery

        Live in less space but have more room and enjoy it.  Does that sound
like a contradiction? Smart readers will discover that on the contrary, living
small can free up your mind, your wallet, and your soul.  With the cost of
living rising, the environment suffering from excessive building, now is time
to scale back.  Join the small house movement.

        In Shay Salomon's newly published book, with a foreward by Francis
Moore
Lappe, Little House on a Small Planet ( www.littlehouseonasmallplanet.com)
is a
guidebook and an invitation, with floor plans, photographs, advice, and
anecdotes. Discover how to build, remodel, redecorate, or just rethink your
needs.  Live close and simple and apply spiritual and social needs to your
material desires. Pockets of people all over the continent are realizing the
benefits of scaling down. You too can build a joyful, sane life that
emphasizes
home life over home maintenance.

        Little House is split into three sections; building small houses,
altering existing 
houses, and the politics of housing and lifestyle choices. The book is
informative and hopeful, even empowering.  Salomon takes a refreshing
approach,
instead of focusing intently on the problem of current housing trends, she
provides the data needed to understand them, then spends her energy on drawing
out solutions that each one of us can choose to follow  through on. 

        In fact, the politics of housing is a theme threaded throughout the
entire book. 
Reading news coverage after Hurricane Katrina, Salomon learned that in
Houston,
where many of the refugees were headed, 14% of all housing units (homes,
apartments, duplexes, etc) were vacant. Salomon did some research on how this
compares to the rest of the country. She found that in the year 2000 there
were
10.4 million vacant units and 250,000 people sleeping in homeless shelters.
This meant there were nearly 45 homes that were completely empty per person
sleeping in shelters. Salomon asks, "How is it that we have a housing crisis?
Maybe a homing crisis, or a sharing crisis, but this isn't a housing
crisis. " 

        Shay Salomon is a carpenter and construction manager who coaches
owner-builders towards a mortgage-free life.  She has taught at least a
hundred
courses in carpentry, straw bale building, solar design, and women’s building
courses.  A cofounder with Greg Johnson, Jay Shafer, and Nigel Valdez of the
Small House Society ( www.smallhousesociety.org), she wrote Little House on
the
Small Planet , which chronicles the small house movement and offers advice to
people who want to improve their life by living in far less space. The
photographer for Little House, Nigel Valdez, chose pictures of real people on
average days in their little houses. Nothing appears staged. People are
relaxing with their kids, their feet up on the coffee table, or shaving in the
bathtub, which happens to be in the kitchen. Shay Salomon and Nigel  Valdez
have worked on this project for 7 years.

        The evening lecture takes place at the Santa Barbara Public Library,
Faulkner Gallery, 40 East Anapamu St, in downtown Santa Barbara, on Monday,
January 22, 7:45-9pm.  No reservations are required, admission donation $5.
The
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network sponsors the event.  For more information
please call (805) 962-2571, or email margie at sbpermaculture.org, 
www.sbpermaculture.org. 

Quotes about Housing from the book:

“The Union of Concerned Scientists ranks housing third among destructive human
enterprises, just after transportation and agriculture.  But our housing need
not be destructive.  Again we can chose !  We can chose human scale, enhancing
our connections with those we love. We can chose eco-scale, reducing our
demand
for the kind of energy that is disrupting life now and for future
generations.”

“Construction has some alarming effects on the environment.  Forty percent of
all the raw materials humans consume, we use in construction.  Building an
average house adds seven tons of waste to the landfill!  New house
construction
is arguably the single greatest threat to endangered species, even in areas
where human population is on the decline, animals and plants are threatened
each day, due to the construction of new houses. Might our houses feel more
comfortable if they weren't so destructive.”

“Throughout North America building has been influenced by "green thinking",
and
houses have improved, but despite major advances in insulation and design, the
typical house built today requires as much energy to heat and cool as one
built
in 1960. Why? Because it's bigger. House size and location are the greatest
determinants of a home's effect on the environment.  The challenge is to build
a single family housing as efficient as a New York City apartment, which, on
average uses a fraction of the energy of a typical detached house.”

<<<
Schedule, Little House on Small Planet Booktour:

Jan 12 Fri 9-10am & Mon Jan13 9-10am
Radio Interview Sustainable world Radio www.kcsb.org 91.9 FM Santa Barbara
with
Shay Solomon

Jan 22 Mon 7:45 Slide Show & Booksigning
Santa Barbara Public Library 40 East Anapumu St Donation $5  
margie at sbpermaculture.org 805-962-2571 

Jan 23 Tues 7:30 pm Ventura Tues April 25 Art Barn 856 East Thompson Blvd.,
Downtown Ventura (between Ash and Kalorama, behind Kids & Families Together)
contact lynne okun <lbokun at earthlink.net> 

Jan 24 Wed 1pm UCSB, Campus, talk hosted by David Cleveland 805-893-7502/2968
cleveland at es.ucsb.edu

Jan 24 Wed 6:30pm Solvang Library 1745 Mission Drive Solvang, CA 93463 (805)
688-4214.Donation $5-$10  Betty Seaman cobbetty at gmail.com, 805-698-3840 

other locations in California, please see www.sbpermaculture.org or
www.littlehouseonasmallplanet.com for complete list.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Ongoing January:

Cable Channel 21 featuring past permaculture lectures and programs:

People can go online at www.cmac.tv and
search on the Education channel - CH 21- for the schedule too.

(Special thanks to Chris Falcon for her ongoing support of all things
sustainable by donating her time to video tape and get these programs posted).

Jan 8 - 9:30 am - Permaculture Solutions
Jan 8 - 11 am - Econest
Jan 9 - 10 am - Econest
Jan 10 - 9:30 pm - Econest
Jan 12 - 10 pm - Permaculture Solutions
Jan 15 - 11 am & 11 pm - Econest
Jan 17 - 3 am (for late-nighters again)& 3 pm - Econest
Jan 19 - 7 am & 7 pm - Econest
Jan 20 - 11 am & 11 pm - Econest

<<<
Resources:

Sustainable World Radio, KCSB 91.9fm, Fridays 9-10am PST (re-broadcast
following
Monday 9-10am), streaming live at www.kcsb.org
Program includes interviews with many permaculture speakers.

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Website, www.sbpermaculture.org, has
monthly
events calendar and upcoming events page for happenings in our region and
beyond (national & international courses listed), and links to other
organizations in our area.

Arashi Permaculture Listserve:  Post and receive announcements of permaculture
events in Southern and Central Calif and beyond.  Formed after Permaculture
Design course in 1997 with Bill Mollison. Sign up for your location,
www.arashi.com 

Hopedance Magazine, www.hopedance.org, No longer hosts permaculture and
natural
building calendar, but will sponsor an ad with references to other websites
for
courses and event announcements.

Permaculture Activist, www.permacultureactivist.net, permaculture publication
for North America

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, www.sbbg.org (10% discount for members)
Bookshop 
Carries large selection of permaculture & sustainability books.
Nursery
Native plants available all year, hours,10-3pm daily. 

-end-

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie at sbpermaculture.com
www.sbpermaculture.org

"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to
grow." - Anonymous

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