I gave one permaculture course in Botswana, and now my students are out in the bloody desert in Namibia teaching Bushmen - whose language nobody can speak - to be very good permaculture people.

Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.

The worst thing about permaculture is that it's extremely successful, but it has no center, and no hierarchy.

We have to rethink how we're going to live on this earth - stop talking about the fact that we've got to have agriculture, we've got to have exports, because all that is the death of us.

I think we probably have a racial death wish. We don't understand anything about where we live, and we don't want to.

The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children.

Security can be found in renunciation of ownership over people, money, and real assets; to gain, keep or protect that which others need for periods of legitimate access. A lending library enables people to help themselves to information; a locked-up book collection is useful only to the person who owns it.