David Holmgren (born 1955) is an ecologist, ecological design engineer and writer. He is perhaps most well known as co-originator of the permaculture concept with Bill Mollison. Through the spread of permaculture around the world, his environmental principles have exerted a global influence.

Life and work

Holmgren was born in the state of Western Australia. He studied at the College of Advanced Education in Hobart, Tasmania, where in 1974 he met Bill Mollison, who was then a lecturer at the University of Tasmania. The two found they shared a strong interest in the relationship between human and natural systems. Their wide-ranging conversations and gardening experiences encouraged Holmgren to write the manuscript that was to be published in 1978 as ''Permaculture One''.

:'I wrote the manuscript, which was based partly on our constant discussions and on our practical working together in the garden and on our visits to other sites in Tasmania... I used this manuscript as my primary reference for my thesis, which I submitted and was passed in 1976.'

The book was a mixture of insights relating to agriculture, landscape architecture and ecology. The relationships between these disciplines were elaborated into a novel design system termed ''permaculture''. Although the title clearly owes something to Russell Smith's ''Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture'' (first published 1929), Holmgren's chief theoretical inspiration was the energy dynamics of American ecologist Howard T. Odum (''Environment, Power and Society'', 1971). The same book was promoted by David M. Scienceman as a platform for a scientific political party.

According to Holmgren, :'The word permaculture was coined by Bill Mollison and myself in the mid-1970s to describe an "integrated, evolving system of perennial or self-perpetuating plant and animal species useful to man". A more current definition of permaculture, which reflects the expansion of focus implicit in ''Permaculture One'', is "Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs". People, their buildings and the ways they organise themselves are central to permaculture. Thus the permaculture vision of permanent (sustainable) agriculture has evolved into one of permanent (sustainable) culture.'

''Permaculture One'' was far more successful than anticipated, as it seemed to meet a need of the emerging environmentalist counterculture looking for something positive and substantial to align with. It was published in five languages, but is now out of print and of mainly historical value, having been superseded and refined in later works.

While Bill Mollison travelled the world teaching and promoting permaculture, Holmgren was more circumspect about the potential of permaculture to live up to the promises sometimes made about it. He concentrated his efforts on testing and refining his brainchild, first on his mother's property in southern New South Wales (''Permaculture in the Bush'', 1985; 1993), then at his own property, ''Melliodora, Hepburn Permaculture Gardens'', at Hepburn Springs, Victoria, which he developed with his partner, Su Dennett (''Melliodora, Hepburn Permaculture Gardens - Ten Years of Sustainable Living'', 1996a; Payne, 2003).

Since 1983 Holmgren has acted through his company Holmgren Design Services as consultant for a large number of projects, examples of which can be found in the report ''Trees on Treeless Plains: Revegetation Manual for the Volcanic Landscapes of Central Victoria'' (1994).

Holmgren started teaching on permaculture design courses in 1991 and from 1993 taught PDCs at his Hepburn home.

A major project was the Fryers Forest eco-village, which aimed to create a model of sustainable housing and financially viable sustainable forest management, on a site near Castlemaine, Victoria.

Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability

The publication in December 2002 of a new major work on permaculture, saw a deeper and more accessible systematization of the principles of permaculture refined by Holmgren over more than 25 years of practice. The book, ''Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability'' (2002a), is dedicated to Howard T. Odum, who died two months before its publication, and it owes much to Odum's vision of a world in energy transition (Odum and Odum, 2001).

'Principles and Pathways ' offers twelve key permaculture design principles, each explained in separate chapters. This fills a conceptual gap that has been evident from permaculture's inception. It is likely to be seen as a major landmark in the permaculture literature, especially as the seminal work, Bill Mollison's ''Permaculture: A Designer's Manual'' (1988) was published fifteen years previously and has never been revised.

Holmgren has had a long-standing interest in the use of non-native 'invasive' plants, for food and fibre, but more controversially for ecological restoration and 'ecosynthesis'. This interest in recombinant ecosystems or 'weedscapes' is partly inspired by a 1979 visit to New Zealand and interactions with New Zealand ecologist Haikai Tane (1995).

Holmgren's refusal to toe the majority line on introduced and invasive species has led to some ill-informed criticism of permaculture in a debate which is very much alive in the Australian environmental movement. His recent comments on the value of willow (Salix albaXfragilis) in a Victorian stream corridor for beneficial sediment and phosphorus capture can be construed as 'heretical' in relation to official policy. Holmgren goes so far as to comment, 'The science of ecology provided the overwhelming evidence that everything is connected, so it is a great irony that conservation biology is now dominated by an orthodoxy that is blind to ecosynthesis as nature's way of weaving a new tapestry of life.' Holmgren has been developing these and other ideas into a new book, provisionally entitled 'Weeds or Wild Nature?'.

The acid test

Holmgren's development of a rural settlement is perhaps his most significant design and test of his Permaculture principles. The settlement, known as the Fryer's Forest Ecovillage, is near Castlemaine, in Central Victoria, Australia. Central features of the village design are, the integration of domestic forestry with selective thinning for fire-safety (The harvested wood provides energy for domestic wood stoves), and the integration of the Keyline Design system of water storage and transfer with the Village road network and residential home site location. The water keyline storage system was the main design instrument for the regeneration of a landscape degraded by over 50 years of gold mining.

Despite the claims that permaculture provides sustainable solutions, there is currently no data available on the sustainability of the Fryers Forest settlement. Given the significance of water availability to the overall design, water levels may be one indicator of the success of the project. Due to an extremely long drought, the water levels are now very low. The extent of the drought may not have been possible to anticipate or design for, however this in itself may demonstrate a limitation of small scale designs.

Bibliography

1978 Mollison, Bill and David Holmgren. ''Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human Settlements.'' Melbourne: Transworld.

1985 ''Permaculture in the Bush.'' Hepburn, Victoria: Holmgren Design Services.

1994 ''Trees on the Treeless Plains: Revegetation Manual for Volcanic Landscapes of Central Victoria.'' Hepburn, Victoria: Holmgren Design Services.

1995 'The Permaculture Movement and Education', in ''Goldfields Permaculture and Landcarers'', 3, 14-16.

1996 a ''Melliodora (Hepburn Permaculture Gardens): Ten Years of Sustainable Living.'' Hepburn, Victoria: Holmgren Design Services.

1996 b 'Fryers Forest Village', in ''Green Connections'', 2.2, 20-21.

1997 'Getting Started', in ''Green Connections'', 10, 28-31.

2002 a ''Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability''. Hepburn, Victoria: Holmgren Design Services.

2002 b ''David Holmgren: Collected Writings 1978-2000.'' [CD] Hepburn, Victoria: Holmgren Design Services.

2005 ''Mellidora (Hepburn Permaculture Gardens): A Case Study in Cool Climate Permaculture 1985 - 2005'' [eBook] Hepburn, Victoria: Holmgren Design Services.

2006 a ''Trees on the Treeless Plains: Revegetation Manual for Volcanic Landscapes of Central Victoria.'' [eBook] Hepburn, Victoria: Holmgren Design Services.

2006 b ''David Holmgren: Collected Writings & Presentations 1978 - 2006'' [eBook] Hepburn, Victoria: Holmgren Design Services.

2009 ''Future Scenarios''. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company.

2011 ''2011 Permaculture Diary'' Marrickville NSW: PcDC Michele Margolis.

References

Grayson, Russ (2003) 'Permaculture an agent of bio-invasion?'. ''The Planet. The journal of Permaculture International Limited'', 6 (Autumn), 10-11.

Low, Tim (1998) ''Feral Future.'' Melbourne: Viking Australia.

Mollison, Bill (1988) ''Permaculture: A Designer's Manual.'' Tyalgum, NSW: Tagari Publishing.

Mulligan, Martin and Stuart Hill (2001) ''Ecological Pioneers. A Social History of Australian Thought and Action.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 202-207.

Odum, H.T. (1971) ''Environment, Power and Society''. New York: John Wiley.

Odum, H.T. and E.C. Odum (2001) ''A Prosperous Way Down: Principles and Policies.'' New York: John Wiley.

Payne, Steve (2003) 'The Good House Effect'. ''The Organic Gardener.'' Autumn. Ultimo, NSW: ABC Enterprises, 30-34.

Smith, Russell (1977) ''Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture.'' Old Greenwich, MA: Devlin-Adair.

Tane, Hakai (1995) ''Ecography. Mapping and Modelling Landscape Ecosystems.'' Canberra: The Murray-Darling Basin Commission.

External links

http://www.holmgren.com.au

Future Scenarios: Mapping the Cultural Implications of Peak Oil and Climate Change

Peak Oil and Permaculture: David Holmgren on Energy Descent

Peak Oil and Permaculture: David Holmgren Video

David Holmgren speaks with GPM's Julian Darley

Retrofitting the Suburbs for Sustainability

Permaculture principles

Fran Molloy of Sydney Morning Herald about ‘retrofitting the suburbs’ for food production">David Holmgren tells Fran Molloy of Sydney Morning Herald about ‘retrofitting the suburbs’ for food production

Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:Australian gardeners Category:Australian non-fiction writers Category:Organic gardening Category:People from Western Australia Category:Permaculture Category:Sustainability advocates Category:Systems ecologists Category:Permaculturalists

br:David Holmgren de:David Holmgren fr:David Holmgren it:David Holmgren pt:David Holmgren

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Eugenie Scott
birth date	October 24, 1945
birth place	USA
occupation	National Center for Science Education Director
website	National Center for Science Education
awards	Public Welfare Medal (2010) }}

Eugenie Carol Scott (born October 24, 1945) is an American physical anthropologist who has been the executive director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) since 1987. She is a leading critic of young earth creationism and intelligent design.

Biography

Academic career

Scott grew up in Wisconsin and first became interested in anthropology after reading her sister's anthropology textbook. Scott received a BS and MS from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, followed by a PhD from the University of Missouri. She joined the University of Kentucky as a physical anthropologist in 1974 and shortly thereafter attended a debate between her mentor James A. Gavan and the young earth creationist Duane Gish which piqued her interest in the creation-evolution controversy. She also taught at the University of Colorado and at California State University, Hayward. Her research work focused on medical anthropology and skeletal biology.

In 1980 Scott was at the forefront of an attempt to prevent creationism from being taught in the public schools of Lexington, Kentucky. From this grassroot effort in Kentucky and other states, the National Center for Science Education was formed in 1981. Scott was appointed the NCSE's executive director in 1987, the year in which teaching creation science in American public schools was deemed illegal by the Supreme Court in ''Edwards v. Aguillard''.

Scott and her husband, Thomas C. Sager, a lawyer, have one daughter and reside in Berkeley, California.

Academic recognition

In 1993 the University of Missouri honored Scott as a distinguished alumna. She was elected to the California Academy of Sciences in 1994. She served as president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists from 2000 to 2002. She was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2002 and was its chair. She is also a member of Sigma Xi.

Scott has received many awards from academic organizations. In 1999 she was awarded the Bruce Alberts Award by the American Society for Cell Biology. In 2001 she received the Geological Society of America's Public Service Award. She received the 2002 Public Service Award from the National Science Board for "her promotion of public understanding of the importance of science, the scientific method, and science education and the role of evolution in science education". In 2002 the American Institute of Biological Sciences awarded her the first Outstanding Service Award. Scott also received the 2002 Margaret Nicholson Distinguished Service Award from the California Science Teachers Association. The National Association of Biology Teachers gave her honorary membership in 2005. In 2006 she was awarded the Anthropology in the Media Award by the American Anthropological Association for "the successful communication of anthropology to the general public through the media". In 2007 Scott and Kenneth R. Miller were jointly awarded the Outstanding Educator’s Award by the Exploratorium Museum.

Scott has been awarded honorary degrees by McGill University in 2003, by Ohio State University in 2005 and in 2006 by Mount Holyoke College and her ''alma mater'' the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. In 2007 she was awarded an honorary degree by Rutgers University. In 2008 she was awarded an honorary degree by University of New Mexico.

In 2009, Scott became the first-ever recipient of the Stephen Jay Gould Prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution. She was chosen for devoting "her life to advancing public understanding of evolution." She was awarded the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 2010.

On August 21, 2010 Dr. Scott was honored with an award recognizing her contributions in the skeptical field, from the Independent Investigations Group (IIG) during its 10th Anniversary Gala.

On October 9, 2010 Committee for Skeptical Inquiry announced Scott (and others) as a part of their policy-making Executive Council, she will also serve on ''Skeptical Inquirer'''s magazine board.

Worldview

Scott was initially brought up in Christian Science by her mother and grandmother, but later switched to a Congregational church under the influence of her sister; she describes her background as liberal Protestant. Scott is now a secular humanist and describes herself as a nontheist. In 2003, the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' reported that "Scott describes herself as atheist but does not discount the importance of spirituality." In 2003 she was one of the signers of the third humanist manifesto, ''Humanism and Its Aspirations''. She is also a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. In 2003 she was awarded the "Defense of Science Award" from the Center for Inquiry for "her tireless leadership in defending scientific evolution and educational freedom".

In 1998, Scott received the American Humanist Association's Isaac Asimov Award in Science. In her acceptance speech she explained how a statement adopted by the National Association of Biology Teachers that evolution was "unsupervised" and "impersonal" was attacked by creationists such as Phillip E. Johnson, and the initial reaction of the NABT was not to bow to pressure from creationists to change it. However, Scott agreed with theologian Huston Smith and philosopher Alvin Plantinga that "unsupervised" and "impersonal" should be dropped from the statement as they made philosophical and theological claims beyond those science could claim to make based on its principle of methodological naturalism – and the statement was altered.

NCSE is religiously neutral and has members who hold a variety of faith-based beliefs or no beliefs at all. Nevertheless, both Scott and the NCSE are criticized as being "atheistic" by creationist groups. Scott jokes that she sometimes thinks her first name is "Atheist" for the frequency with which she is referred to as "Atheist Eugenie Scott" by creationists.

Authorship

Scott is widely considered to be a leading expert on creationism (including intelligent design), and one of its strongest opponents. Her book ''Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction'' was published by Greenwood Press in 2004 and then in paperback by the University of California Press in 2005. It has a foreword by Niles Eldredge.

She also co-edited with Glenn Branch the 2006 anthology ''Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design is Wrong for Our Schools''.

In 2006 Jon D. Miller, Scott and Shinji Okamoto had a brief article published in ''Science'' entitled "Public Acceptance of Evolution", an analysis of polling on the acceptance of evolution from the last 20 years in the United States and compare that to other countries. Turkey had the lowest acceptance of evolution in the survey, with the United States having the next-lowest, though the authors saw a positive in the higher percentage of Americans who are unsure about evolution, and therefore "reachable" for evolution.

Less seriously, she has co-authored with Glenn Branch and Nick Matzke a 2004 paper on "The Morphology of Steve" in the ''Annals of Improbable Research'' which arose from the NCSE's Project Steve.

Media appearances

David Berlinski, a fellow at the Discovery Institute, describes Scott as an opponent "who is often sent out to defend Darwin". However, Scott prefers to see herself as "Darwin's golden retriever". Scott says that her job "requires coping with science illiteracy in the American public".

Scott has been profiled in ''Scientific American'', ''The Scientist'', the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', and the ''Stanford Medical Magazine''. She has had been interviewed for Science & Theology News, CSICOP, Church & State and Point of Inquiry. She has commentary published by ''Science & Theology News'', Metanexus Institute.

She also acted as the education spokesperson for the 2001 PBS: Evolution TV series

Scott has taken part in numerous interviews on MSNBC and the Fox News Channel, debating various creationist and Intelligent design advocates. On 29 November 2004, Scott debated astrophysicist Jason Lisle of Answers in Genesis on CNN. On May 6, 2005 Scott debated Stephen C. Meyer of the Discovery Institute, on ''The Big Story'' with John Gibson. The latter concerned the Kansas evolution hearings.

In 2004, the National Center for Science Education was represented by Scott on Penn and Teller's Showtime television show ''Bullshit!'', on the episode titled "Creationism", on which Dr. Scott offered philosophical views about the creationist and intelligent design movements. She noted "it would be unfair to tell students that there is a serious dispute going on among scientists whether evolution took place" because there is no such debate between scientists. She further noted that "a lot of the time the creationists... they'll search through scientific journals and try to pull out something they think demonstrates evolution doesn't work and there is a kind of interesting rationale behind it. Their theology is such that if one thing is wrong with the Bible you have to throw it all out so that's why Genesis has to be interpreted literally. They look at science the same way. If one little piece of the evolutionary puzzle doesn't fit the whole thing has to go." Scott then explained, "that's not the way science is done."

Scott serves on the National Advisory Council of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and on the National Advisory Council of Americans for Religious Liberty. In 1999 Scott was awarded the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award for "for tirelessly defending the separation of church and state by ensuring that religious neutrality is maintained in the science curriculum of America's public schools", and in 2006 was one of the three judges chosen to make the awards.

Dover trial participation

In 2005, Scott and other NCSE staff served as scientific and educational consultants for the plaintiffs in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case, which originated in Dover, Pennsylvania. Judge John Jones ruled against teaching intelligent design or creationism in the public schools.

Books

Also: Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313321221

References

External links

Eugenie Scott from the National Center for Science Education

Eugenie Scott on Teaching Evolution, Books and Ideas

Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats Category:1945 births Category:American anthropologists Category:American humanists Category:University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni Category:University of Missouri alumni Category:Living people Category:California State University, East Bay faculty Category:National Academy of Sciences laureates Category:American skeptics

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