#fridaysforfuture (On Friday’s I write)

#fridaysforfuture - A few articles from this week about the climate crisis - remember that the Paris Agreement targets are to prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths (among other things!). Plus two actions you can take this week.

don’t forget the crazy mess we’re in – but do make your life beautiful

the problem

These are just a things you might have seen this week:

”Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
Well, I don’t know about you but I don’t consider ”climate targets” putting us on track for 2,4°C and current policies indicating we’re headed for 2,9°C (excluding most tipping points, feedback-loops etc) to be ”good”.#MindTheGap pic.twitter.com/Pvame8Zvqs
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) May 10, 2021

About COP-21 and fossil fuels “Last hope over climate crisis requires end to coal, says Alok Sharma“

“Tracy Carty, climate policy adviser at Oxfam, said: “While the UK government’s climate commitments are world leading, it must now avoid looking like the emperor with no clothes. Appearing to support a new coalmine in Cumbria while talking about consigning coal to history sends completely the wrong signal. Supporting further oil and gas exploration in the North Sea also risk embarrassing the government in this crucial year.”

Also, you have to wonder how many last chances we have….

Sir David Attenborough: Problems that await greater than the epidemic

Sir David says the problems that await the world in the next five to 10 years because of climate change are greater than the coronavirus pandemic.

His comments come as he is named People’s Advocate for climate change ahead of the UN COP26 summit in Glasgow in November.

The meeting is viewed as crucial to keep global temperature rises below 2C. He will address world leaders at major international events over the next six months to put climate and the protection of nature at the top of their agenda.

the solutions

(Well some individual actions that will take you on the beautiful path)

We Are the Ark. Restoring your patch of the earth back to its true nature. www.wearetheark.org

ARK = ACTS OF RESTORATIVE KINDNESS

Weaving a patchwork of safe havens for Nature globally, in our gardens, schools, public spaces and beyond.

Here are some initial steps you can take right now in your own garden/yard/land to build an Ark! Visit our How To Build An Ark section for even more details for each step.

Step 1. Give at least half of your garden or land back to nature. If not half, as much as you can manage. Try to grow as much of your own organic food as possible in the other half. Protect and guide your Ark to re-wild through natures natural processes and it will become a more and more complex ecosystem over time. All land is welcome, even a window box full of local soil that allows the native weed seeds to flourish and provide food and reproductive partners for the insects is great! It’s like a service station on a long long motorway in a desert for passing insect
Step 2. Put up a sign saying “THIS IS AN ARK – www.wearetheark.org ” This simple action removes the shame that people feel about having a messy garden, and replaces it with pride that you’re doing something important to help all the creatures we are supposed to share the planet with. The website is set up to explain to interested neighbours what is happening there on your Ark and why it is necessary.
Step 3. Remove any non-native ‘Invasive plants’. This is difficult on a large scale but on our individual patches of earth, we can manage it easily enough by hand and through borrowed grazers or heavy sheet mulching. These plants do not move at 100MPH. There is NO place for chemicals in an ark, they cause many more problems than they solve and are very destructive to life on all levels.
Step 4. Step in and provide any ecosystem services that we may need to provide due to the absence of the full circle of life. The aim is to create as many different habitats as possible in the land you have, habitats that would normally be created by keystone species which are missing from our island Arks. This develops as diverse an ecosystem as possible on your patch. If you have the space, consider creating multiple habitats such as an Ark meadow, a bare earth bank, piles of deadwood, a wildlife pond, a scrubby thorny thicket, a mature native woodland, a dry-stone wall etc.
Step 5. Native plants are the foundation stone to any ecosystem. Arks are based on the native plants in your part of the world, wherever you may be. After careful observation of your Ark, if your soil is damaged or devoid of growth, the weed seed bank may be absent. In that case, sow an Ark meadow or a wildflower meadow to reboot the system and slowly introduce as many native plants as possible. Only use locally sourced native organic seeds, cuttings and plants (if possible) as these are vital genetic material for the local insect populations and have not been grown with poisons. Building your Ark involves careful mimicking of nature’s natural processes.
Step 6. Make holes in your boundaries to allow wildlife to pass through. Learn to share your patches of this earth.
Step 7. ARK Lighting. The blue and white toned lighting which is now in standard use, is one of the major factors in biodiversity collapse. Please aim for darkness or make sure all your ARK lights are red in tone (Doesn’t affect them nearly as much). Make sure the outdoor lights are motion sensor only so that they only come on for short times when you need them and allow darkness to prevail in between.
Step 8. Get together with like-minded folk and approach your councils and home owners associations, your schools and university campuses and ask for support to turn more and more park and public land into Arks.
Step 9. Please mark your Ark on our map of Arks so that we can eventually try and connect up the dots with wildlife corridors in our future vision for this movement.

(Illustration below by Ruth Evans Art)

Sometimes

if you move carefully
through the forest,

breathing
like the ones
in the old stories,

who could cross
a shimmering bed of leaves
without a sound,

you come to a place
whose only task

is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests,

conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.

Requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
and

to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,

questions
that can make
or unmake
a life,

questions
that have patiently
waited for you,

questions
that have no right
to go away.

by David Whyte

Listen to the poem here

Lou

Lou - I started on the Boodaville path when I bought the land in Matarranya in 2008 and have dedicated an incredible amount of time, and not very many euros, to building up the project over the years.

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2019 ESC Volunteer Project

Reflections and learnings from our 2019 volunteers - including a video they produced soon after arriving.

We are here!

Posted on May 10, 2019

Dear readers of this Boodaville blog,

Together with spring the Boodaville season has started in April. But our adventure as ESC volunteers at Boodaville has just begun. Adam, Maria, Santiago and me, Inge, have been selected as this years long-term volunteers with Claudia and Gala as our much needed mentors. We are all super excited and honoured to become a part of this beautiful place and meet all the amazing people connected to it. For the coming seven months we will live at Boodaville and in Caseres. We will be working on the site, be active on social media and hope to become part of, and make new, networks with other permaculture projects.

For me personally these first two weeks as a Boodaville volunteer have already made a huge impact on me. Meeting my fellow volunteers, Claudia, Anna, and all the others who are passionate about permaculture and Boodaville has been the best of experiences. Leaving my old life, my family and friends behind for seven months has been both exciting and hard. Jumping into an unknown situation like this project should be. I can now honestly say that having the right people around you makes taking a huge step like this so much easier. The philosophy of permaculture is not only obvious in the way Boodaville is designed but also in the way we work together as a group. We seek solutions instead of focusing on the problems. Our differences are not important, we all respect each other and focus on those things that connect us.

So please follow us if you are interested in our journey and the amazing thing we are planning this season for Boodaville. We will post content on this blog, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Facebook. We will also be present at the coming Maranya festival. Hope to see you there!

Reflections and learnings from our 2019 volunteers - including a video they produced soon after arriving.

Life of a Boodaville volunteer: May

Posted on Jun 17, 2019

So I here am, one month into my adventure. An adventure I share with my fellow volunteers, our mentor and our growing Boodaville family. A seven months journey into permaculture. A month does not seem much. Its only four weeks. Thirty one days of working in the morning, eating and relaxing in the afternoon and working some more in the cooling evening. All this while enjoying nature 24/7. The month May felt like a lifetime to me, but in the best way.

I learned that permaculture is based upon three principles: care for the Earth, fair share and caring for people (and animals!). When applying for this project I imagined most of my learning would be in caring for the Earth. And I have learned a lot, I learned how to use zais systems to regenerate the earth and get rid of your compost, how worms are not disgusting but beautiful hard working creatures. I learned that nature as a design inspiration leads to impressive gardens like our own Boodaville food forest. Also when you cut grass it gives the nutrients a chance to return to the Earth. A month ago cutting grass seemed to me a waste of time but I now consider it to be my new hobby.

But the thing I truly learned a lot about is caring for others (both people and animals). The sharing circles though often emotionally draining have made me realize many things about myself and others. And help me accept some of those. Living in a group, a community, a wolf pack, has both been amazing but also challenging. The key to being a successful group is not to never have friction but how you handle it. Storms may be gathering, rain may fall, it’s good for growing.

Last week I was asked if I have a motto. I found out that I do. “Perfection does not exist.” But striving for perfection is a noble cause. To me, permaculture seems a great way to at least try.

Thank you Boodaville for welcoming me so full of kindness!

Posted on Oct 23, 2019

“Everything that is really, really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom” – Albert Einstein

My first impression about Boodaville as a volunteer: Arrive – Breath – Stop your thoughts – Start working from inner silence. The first half of the day I spent with daily tasks of the very basic life in boodaville with feeding the worm compost, chickens, making wood chips for the food forest, cooking, having inspiring conversations with other volunteers,… The second half of the day I had the freedom to work on my inner processes. Everyone does this in a different way. I chose reading and meditating. Others use their time to learn Spanish or connecting with the land by riding a bike. So there is a lot of space of self-development, which creates amazing conversations and projects from everyone! On the weekend we had a great tree planting project going on. I learned about permaculture-principles and step by step we tried to bring the soil alive again, from really harsh conditions, the cultural way of farming have left for us.

In general I feel Boodaville is a place you can learn to build a new form of living together as society and learn to come back to your basic needs, slowing down from stressful life and reconnect with the environment by working with the land.

I really appreciate the people I met and the awareness of the freedom to choose every second from now on! People I met and the awareness of the freedom to choose every second from new on!

Sense of an ending, Boodaville 2019 (by Inge)

Posted on Jan 24, 2020

From the beginning of May until the end of November I was one of the lucky few who had the opportunity to work and live in Boodaville as part of my ESC project. Now my beautiful, intense, exhilarating, often frustrating and completely inspirational time in Boodaville has ended. Before I came to Boodaville I dreamed to one day be able to lead a sustainable, self-sufficient life. I dreamed about finding my place in this world. Finding people I can connect with on deep levels. Learning all the practical things I felt I did not learn in school. And hoped to have fun while doing all of this.

Boodaville made it possible for all the things I had dreamed about for so many years to become reality. The last seven months I learned to live without running water and electricity. I learned to take care of our gardens. How the plants actually look that provide us with food. I learned not to be disgusted by compost toilets. To see my human waste not as filthy, but as part of me and a vital fertilizing part of our ecosystems. Reality however brings with it negative things that did not appear in my dreams. There can be no good without the bad. And if you do not let the bad happen a lot of good things will also not happen. I had to accept sides of me I could ignore in my old life. I had to face frustration and pain. Not only my own but those of everyone in my community. And where there is a group of people, especially a group like ours with strong personalities, each from different backgrounds, different cultures, well conflicts will just arrive. You cannot help it. And maybe we should not want to. Because conflicts do not need to be bad, do not need to create pain, create division. They are a sign that people care. And when well handled they made us stronger. And while learning all of this, I had the best time of my live.

So I guess all that is left for me to say is thank you. The Boodaville site is a beautiful mixture and monument of all volunteers that passed through it. Boodaville as a place is simply amazing, and Anna deserves all our praise and gratitude for bringing it into existence. Matarranya and Terra Alta are both stunningly beautiful regions inhabited by the most generous and friendly people. Who welcomed me and the rest of our crew with love, food and a lot unasked but needed advice. I need to thank my fellow volunteers. The ones that were there with me from beginning until the end. And the ones that spent time with us. I am going to need years to truly realize how much you taught me. These months would not have been as amazing if you had been different people. So really thanks to everyone I met. Who proved to me that there are a lot of people that care. Care about our planet, about nature, about all animals and other living thing.