Permaculture News

RetroSuburbia Online Book Launch

Yes, it’s true! Permaculture co-originator David Holmgren is launching an online version of his bestselling book, RetroSuburbia: The Downshifter’s Guide To a Resilient Future.

About the launch

RetroSuburbia: The Downshifter’s Guide To a Resilient Future is a book for this moment in history.
Permaculture co-originator, David Holmgren and the team at Melliodora Publishing have decided, amidst the crisis of COVID-19 and its ensuing economic fallout, to release their 2018 bestseller as an online ‘Pay-What-You-Can’ resource accessible to people worldwide who are looking for grassroots solutions to the challenges of this unique time.
Register here now and head to www.retrosuburbia.com to join the live-stream book launch and to access the book online.

Wed 8th April 

7pm (Melbourne Time) 

The launch party will be broadcast live (via the RetroSuburbia YouTube and Facebook pages) and hosted by ABC Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis with live music from world-renowned permaculture electro-funk-swing band, Formidable Vegetable.
SCHEDULE (AEST):
7:00pm: Prelude from Formidable Vegetable’s Charlie Mgee
7:05pm: Intro & welcome from Costa
7:10pm: David Holmgren followed by Q&A (from YouTube comments)
7:40pm: Music from Formidable Vegetable

A BIT MORE ABOUT THE BOOK

A hefty tome of almost 600 full-colour pages filled with hundreds of photos and Brenna Quinlan’s beautiful illustrations, RetroSuburbia is part manual and part manifesto. The book shows how the suburbs can be transformed to become productive and resilient in a world of economic instability and energy-descent. It focuses on what can be done right now by an individual at the household level.
RetroSuburbia is a source of inspiration, introducing concepts and outlining patterns and practical solutions. It empowers people to make positive changes in their lives. As with David’s previous work, it is thought provoking and provocative.
If you are already on the path of downshifting and living simply, exploring RetroSuburbia will be a confirmation and celebration that you are on the right track and guide you on the next steps forward. If you are just beginning this journey, it provides a guide to the diversity of options and helps work out priorities for action. For people concerned about making ends meet in more challenging times, RetroSuburbia provides a new lens for creatively sidestepping the obstacles.

WHY RELEASE AN ONLINE VERSION OF THE BOOK NOW?

David explains:

As the COVID-19 pandemic first exploded across our globalised world, I found myself unsure of priorities in this time of pivotal change, even though I had been tracking information about Wuhan since January. Not because I didn’t know that a global pandemic of this scale was on the cards, or that it could overwhelm the most technologically advanced and powerful nations on the planet. Not because it could be the acceleration of what I coined “the energy descent future” two decades ago (in Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability). And not because we are not well prepared compared with most to weather the storm.
It was more the realisation of this being a grand turning point that will test a lifetime’s work in articulating and demonstrating a way of living connected to place and the seasons with minimal ecological footprint, conserving precious non-renewable resources, and regenerating natural capital that can sustain future generations after the pulse of fossil fuelled civilisation has faded.
Even more intensely, it was the understanding that such turning points are opportunities to leverage change in positive directions and avoid the worst consequences of delay and indecision.

You can read the rest of David’s statement here.

Register for the free online book launch here!

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