Thursday, January 6, 2011

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Energy Basis for Man and Nature, Howard T. Odum and Elisabeth C. Odum



"This book is aimed at the general public, political leaders,
and students who may need a short concise statement of the
principles of energy and the way these shape our culture,
past, present, and future."

"This book introduces simple, commonsense diagrams that use
the energy principles to visualize broadly the patterns that
affect our own nation and the world."

"The transition from growth to a steady state can be smooth
and planned so that individuals can make changes and learn
new ways; or it can be sharp, disorderly, and disastrous for
individuals, with unemployment, famine, epidemic diseases,
and unnecessary war."

"Energy is not only for specialized courses in physics and
chemistry; it should permeate education from kindergarten
through graduate school."

"University administrators must ask if their curricula
address the real process of fitting with nature or whether
they simply foster the status quo."

"Citizens must no longer accept money as the criterion of
value. They must no longer leave energy to specialists who
do not worry about the effects of energy on the economy as
a whole."

""Basic scientists," who define basic as "looking to the
parts," need to learn that putting parts together to under-
stand whole systems is equally basic."

"The scientist who uses his discipline to learn more and more
about less and less must connect his specialty to the real
world as an entirety. Anyone who sets boundries to his field
of interest is limiting his capacity to grow."

Visited CalPoly and was pleasantly surprized to see Energy Basis for Man and Nature in their collection.



Howard T Odum was a progressive ecologist of the 70's.
He wrote some fundemental concepts of permaculture.
I believe 15% of permaculture design graduates will
ever touch this book. Repressed by educational
institutions and even the permaculture forum have
neglected his research.
I think he was ahead of his time.