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Professor Bill Mollison is a scientist and naturalist who became a vigorous campaigner against environmental exploitation. As a consequence, he developed permaculture as a positive solution and founded and directs the Permaculture Institute. He has devoted his energies toward designing sustainable systems and to teaching by writing books and articles on permaculture. I have only ten minutes to cover a three-week lecture series, so I will go quickly. Like many people, I found myself getting older every year. When I looked back, things weren't too good. It was around 1972 when the Club of Rome report came out, and we realized we couldn't keep on using all this energy. Food, population, and energy were on a collision course. This worried me, so I called the university together—all the students and staff, all 900 of us in those days—and I said, "Look, we're going the wrong way. We're teaching the wrong things, and we'd better stop and rethink it." They all said, "Yep, yep, yep, cheers." And they all went back and taught exactly the same things. I was dissatisfied, so I began to make plans to escape. I said to my students, "Look, the gate's not locked. Get out while you can. You don't have to be zombies." My ancestors were Nordic and feared the sky falling. I'm more of a modern man. What I fear is the threat of eternal life or heaven. That's a shocking punishment to get. So I thought I'd get this dying over with, and I did it in 1974. I called my family together and said, "I'm going to die on you, and this is what I own and you can all have it." As the old saying goes, "Where there's a will, there are relatives." I gave it all to them right in front of me, and they couldn't argue because I was dying right in front of them. They got all my books, my two houses, and my land. I divested myself. I finished dying, gave all my stuff to the kids, and felt a lot better. I didn't even risk eternal life. I was chugging along as usual, and as I also feared religious conflict, I gave religion up. I thought it was a bit of a trap that might take you to that eternal life thing I am so terrified of. So here I was, having died. What would I do? I had a revelation then that all our education was given in a totally passive sense. A book came out on the principles of environmental science. One of those principles was, "Maturity will exploit immaturity." I don't know what you're thinking of there—Victorian mill owners and mill bills. You could eat your young, I suppose that's what it means. But I thought, well, why don't we mulch trees with grasses? That was a brilliant idea. So I kept walking up and down, converting passive knowledge into active directives as a way to behave and to go. By 1974, I'd developed a complete design for human settlements: how to grow things, how to build houses, the banking, money management, and how you made your legal structures. I was ready to go, so off I went. I came across here without any shoes on for a reason, because I really walked the world. I didn't have any transport or any money. The government had never approved of me, let alone supported me. I'm actually bankrupt; yes, I don't have anything spiritual about me. Part of it is avoidance of eternity. The one thing I am is extremely ethical. I set very hard ethical standards for myself because I know I have to be watched. And I don't have any followers; they can do what they like. That's all I have to say, and it probably leaves you puzzled. But you can relieve your puzzlement: there are 8,000 sites on the web if you just look for permaculture. And here's a remarkable thing: there are 3,000 sites on the web if you just look for Bill Mollison, and I didn't make any of them. So whoever you're talking to, it's not me. Recording location: Australia, Sydney, World Peace Forum 2003