The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia

Albert Bates is author of The Financial Collapse Survival Guide and Cookbook and 14 other books on energy, environment and history, including Climate in Crisis (1990) and The Post Petroleum Survival Guide (2006). A former environmental and civil rights lawyer, he has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and written a number of legislative acts. He shared the Right Livelihood Award in 1980 for his work on the steering committee of Plenty, working to preserve the culture of indigenous peoples in the Americas. A co-founder and past president of the Global Ecovillage Network, he is presently GEN’s representative to the UN climate talks. When not inventing fuel wringers for algae or pyrolizing cookstoves at The Farm Ecovillage Training Center, he teaches permaculture, village design and natural building and is a special advisor for Gaia University. From 2007 to 2010 he traveled in Amazon region, the US midwest, and elsewhere to study terra preta soils, and in 2009 provided the first full semester course on carbon farming. His latest book, The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change was published in 2010 by New Society Publishers. He also co-wrote, with Toby Hemenway, the chapter on permaculture for State of the World 2010. Albert teaches permaculture, transition and advanced village design frequently in the USA, Mexico, Belize, Ireland and Estonia, blogs at http://peaksurfer.blogspot.com and tweets @peaksurfer.