Paul Wheaton is an American

permaculture Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principle ...

author,Stollar, R.L
“Paul Wheaton and Permaculture”
Eugene Daily News. Retrieved January 4th 2013.Fredrickson, Erika
master gardener">"Grow Wild" Missoula Independent. Retrieved May 26th, 2020. Master gardener program, master gardener
, software engineer,Bushman, Margie
"Integrating Animals in Permaculture Systems with Paul Wheaton"
Santa Maria Times. Retrieved January 4th, 2013. and disciple of the natural agriculturist

Sepp Holzer Sepp may refer to: * Sepp (given name) *Sepp (surname) *Science & Environmental Policy Project * Sepp (publisher) *Substantially equal periodic payments, US tax-law provision *Single Edge Processor Package * State Enterprise for Pesticide Producti ...

. He is known for writing his book, ''"Building a Better World in Your Backyard"'', founding Permies, the largest website devoted to permaculture, as well as for creating and publishing articles, videos, and podcasts on the subject of permaculture. Wheaton is also the founder of Coderanch, formerly called ''Javaranch'', an online community for

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

programmers. He received three Jolt Awards from Dr. Dobb's Journal for his work related to Javaranch. As a software engineer, he has worked on the ground system for the

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...

that took pictures for Google Earth and

DigitalGlobe DigitalGlobe is an American commercial vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, and operator of civilian remote sensing spacecraft. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange on 14 May 2009, selling 14.7 million shares at US ...

. Wheaton has participated in several documentaries,

TED Talk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

shows, and conferences, on topics related to permaculture, energy, and

software engineering Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' ...

Early life

Born in Moscow, Idaho, Wheaton was raised in

Eastern Oregon Eastern Oregon is the eastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is not an officially recognized geographic entity; thus, the boundaries of the region vary according to context. It is sometimes understood to include only the eight easternmost ...

and

Missoula, Montana Missoula ( ; fla, label= Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County. It is located along the Clark Fork ...

. He began his career as a

software engineer Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term ''p ...

and continued to work for several private companies with software and programming. In the early 1990s, Wheaton developed Bananacom, a

terminal emulator A terminal emulator, or terminal application, is a computer program that emulates a video terminal within some other display architecture. Though typically synonymous with a shell or text terminal, the term ''terminal'' covers all remote term ...

, which was used by bulletin board system operators in the United States. At one time, Wheaton had hired 14 programmers from

to work on the Bananacom project. The product gained popularity among its users due to its usability. Later in 2000, Wheaton worked on the ground system software for the spacecraft that took pictures for Google Earth and DigitalGlobe.

Projects

Permies

In 2000, Wheaton shared his views on

lawn A lawn is an area of soil-covered land planted with grasses and other durable plants such as clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawnmower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic and recreational purposes. ...

care on his website richsoil. Later that year, he launched the website Permies, a place for people to discuss lawn care and permaculture. By 2012, Permies had become the largest online community dedicated to permaculture and homesteading. Wheaton first documented on Permies his design of natural homes. Called the Wofati, it is a type of natural earth-sheltered building developed by

Mike Oehler David Michael Oehler (; January 2, 1938 February 2, 2016) was an American environmentalist and author. He was a proponent and designer of affordable and sustainable alternative forms of housing. He became well known for his appearances in episodes ...

and expanded upon by Wheaton. Wheaton coined the acronym, which means Woodland Oehler Freaky-cheap Annualized Thermal Inertia. "Woodland" because it is the optimal location for such a building; "Oehler" after the pioneer, "Freaky-cheap," due to the Fairly-cost effective or frugal materials; and Annualized Thermal Inertia from a book by John Hait called "Passive Annual Heat Storage" which inspired much of the reasoning behind the Wofati design. The site has attracted notable personalities such as Geoff Lawton and Toby Hemenway, rocket mass heater developers Ernie and Erica Wisner, medical

herbalist Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remed ...

Michael Pilarski, and others who explore a range of eclectic permaculture topics.

Coderanch

In 1997,

Kathy Sierra Kathy Sierra (born 1957) is an American programming instructor and game developer. Education and career Sierra attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a major in exercise physiology and spent 10 years working in the fitness industry. She change ...

created javaranch.com, which she transferred to Wheaton In January 2000. In 2009, Javaranch was extended to a new

domain Domain may refer to: Mathematics *Domain of a function, the set of input values for which the (total) function is defined **Domain of definition of a partial function **Natural domain of a partial function **Domain of holomorphy of a function * Do ...

coderanch.com with a

forum Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to: Common uses * Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example *Internet ...

. As of May 2020, Coderanch had more than 3 million posts created by over 332,000 registered members.

Publications

Books and articles

Paul Wheaton authored the book ''"Building a Better World in Your Backyard, instead of being angry at the bad guys."'', which was an iteration of his philosophy of choosing to ''"build good things rather than be angry at bad guys."'' He is also the author of many

article Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...

s, published both on his own website and other major publications. According to Wheaton, the book describes a collection of things people can do individually to make a significant positive global impact. A Wheaton's article on

Hügelkultur Hügelkultur (), literally mound bed or mound culture is a horticultural technique where a mound constructed from decaying wood debris and other compostable biomass plant materials is later (or immediately) planted as a raised bed. Adopted by pe ...

appeared in LifeHacker in 2011, which suggested the use of

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

to form the backbone of Hügelkultur bed. His article on

Aphids Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A t ...

and

ants Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Creta ...

was published on ''Countryside''.

Podcasts

In 2011, Wheaton launched a monthly

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

titled ''"Paul Wheaton Permaculture Podcast"''. The podcasts mainly consisted of interviews with notable figures in permaculture and educational discussions on various topics of permaculture. In 2019, his Permaculture Podcast ranked number 2 in Feedspot's ''“Top 15 Permaculture Audio Podcasts & Radio You Must Subscribe and Listen to in 2019."'' Wheaton has also participated in other podcasts such as thesurvivalpodcast.com, in which he discussed various topics including Sepp Holzer, ''wofati'', permaculture

profitability In economics, profit is the difference between the revenue that an economic entity has received from its outputs and the total cost of its inputs. It is equal to total revenue minus total cost, including both explicit and implicit costs. It i ...

, rocket mass heaters, light bulbs, and irrigation, and on ''The Pagan Homesteader'' podcast where they discussed Hügelkultur and Wofati. Wheaton has also expressed his positions on energy saving methods in a podcast hosted by ''Abundant Edge''. Wheaton has been featured on The Joe Gardener podcast on the basics of hugelkultur.

Other media

In 2008, Wheaton created his YouTube channel called ''paulwheaton12'' which had over 86,000 subscribers and 24 million views as of June, 2020. In his videos, Wheaton discusses various topics related to permaculture, which includes

organic horticulture Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heirloom variety preserva ...

, rocket mass heaters, natural building, alternative energy, homesteading,

frugality Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the consumption of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance. In behavioral science, frugality has been ...

, raising chickens,

wildcrafting Wildcrafting (also known as foraging) is the practice of harvesting plants from their natural, or 'wild' habitat, primarily for food or medicinal purposes. It applies to uncultivated plants wherever they may be found, and is not necessarily limited ...

, aquaculture, paddock shift systems, and

colony collapse disorder Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is an abnormal phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a honey bee colony disappear, leaving behind a queen, plenty of food, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. While s ...

. His videos also include interviews with

and other notable people in the field of permaculture. He further presented his findings during his TEDTalk, "REALLY Saving Energy: Paul Wheaton at TEDxWhitefish".

Interviews

In 2019, Wheaton was interviewed by Peak Prosperity about his book, ''"Building a Better World in Your Backyard (Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys.'' In 2020, Wheaton was also interviewed by Mike Nowak and Peggy Malecki about the ''"Building a Better World in Your Backyard (Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys"'' book as well as his general thoughts and beliefs on permaculture.

Other projects

In 2013, Wheaton produced a documentary of wood-burning stoves, highlighting sustainable ways to heat, which consisted of four segments called ''"Fire Science"'', ''"Sneaky Heat"'', ''"Boom Squish"'', and ''"Hot Rocket"''. The documentary was distributed in

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

s, in addition to

online streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

and downloadable videos. According to Wheaton, his design of wood burning stoves uses 1/10 of the wood compared to conventional wood burning stoves. He also claimed that his stoves only produce 1/1000 of smoke compared to other stoves. In 2014, Paul Wheaton crowd-funded and produced a deck of Permaculture

Playing Cards A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...

, where each card contained information about a different permaculture technique or notable people of permaculture. Later in the same year, Wheaton produced another documentary titled ''"World Domination Gardening"'', which featured a 3 days workshop of Hügelkultur,

earthworks Earthworks may refer to: Construction *Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour * Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil *Earthworks (military), m ...

ponds A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from t ...

, and swales. The documentary was distributed in sets of three DVDs, called ''"Sealing a Pond Without a Liner"'', ''"Ditches and Swales"'', and ''"Hugelkultur and Terracing"''. In 2015, Wheaton launched a Kickstarter project to make a documentary of rocket mass heaters. The documentary has been distributed in DVDs, streaming media, downloadable video files, and PDF plans. In 2017, Wheaton hosted a ''Permaculture Design Course'' and an ''"Appropriate Technology Course"'' which consisted of a 14 days workshop. The project was able to raise the pledged funds within 22 hours after its Kickstarter project was launched. Later in 2018, Wheaton produced a documentary called ''"Rocket Ovens"'', which he described as an efficient way to cook and bake food making less than 1% of the carbon footprint of that of an electric oven. Distributed in DVDs and streaming videos, the documentary featured environmental friendly ways of cooking, baking, and dehydrating food with lesser amount of wood compared to other forms wood-fired ovens.

Experiments, demonstrations, and opinions

Wheaton set up an experiment to demonstrate how

compact fluorescent lamp A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), also called compact fluorescent light, energy-saving light and compact fluorescent tube, is a fluorescent lamp designed to replace an incandescent light bulb; some types fit into light fixtures designed for inca ...

s (CFL bulbs) are not better than

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxid ...

s. He used a combination of warm clothing, incandescent lights that produce heat as well as light, and various heating devices to keep warm while his 700 square foot house in Montana is set for 40 degrees Fahrenheit all winter. With this demonstration, Wheaton concluded that by heating the person instead of the air, a person can remain comfortable and save hundreds of dollars in energy savings. Wheaton introduced a lifestyle model called ''Wheaton Eco Scale'' in 2010 where he categorized different lifestyles into 10 levels, where level-0 makes the highest carbon footprint and level-10 makes the lowest. In 2011, Wheaton demonstrated how hand washing a standard sized load of dishes can only use around a gallon of water. He compared that a standard dishwasher uses 15 gallons of water per load while an energy-efficient

dishwasher A dishwasher is a machine that is used to clean dishware, cookware, and cutlery automatically. Unlike manual dishwashing, which relies heavily on physical scrubbing to remove soiling, the mechanical dishwasher cleans by spraying hot water, ty ...

uses around 9 gallons per load. In 2014, Wheaton produced a documentary on

mason bees Mason bee is a name now commonly used for species of bees in the genus ''Osmia'', of the family Megachilidae. Mason bees are named for their habit of using mud or other "masonry" products in constructing their nests, which are made in naturally ...

which was featured in

TreeHugger ''TreeHugger'' is a sustainability website that reports on news, and other subjects like eco-friendly design, homes, and gardens. It was rated the top sustainability blog of 2007 by Nielsen Netratings, and was included in Time Magazine's 200 ...

. In the documentary, Wheaton compared mason bees with

Honey bees A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosm ...

and what humans can do to help, which included keeping bees in

refrigerators A refrigerator, colloquially fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so th ...

. Wheaton has performed testing for heating a person rather than a whole house to save 90% on a heating bill while staying warm.

References

External links

Permies: permaculture website and forum

Wheaton's blog

Paul Wheaton's page for events at his property, "Wheaton Labs"

"Building a Better World in Your Backyard, instead of being angry at the bad guys" book on Amazon

"Skip: Skills to Inherit Property" book by Paul Wheaton and Mike Haasl on Amazon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheaton, Paul Living people American gardeners Organic gardeners Permaculturalists Sustainability advocates Writers from Missoula, Montana American software engineers Year of birth missing (living people)