Hmm, perhaps I haven't worded it well, then. I have no idea how exactly you might engage with the ideas I've been learning, but they're certainly applicable outside of the question of how we feed ourselves without drawing down the planet's finite resources. I would imagine, say, artisansasylum.com or Maker fairs or such would be able to speak to your skills better than, y'know, the community garden.

Permaculture will take work on many levels to really get a toehold: politically, to rethink zoning, for example; in the world of manufacturing; in how we educate ourselves and each other; in the structures we design and the materials we use, and so on and so on. Someone in my class was working on a project to integrate elders more into society instead of isolating them and not allowing them to contribute. Others were considering where they get their water from and how to collect and reuse it more efficiently. This is vital, of course, but terrifying to me to figure out - but I bet there are plenty of engineers around here who could do it.