Biomimicry

Biomimicry

Humans are infants in the grand scheme of life.  Our biological elders have been here on earth much longer than we have, and compared to them, we still have everything to learn about sustainability.  –Janine Benyus

*We are a biological organism which means that we are nature.  So not to be confused, when Janine Benyus refers to nature, she means more than human

*Organisms have done everything we humans want to do without guzzling fossil fuels, polluting the planet, or mortgaging their future.

Bacteria arrived 3.8 billion years ago, since then life has learned to fly, circumnavigate the globe, live at the top of mountains, in the bottom of the ocean, light up at night, make miracle materials like skin, horns, hair, and brains.

The wood frog can freeze solid in winter and hop away unharmed in spring, a garden snail builds its own highway of slime, a rhino’s horn heals when cracked, even though it has no living organisms.  These are all miracles of nature.  A rhino did not go to school and learn to heal his horn, a frog didn’t have to learn how to freeze, and a snail does not have to learn how to produce slime.  All of these come natural.  Humans have different types of natural miracles that we do without thinking about that makes us able to survive.  We breathe without thinking about it, when our eyes become dry we blink without thinking about it.  Cardiac and smooth muscle contraction occurs without conscious thought and is necessary for survival.  Examples are the contraction of the heart and peristalsis which pushes food through the digestive system.  A human has a natural brain capacity to do much more than this, and in turn, do more harm to the planet.  But we also have the capacity to do more good, it is up to us on how we use our brains, and to be more aware and learn more on how to live sustainable. 

          I believe the only reason some of humans behavior/actions are detrimental to a natural/sustainable life cycle, is that we humans have the capacity to learn and execute new ideas.  If a wood frog knew a way to survive through the winter without having to be frozen in one single spot, I’m sure it would.  If a gazelle knew how to use fire power, then it would do so on the cheetah before the cheetah killed him.  If other forms of life had the brain power humans have, then they wouldn’t settle for the natural strengths their creator gave them.  Humans have very complex brains that need stimulation.  Our creator gave us such brain capacity so that we can put it to use.  Our creator wants us to learn and create and build.  That is a natural part of life for humans.  I think for humans to go back to basics (caveman life) would be totally unnatural and a slap in the face to our creator.  We weren’t given this supreme potential so that we can sit on rocks and bang sticks together.  God wanted us to go to the moon, he wanted us to travel the world on airplanes, and he wanted us to do all of these things that we do.  That is why he wired us in a way that through time we were able to figure out how to do all of these things.

Deforestation

I think that it may, in some ways be hard to consider deforestation to have effects on sustainability because when people think of trees they don't realize all of the things trees are used for. Not only us as humans need them but hundreds of thousands of species rely on the rain forests for shelter and food, it is their home. What most people don't realize is that our forests have been rapidly decreasing due to to and misuse/abuse of Mother Earths trees. While reading about deforestation I came across a sweet book I was able to read online called Vital Forest Graphics. I thought this book offered some really good information about Deforestation in the past, present, and some things people can do to help rebuild our forests and stop deforestation. “Conserving forests has become a key weapon in the fight to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change.” (VFG, 56)

Along with the conservation of many forests around the world, people are also doing their part to reestablish forested areas. “In 1999, China launched the ‘Grain for Green’ programme to promote recovery of vegetation cover, watershed management and poverty alleviation ... The programme now covers 25 provinces in over 1,600 counties (autonomous regions and municipalities) and involves 15 million households and 60 million farmers. From 1999 to 2002, 7.7 million hectares of land was converted into forest, including 3.72 million hectares of farm land turned forest and 3.98 million hectares of plantations established on barren hills.” This program is considered to be “the largest participatory community forest project in China, possibly in the world.” (VFG, 61) I believe that people are realizing how preserving our forests is becoming a key part of sustaining a healthy Earth and more people should be taking part in communities similar to the Grain for Green in China because these types of programs are the only chance this planet has for survival.

NHPR.org - Bacteria Power: Energy Minute

NHPR.org - Bacteria Power: Energy Minute

Bacteria Power: Energy Minute

By Jon Greenberg on Tuesday, May 19, 2009

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Hungry bacteria can cut energy bills by thousands of dollars a month.

I’m Jon Greenberg with this energy minute.

Treating wastewater takes a lot of power. But both the City of Nashua and Stonyfield Farm have struck a deal with bacteria to clean up their wastewater at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.

They both built massive tanks called digesters. Inside these tanks, water and bacteria mix it up, breaking down solids. Now, the bacteria won’t do their thing if it’s too cold. Fortunately, as they clean the water, they produce a gas. Lisa Drake at Stonyfield says you can use that gas to run heaters under the tank.

DRAKE: So it keeps them nice and warm and keeps them happy and productive and that’s basically how it works.

This approach has already paid for itself at Stonyfield and saves Nashua about a million dollars a year on its electric bills. In Germany, they built a more advanced system that drives a 250 kilowatt power plant. They run the digester, heat buildings and still have juice left over to feed back into the electric grid.

With this energy minute, I’m Jon Greenberg.

We are too many

Whenever my friends and I are discussing the fate of our planet (which happens quite often), we come to the same conclusion: one of the root problems our planet is facing is the population explosion of the human race. At the beginning of the 19^th century, world population was only about 1 billion. By 1960, it reached 3 billion and doubled to about 6 billion during the next four decades. Currently, the world population is about 6.7 billion. Although the growth rate declined since then due to a global increase in education levels and standards of living, we are expected to reach 10 billion by the year 2050.

American biologist and ecologist Paul Ehrlich has warned us over and over again about unlimited population growth and limited resources. He developed the formula I=PAT: Human Impact (I) on the environment equals the product of population (P), affluence (A: consumption per capita) and technology (T: environmental impact per unit of consumption), which is mentioned in Tom Wessel’s “The Myth of Progress” but most ecologists focus more on affluence and technology. Understandably, population control is a sensitive and very emotional issue that impacts not only economics and the environment but also sociology, philosophy, family, politics, ethnic and national pride, religion, sexuality, and individual rights.

Many western countries accuse the “under-developed and under-educated world” for the overpopulation. And, indeed, there is a strong inverse correlation between education and birthrate. The western countries all are seeing a decline in their population growth rate. But, according to Paul Ehrlich, “The key to understanding overpopulation is not population density but the numbers of people in an area relative to its resources and the capacity of the environment to sustain human activities. […] It also depends on how those people behave. When this is considered, an entirely different picture emerges: the main population problem is in wealthy countries.” Our behavior has caused the biggest environmental crisis this planet has ever seen and it is our responsibility to act first.

Marvelous Magic Mushrooms

Mcdonough and Braungart propose a radical shift in the way we think about design. An industrial revolution moving from a "cradle to grave" approach towards a more sustainable "cradle to cradle" method. Ideally following nature's "upcycle" wherein, the idea of waste is non existent, with all parts able to be re used in any form to benefit the whole.

A prime example of this idea of design being "a signal of intention" is evidenced by Far West Fungi in California. They are growing mushrooms in brick shaped containers, and after harvesting the edible mushrooms they dry the thin, white, rootlike material known as mycelium. After being dried the mycelium, which is already shaped and tightly packed due to the growing containers, takes on the form of a "super brick." These bricks are non toxic,fireproof, and mold and water resistant. They also trap heat better than traditional fiberglass insulation, and are stronger, pound for pound, than concrete. Not only is this a no waste building material, but to grow the mycelium corn husks are used as fungi food. This is important because neither humans nor other animals can eat the husks making them essentially a waste byproduct of corn. While this is a fledgling idea, and not yet a full scale production, other companies have begun marketing "mycoproducts." Ecovative, a New York based company, has a mycelium alternative to styrofoam used in packaging. After use the product can be put in your garden for compost.

Mcdonough and Braungart propose that we design "products and systems that celebrate an abundance of human creativity, culture and productivity" and leave an "ecological footprint to delight in." I think that the examples of Far West Fungi and Ecovative embody these design ideals and are great examples of a step in the right direction.

Cycles

Life as we know it is based around cycles.

The cycle starting with photosynthesis uses sun light as energy to convert CO2 +H2O into Sugars and O2. Then humans and other living organisms use Sugars and O2 in respiration to produce energy, H2O and CO2. When a tree falls in the forest bacteria and fungi are already on the scene and start feeding off and breaking down the plant material. Leaving the elements and nutrients in a simplified form, ready for the next young tree. All of these systems work together. They cannot be isolated from one another. They build together, like a storm gathering momentum as it progresses and constantly being affected by every aspect of anything. Resulting in the mind-numbing complexity and diversity of our universe.

Cycles are sustainable because there is no waste. The by-product of one step is the raw materials of the next step. The nestedness and synergy between cycles provides diversity and redundancy. Diversity and redundancy can be thought of as other small scale cycles that are constantly fixing the imbalances in the world. Acting as a sort of buffer zone from drastic change. Designing our world with the natural world as a model we can expect these same benefits. Imagine a world were whenever something has been used up it is transformed into something else. No waste.

Blog # 1 Complexity/Sustainability

Ben Daubenspeck

Blog #1

9/27/10

Complexity/Sustainability

When I hear “complex”, I think of something challenging such as math, getting a new couch into a 3^rd story apartment. But nature gives the word complex a whole new meaning. The word “challenging” flies out the window and “fascinating” takes it place. Tom Wessels talks of complex systems when referring to our bodies. He paints a vivid picture in my mind when he tells how, “during out development we witnessed one cell growing into more than 30 trillion cells”. Then he goes on to say how the 30 trillion cells consist of 254 different types. It baffles me when I think about this stuff because I am someone who likes to make sense of everything, and human existence and the complexity of nature makes no sense to me. I just chalk it all up as a miracle and don’t look very far into it because like I said, the complexity of our bodies, the environment, co-existence, etc, all of that leaves me speechless. Co-evolution is another extremely truly amazing part of life. Wessels says that each species’ plays its own ecological role, meaning that every single species plays an important role in the life cycle. Co-evolution is species adapting to one another, all with the common goal of survival. He mentions the bee and the spider, and how over time the spider has learned to avoid being caught, while the bee has learned tricks on how to lure the spider out in the day time.

With all of these miracles taking place in all forms of life, we are starting to realize our impact as human beings, and how every little thing we do plays a role in the size of our footprint. Over time we have established a very large footprint, and recently we have been concerning ourselves with way to reduce our impact on the earth due to our realizations of the damage we are causing. People are wanting to live more sustainable life styles, mostly meaning that they are looking for way to go green. More people are driving hybrid cars today than ever before, mainly for the reason of saving money on gas, but at the same time they are reducing the size of their foot print compared to someone driving a truck. Also you see more and more people recycling, and looking for “green” labels when shopping. I bought the energy efficient light bulbs for my apartment for example. They are more expensive, but they are proven to use less electricity, in turn lowering my electric bill. So as you can see, a lot of people go green just to save some money, but it is great because at the same time they are reducing their impact and living more sustainable lives, weather they realize it or not. Maybe they are just trying to maintain their budget, but I think that they are being more sustainable at the same time. Going green is typically more expensive at first, but in the long run it proves to be worth it both in the environment and in your wallet.