Tag: nature

Biomimicry for sustainable living

Biomimicry is the process of imitating nature to achieve solutions for human problems. An example is imitating the structure of a bird’s body to create aeroplanes, thus reducing drag, noise pollution, and fuel consumption while the plane is flying. Such designs are slowly proliferating across the world in the form of material design (think velcro)1, product design (solar cells)1, and architectural design (The Water Cube, also known as the National Aquatics Centre in Beijing, China)2.

Biomimetic designs have several advantages:

1. Resource efficiency- Biomimicry encourages resource efficiency, so that fewer materials are used, and less waste generated when such design principles are used- termite mounds used as a model for buildings, since they are naturally cooler, have led to a smaller energy footprint due to lower cooling requirement, and copying whale fins have allowed wind turbines to be upgraded to greater efficiency.2

2. Resilience- Since it is a copy of a naturally efficient design, such products or spaces are congenitally resilient and not prone to breakage or damage.

3. Regeneration- Nature is regenerative, and thus nature-inspired design is too. Harvesting rainwater can help replenish groundwater resources. Other examples include public food gardens, public green spaces, green walls, restoring damaged landscapes, etc.

4. Cradle to Cradle- Designers can aim for long product lives, scientists for increased material stability, manufacturers can take back old products and remanufacture, and governments can legislate the right to repair, as well as connecting industries as much as possible so that where possible waste from one industry may be used as raw material for another, whenever virgin material is not a requirement due to health or other concerns.

5. Innovative- biomimetic designs spur technology, human comfort, and positive environmental outcomes to newer heights. Examples include the development of super hydrophobic material inspired by lotus leaves, synthetic spider silk, antimicrobial medical devices, and many more.2

Biomimicry uses design that have been perfected over billions of years of evolution to adapt to and take advantage of the environment in which they function, and offers real world scalable solutions can address sustainable development goals. Studying and replicating these designs allows us to benefit from evolutionary specialisation and live in closer harmony with our own environment. However, there are several challenges in commercialising such designs:

1. Scalability- biology is complex and organisms are a intricate interweaving of multilayered interactions between different compounds such as proteins, lipids, muscle cells, immune systems, nervous systems, defence mechanisms, etc. producing such material is difficult in labs, let alone at scale.

2. Education- Biomimicry is not studied or taught at most schools and its principles are not well known. This limits the number of people who are able to access the knowledge of how to imitate natural beings to the few who are already interested or conversant with the matter.

3. Interdisciplinenary nature-biomimicry requires interdisciplinary cooperation. Since different professions often don’t work together unless brought together for a specific project, opportunities to create biomimic outcomes are limited unless that is the specific project aim.

4. Material stability- biological material often cannot survive outside of an organism, so creating a similar compound, or a synthetic compound that mimics it is problematic and economically unviable due to their short lifespans or inability of synthetics to perform at the same level as the biotic compounds.

5. Experimental- Such projects are uncertain by nature. There is no guarantee that the creators who set out to make a particular solution will be able to do so. There is therefore no standard business model.

6. Limited inspiration- few organisms have been studied deeply enough for humans to be able to replicate their biology and processes. Currently, it is approximated that research has focused on a mere 20 organisms.3

7. Geometry- biological molecules are incredibly small. Human labs can often not replicate the chemistry of these compounds and layers at such scales.

8. Costs- due to all the above factors, plus a lack of policy support, financing such projects is often an uphill battle.

Overcoming these challenges will require vision, time, policy support, and financing, but the returns on investment will be abundant for society, science, and sustainable development.

Sources

  1. Biomimicry: Nature-Inspired Sustainable Design Solutions
  2. Beijing National Aquatics Center
  3. The challenges related to biomimicry

Ecosystem services- how humans utilise unpriced planetary resources

Ecosystem services are all the benefits humans derive from nature. Whether directly or indirectly, human societies derive all their economic and non economic resources from nature, but that is not all we can attribute to it.

Ecosystems are formed when organisms interact with the physical space they occupy on the planet. It consists of biotic and abiotic components (biotic: anything that is or was once alive, abiotic: was never alive), and deliver various functions, such as:

i. Providing energy – Animals cannot convert our Sun’s heat and light to nutrients. When plants do that, and are consumed by herbivores, who are then consumed by other animals, they enable animal life and activity on earth. It is the ancient Sun’s bounty we use when we consume fossil fuels, for they are nothing but dead and buried plants and animals of several ages.

ii. Providing habitat – Life usually has a type of space it prefers to live in: a certain temperature range, an amount of humidity it can tolerate, the land it grows in, where its prey lives. These preferences are evolved over millennia and organisms that belong to a certain area have a distinct evolutionary advantage in that type of region.

iv. Providing planetary cycle regulation – Ecosystems and their interactions regulate all the biogeochemical cycles of our planet. Whether directly or indirectly, they produce most of the resources present in nature. Examples include fresh water, oxygen, seeds, and biomass decomposition which leads to richer soils and removal of dead creatures.

v. Providing commercial raw material – nearly every molecule on our planet comes either directly or indirectly through the ecosystem production factory. Even synthetic molecules are completely or in part sourced through this production cycle. Think of anything you own, anything you use, anything you want to possess- it was created by the planetary ecosystem in one way or another. Even synthetic molecules require humans to formulate them.

vi. Providing rehabilitation services – Humans use nature for exposure to beauty, companionship, relaxation, spiritual experiences, and cognitive enrichment. Nearly none of the revenue generated by industries based on the participation in these activities is reinvested in preserving or enhancing the ecosystems that support them.

Our empire of commerce and poverty is rooted in the soil we stand on, and everything that made it.

Is it possible to price these activities? Of course. The easiest ways are to simply add up what can be traced to nature in our global GDP… which is everything (Since we have not yet started mining extraterrestrial worlds, so at the moment nature simply means our own home). However, what about pricing the services that save us from spending money? When a bee pollinates a flower so we don’t use human hands to do it, or when a bird eats an insect that would otherwise eat our crop, so we don’t require insecticides, how do we count that? One way to do that is to simply destroy all ecosystems, and see how everything is priced with only humans and human food alive. A less dystopian way is perhaps to understand the services provided by the ecosystems as thoroughly as we can, and invest in them so that they become both, healthy and self sustaining, and replace the parts of our economy that are dedicated to being nature-substitutes, as well as enhances it (and we can later compare how much we are saving).

It’s important to understand that not all nature based solutions are harmless to nature itself. Of course fossil fuels are the greatest examples- because yes those are as natural as they come, but even more direct sources of energy, such as using solar energy requires the use of mining for rare earth metals; Hydroelectricity can devastate large land areas and damage life in the fresh water source used for it; Restoring apex predator population (as much as we are able) will inevitably lead to conflicts between those predators and the local human population. Even so, on balance, the scale is very much tipped to one side in favour of choosing solutions that restore ecosystems.

So how do we build our solar punk paradise? Here are some suggestions:

i. Education – Early and continuous instruction in what ecosystems are, the local ecosystems, their safeguarding, and their sustainable uses will help society as a whole understand how to live as part of ecosystems, and use them for human benefit (monetary and otherwise) without depleting them.

ii. Investment in Ecosystems – Large swathes of the planet have been left in desolation due to human economic activities. These devastated lands are in need of restoration, and investment in such restoration will help nearby areas by resulting in more predictable weather, and a nicer place to live, among other rewards.

iii. Payment for ecosystem guardianship – There is absolutely no reason communities who traditionally maintain ecosystems as part of their culture should do that work for free. First, it must be recognised as work, and next, it must be valued fairly and paid so that they are compensated for their efforts, and are also able to continue their cultural planet nurturing practices rather than joining the conventional economy.

iv. Creating safe zones – Humans are everywhere. Creating ecological hotspots without human settlements will help many species of flora and fauna thrive. Such areas can be sustained through tourism.

v. Policy interventions – Coordinated government action at the local, national and multinational levels which may include policies, regulation, taxation, market controls, or other intercessions in partnership with local and regional bodies at every level to drive change forward and bring people together.