NASA | A Year in the Life of Earth's CO2

Sustainability - Acting with a Sense of Urgency

Sustainability may or may not have hit the tipping point in human activity. I think the jury is still out. The fact of the matter is that while we may be winning some battles we are certainly still losing the war. On a planetary scale we are still destroying ecosystems and losing bio-diversity and bio-integrity at an ever increasing speed. So our efforts are just insufficient!!! So do we really care enough! We need to innovate, engineer sustainable design, foster creative intelligence and above all stand up a be bold and courageous in our efforts to recreate the human dominated world!

We've got a lot of work to do! 

Bio-mimicry and Paper Production

There is a growing recognition that learning form the natural world can teach us many things and perhaps eliminate millions of years of human mistakes along the way. This is due to the fact that nature has already made the mistakes and eliminated what doesn't work from the process cycle. Nature has decided that it likes paper! The natural world makes many forms of organic paper! Tree and Plant leaves are a form of natural paper, some tree bark is paper (Paper Birch), wasps and other insects make paper. We find many forms of paper all over the natural world. So, the natural world has decided paper is a chosen material after millions of years of experimentation, useful for plant chemical factories, natural housing, protection, soil enrichment etc. Additionally natural paper is a by-product of the living organism; the provider organism gets to keep on living, providing harvest year after year. Quite a lesson here for human manufacturing principles!

So as we think about the Who, What, When, Where and Whys of paper production for human consumption and compare its' environmental and social impacts to alternative material choices, perhaps we can let the natural world be our teacher.

Paper produced in a sustainable and regenerative way (this I must emphasize) is not only one of the most useful materials ever created, the natural world favors it!

Enriching our lives via Bio and Cultural Diversity

There is an excellent correlation to be made on how both bio-diversity and cultural diversity enrich our lives if we will only let it. The richness of diversity in the natural world when it comes to the endless array of creatures on our planet is nothing short of amazing, one could spend many lifetimes just exploring the wonders of life on earth. Yet somehow we often fail as a species to appreciate this fact. Just think how the world would change if we (all of we) considered the impact our actions make on the creatures we co-inhabit our planet with. Perhaps seeing ourselves as caretakers of these fellow creatures.
Cultural diversity is no different, personally I quite enjoy immersing myself in local cultures, the food, arts, lifestyles and customs. It is always fun, rewarding and somehow makes you bigger than yourself, it can also be a great source of unity between different cultures. Yet we again often miss this richness and see difference as cause for disdain. Perhaps next time difference and diversity step up into our lives we can pause and reflect on its value and dismiss negative thoughts as an opportunity for personal growth and richness.

Appreciating the Richness of Cultural Diversity & Biological Diversity

We all need to further appreciate the inherent richness embedded in Cultural Diversity & Biological Diversity alike. The commonality between the two subjects is quite amazing. Our world is a varied and rich place if we learn to appreciate it for the right perspective. Biodiversity adds to the richness of the natural world, the more and varied the species the more fascinating and incredible it seems. Protecting this diversity is of high importance, this fact seems pretty clear to most of us, accomplishing it is another story altogether. I am personally in awe of the natural world everywhere I look. Cultural diversity is no different, it makes the world a rich and endlessly fascinating place, if that is, you look at it through the right lens. We need to embrace these differences rather than fear them, and explore how they can and do enrich our lives by expanding the human experience. After all we will always be linked by our common humanness.

Speaking out on GMO's

The growing trend towards genetically modified plants and organisms is quite an issue these days, especially with the recent proliferation of GE alfalfa and corn crops. Personally, I don't think mankind is nearly smart enough or concerned enough to be releasing GMO's into the environment. Nature has been refining the genetic structure of plants and organisms for millions if not billions of years driven by a natural selection process that has been amazingly successful in species richness and biodiversity. We can only muck up the ecosystem with our current limited knowledge of the workings of our universe, hence negatively affecting the bio-integrity of our planet. Human performance indicators to date in relation to the environment only point to one conclusion "eventual disaster" for the flora and fauna of our planet, including humans. We are like fool hardy children plowing full steam ahead to a future we can not hope to control or understand.

One Man's Opinion                David Podmayersky

Our Toxic Electronic Society

If you look at recent data with the global economy somewhat rebounding, the use of hazardous materials and toxic chemicals of concern is rising rapidly. As it turns out our modern electronic digital society is quite toxic to all life. Our rapid advancement and almost immediate product obsolescence are combining to accelerate the toxic signature of modern life. While the issue is certainly on the radar screen at this point with many companies doing really commendable work the war is still being lost. We just have to do more and quickly.