Nature's 100 Best : World-Changing Innovations Inspired by Nature

by Benyus, Janine; Pauli, Gunter

• ISBN13: 9781603580571
• ISBN10: 1603580573
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-05-12
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co

Summary

After 3.8 billions of years of innovation and testing, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to thriving here on earth. What if revolutionary solutions to the world’s most vexing challenges had already been solved, but were hidden in obscure journals, known only to a few scientists? What if we could free this information, publicize it widely, and allow it to unleash the entrepreneurial minds of a new generation of creative designers? What if these ideas, already planet-approved and tested, could inspire entirely new solutions in the fields of manufacturing, health, energy, chemistry, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, building? What if they could inspire a more efficient economic system capable of responding to the needs of all? That’s the world-changing idea behind theNature’s 100 Best. A collaborative effort of Janine Benyus’ Biomimicry Guild and Gunter Pauli’s ZERI Foundation,Nature’s 100 Bestbrings to light fascinating secrets of nature capable of revolutionizing nearly every aspect of our economy, and changing our destructive relationship with the environment to one of mutual benefit. The team behindNature’s 100 Bestrecognizes that the best way to solve the world’s most intractable problems is to look where we haven’t looked before: in the extremely successful R&D lab that’s been operating on this planet for 3.8 billion years. In that time, 10-30 million species have learned to do everything we want to do, without guzzling fossil fuels, polluting the planet, or mortgaging our common future. They’ve learned what works, what is appropriate, and what lasts here on earth. The fittest” strategy is that which is easiest to accomplish, produced with what is right at hand, with nothing left to waste. There is no landfill in nature, only a ready market for everything that is produced. Entrepreneurs and readers of all stripes will learn that our biological elders have already developed the technologies needed to: Keep the Earth’s climate tuned for the needs of all life-forms; Harvest, store, and distribute energy locally, cheaply, and in a variety of ways; Separate salt from water with sun power; Sequester carbon while increasing the fertility of soils and sea; Spin CO2 into durable plastics that biodegrade on cue; Produce fiber, food, and fuel without erosion or pesticides; Manufacture without fossil-fuel driven heat, pressures, and toxins; Stay germ-free without developing antibiotic resistance; Bounce back from floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, wind, disease, and fire; Keep an incredibly complex economy productive for all; Innovate as changes in the environment require while always reducing their footprint to zero; And much more. Since March of 2007, researchers versed in biology, chemistry, and physics have been filter-feeding through peer-reviewed scientific literature with an eye for innovative, restorative technologies and entrepreneurial opportunities. They have compiled the most intriguing ideas with the help of a worldwide network of scientists and analysts from business, finance, and civil society. The goal is to spur the biomimicry of life’s ideas in order to radically reinvent our own products and processes—nothing less than the wholesale conversion of unsustainable practices threatening society as we know it with extinction to ways of living that follow in the footsteps of evolution’s enduring successes.