A decade ago, AOC shared with readers my favorite TED Talk ever, with Janine Benyus explaining the young discipline of biomimicry. I am thinking of her TED Talk now, writing about the scheduled ‘stone-skipping’ re-entry of the Artemis Orion spacecraft on Sunday, Dec. 11.

Here are my thoughts from Jan. 2013

Getting Over Sustainability Speed Bumps

Insect creature by Mariusz Dabrowski on Unsplash; Background leaves Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Janine Benyus and the Biomimicry movement are gaining enormous respect in the world of product innovation and design. The biometric path is simple and described in four steps: quieting human cleverness; listening to life’s genius; echoing what we learn; and giving thanks.

Partnering with Nature is an eyebrow-raising metaphor for super-rational human minds coming to grips with understanding that human brilliance in innovation and scientific discovery may also kill planet Earth.

Men [and fewer women] should be partnering with Nature, not dominating her.

In a 1967 essay titled “The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis” Lynn White argued that Christianity was an anthropocentric religion which could be blamed for our ecological crisis.

Not everyone agrees with that view — and they are not necessarily scientists. Most people would agree that the bible has often been interpreted in an anthropocentric way, making men — not all humans — but primarily men in charge of nature, women and children.

So the Biomimicry movement has successfully outlined 12 big ideas from Biology to focus our attention on strategies that Nature employs to sustain herself. They are:

1. Self-Assembly

2. COs as a Feedstock

3. Solar Transformation

4. The Power of Shape

5. Quenching Thirst

6. Metals without Mining

7. Green Chemistry

8. Timed Degradation

9. Resilience and Healing

10 Sensing and Responding

11. Growing Fertility

12. Life Creates Conditions Conducive To Life