“It is time for us as a culture to walk in the forest again. Once we see nature as a mentor, our relationship with the living world changes.”
These days I walk in the forest very often, and besides that, I read the fantastic, inspiring book by Janine Benyus, US-American biologist and pioneer: “Biomimicry – Innovation Inspired by Nature” (1997). This book is a revelation to me. Janine Benyus offers both scientific expertise of a broad range and insights of a woman deeply connected to nature.
The chapters read “Growing food like a prairie”, “Gathering energy like a leaf”, “Finding cures like a chimp”, Running a business like a Redwood Forest” a.o. Benyus discusses many aspects of learning from nature, building the basis for a friendly, well-balanced relationship between nature and humankind. Some of these aspects and cooperations have already turned into reality since Benyus’ book was first published, but many passages still read like a chant of miracles. In the following few lines I would like to roughly outline the impacts of her vision.
Biomimicry is a scientific, interdisciplinary approach first of all. It takes nature as a model, observing and imitating nature’s inventions. The astonishing solutions organisms have found to adapt to their places and to each other serve as inspiration for human innovation. The fields of biology, technology and economy cooperate, producing tools and structures for a more sustainable human life on earth.
Moreover, biomimicry is an ecological standard, taking nature as a measure, to judge the “rightness” of our innovations. Does it work? Does it still work in a few decades, centuries or longer? Is it appropriate? Questions that help us using our innovations to improve the way we “fit in” on this planet. By taking these standards in consideration, we learn about diversity and cooperation, the power of limitation and balance. We learn about living according to nature’s laws.
This leads to a shift of value, to the third and most fundamental meaning or impact biomimicry can have. Accepting nature as a mentor means a “change of heart”. The story of the human race being the crown of creation, which allowed us to expand and extract beyond limits, has to change.
This is the message I found so extraordinary and encouraging in a book about technological innovation and economy by a science writer. It is not only our eyes we need to see and observe, but our heart to listen and admire, to make change happen.
“This time, we come not to learn about nature so that we might circumvent and control her, but to learn from nature, so that we fit in, at last and for good, on the Earth from which we sprang.”
All quotations taken from: “Biomimicry. Innovation Inspired by Nature”, Janine Benyus, 1997.