Design Like Nature: Biomimicry for a Healthy Planet
Introduction Have you ever held a seashell and wondered how its delicate swirl can be so strong Or lay down under a tree so tall it touches the clouds and wondered how it withstands the strongest winds Nature is a genius at design Humans love to design too We build huge cities create all kinds of chemicals and make tons of electronics and plastics But the way we design is changing our climate and creating unmanageable amounts of garbage What if we could learn to design like nature instead What would it be like if we could build houses like sea creatures build their shells Dye our clothes with germs instead of chemicals Or make lights that run on glowing bacteria instead of electricity Inventors designers and kids are all asking advice from nature and working on innovations that will let us live in better harmony with our world Want to see how Grab your friends and your magnifying glass and come take a peek inside nature’s toolbox Seashells are not just strong they come in just about every size shape and color you can imagine How’s that for great design Viktoriianovokhatka Getty Images 66
Once my husband and I went on a six-month-long camping trip Our only shelter was our tent We woke with the sun and went to bed as it got dark We didn’t waste a drop of water We fit ourselves into the natural cycle But we sometimes wished for a warm room and a large pizza DAVE CLENDENAN Sometimes I shower with a tree frog My family is building a house on a forested hill and for now our shower is outside Tiny green tree frogs like to hang out in it on hot days leaning against my damp facecloth to stay cool Sharing my shower with these delicate creatures has made me think hard about how we treat our planet DOUGLAS WOOLCOCK TEKAYGE SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Chapter One Inventions Gone Wild The secrets to a sustainable world are all around us Janine Benyus cofounder The Biomimicry Institute How does nature design How does nature design Biomimicry is the scientific term for copying nature not only to solve human problems but also to help protect our planet Bio means life and mimicry means the action of imitating so put them together and you’ve got the science of copying nature Everything from the largest mammals to the tiniest bacteria has spent millions of years figuring out how to work with the natural cycles of the planet It’s pretty neat that nature runs on sunlight and water Humans on the other hand use fossil fuels and toxic chemicals Nature wastes nothing but humans have left garbage pretty much everywhere on Earth The great news is we can change our ways There are solutions We just have to ask nature Take something as common as a leaf A leaf gains its energy to grow from the sun By studying the structure of a leaf we can learn more about how the leaf does this Then we can take our There’s more to a leaf than we can see at first glance KYRYL GORLOV GETTY IMAGES 88
Children of all ages have come up with inventions and designs that help protect the environment ARIEL SKELLEY GETTY IMAGES new knowledge one step further and apply it to something we need such as a more efficient solar panel There are scientists working on that idea right now If we want to know how to make less-toxic glue or how to create brilliant color nature is a fantastic teacher When engi neers designers architects or scientists look to nature to solve problems they are using biomimicry Humans love to invent and we’ve dreamed up many amazing things to make our lives easier and better It’s hard to imagine a world without computers and cars But at the same time our creations have changed our climate and polluted our world Before we dive in to learning how nature designs let’s look at how humans have gone from fitting into the environment by using what’s available to taking too many resources from the earth without thinking about what might happen in the future and how the explosion of new technologies and materials has changed our world for good and for bad 9
