Janine Benyus and Biomimicry: Heroes at The 11th Hour

The 11th Hour

I first heard about Janine Benyus and Biomimicry whilst watching The 11th Hour, an environmental awareness film produced and narrated by Leonardo Dicaprio. A documentary-style feature, the film opens with a devastating photomontage of destruction, inter-sliced with commentary from leading scientists and thinkers trying to find solutions to our current state of environmental despair.

Although I found it difficult to take the narration seriously, somehow never quite able to shake the image of Leonardo and Kate quivering on the bow of the Titanic, I do of course applaud the intentions behind the film.

I originally saw it when it first came out, but rented it once again the other day, purely because I wanted to hear more about Benyus and her work in Biomimicry. More specifically, I wanted to listen to her lecture to be found under the DVD’s extras.

Climate Change and The Goldilocks Effect

When scientists talk about the Goldilocks Effect, they’re talking about the factors that would make a planet a likely candidate to host life. In other words, why is there life on earth and not on other planets?

What they’re actually referring to is the distance of the earth from the sun. Almost like the porridge, it’s not to near, not too far, but just right. This perfect balance is very much akin to the harmony found in nature between organisms and systems, each one feeding off the other in a perpetual cycle of life and death. It is the existence of these mutualisms that has allowed organisms to either live, and thrive, or die. Global warming and climate change are now threatening this delicate equilibrium.

The Human Mind and its God Complex

With the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s, we witnessed a shift in how we conducted our lives here on earth. According to scientists, the difference lies in the change from using Current Sunlight to Ancient Sunlight. For thousands of years, the human species used Current Sunlight in order to survive. Governed by natural cycles, we operated on an early to bed, early to rise principal, much like other natural organisms. On the other hand, with the discovery of Ancient Sunlight (oil and fossil fuels), we started using non-renewable sources of energy. Suddenly, we were no longer in synch with Life’s natural rhythms.

Adopting this anthropocentric approach, we became disconnected and started not only to believe, but also demand, a higher ranking in Life’s priorities. Religious texts only confirmed and bolstered our belief in our own superiority and of our dominion here on earth.

This new knowledge, coupled with our own opportunism and greed, led to an acceleration in our history. Now that we were able to clothe, feed and heal with new, advanced technologies, we had a much higher survival rate, with life expectancies suddenly shooting up. In fact, just before the 1800s, we had reached our first billion. This figure doubled in a mere 130 years, and 30 years later, in the 1960s, we’d grown by another billion. That’s a staggering extra 2 billion people in 160 years.

Heat, Beat and Treat

Because of using these non-regenerative forms of energy, we have had to adopt what is known as Heat, Beat & Treat in our design and manufacturing processes.  This system is aggresive, energy draining and wasteful. Not only that, it simlply isn’t sustainable. The mainstay of our industrial civilisation was based on the premise that nature was not only a commodity, but also limitless, which we now know to be fundamentally untrue. Instead of living in symbiosis with our natural environment, we have been beating it into submission. With mother nature on the brink of unleashing her fury, we have reached a tipping point in our existence, and the race for survival has begun.

In comes Benyus, author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (William Morrow, 1997), challenging conventional thinking about how we design and create our materials and products. She delivers her message of hope with such love and conviction, that it has me wondering why I never had the good luck of a teacher such as her, sadly dropping both biology and science in Grade 10

Biomimicry: Nature as Model, Measure and Mentor

Blue Water Lily

Biomimicry is a multi-disciplinary approach that sees the collaboration of a wide range of fields, including design, architecture, engineering, science & technology, and even art. “Nature cannot afford brute force,” says Benyus, and instead of working against it, we need to ask the question “how would life do this?” She feels that 3.8 billion years of success has proven that there are alternative methods of creation and production, and it is therefore nature that we should use not only as a model, but also something against which we should measure our innovations.

By listening to life’s lessons, we will learn how to make cleaner, better-adapted designs. Benyus tells us that in nature, organisms thrive through optimizing, rather than maximizing. They do chemistry in water, self-assembling by using the least amount of free energy possible, all the while depending on local expertise in a spirit of cooperation and diversity.

So how does the spider make a material that is comparatively five times stronger than steel? And how does the abalone make its shell, a substance twice as a strong as our best industrial ceramics? What about the Blue Mussel that can stick to a rock with an adhesive substance that can dry underwater? Most importantly, how do they manage to do all this in way that is non-toxic, silent and at room temperature?

By closely studying nature’s examples, we will truely be able to move towards a cohesive, clean and sustainable future. This full-integrated approach to our manufacturing will allow us to feed, clothe and heal ourselves using only the lowest impact, energy-efficient processes. From losing 50 to 55 thousand species to extinction every year, we should “begin to see ourselves as simply a species among species, as one vote in a parliament of 30 million“.

Biomimicry, the Individual and the Lesson in Humility

One of the most exciting aspects of biomimicry is the role that individuals have to play. Drawing on your own observations in nature, you will be able to come to your own conclusions. From finding new ways in which you lead your life to discovering more efficient techniques, these investigations are no longer just the realm of scientists. Each one one of us stands naked and humbled before nature.

Benyus believes that in the end, “biomimicry’s greatest legacy will be more than a stronger fibre or new drug. It will be gratitude, and from this, an ardent desire to protect the genius that surrounds us”. She continues her work in the field of biomimicry as a writer, teacher and lecturer. You can find out more about her efforts at the Biomimicry Guild, of which she is co-founder. In the meantime, go outside and see for yourself.