Laws of Nature
Resilient transition
“Many are becoming more conscious of this interdependent reality and the need for coding change in our systems. ”
The laws of nature are true definitions of the world. We are formed as part of the natural world and its billions of atoms, and like everything else in the universe we are interconnected.
The natural world, is our life support system. If we continue to disregard our natural environment pollute and destroy it, we are only harming ourselves. Key to the balance of our social-ecological systems are the way in which we interact with our environment.
Natural ecosystems are one of our most precious resources and are critical for sustaining life on the planet. The rising temperatures are disrupting these vital ecosystems. According to the United Nations biodiversity report, the numbers make grim reading. The hunt for sustainable solutions has speeded up. We have the power to stop the projected ecological catastrophe, but it will require a seismic shift.
For many climate change has already become a daily reality however many still need convincing that a change of direction is crucial. We depend on the success of other lifeforms and a stable climate to flourish and to think otherwise is foolhardy and dangerous.
The future of the planet will require a greater collective vision than ever before. The only way forward is a collective change on a grand scale whilst at the same time considering the individual changes and contributions required. We must make the planet and its natural systems a priority in our collective fight for a better world.
A New World
A zero carbon lifestyle
Half of all carbon emissions in human history have occurred in the last thirty years. In order to maintain average global temperature rises at less than 1.5°C, we need a radical transformation. The scale of the urgent climate challenge is now propelling governments and businesses to take immediate action in order to deliver the zero carbon and resilient transition.
A truly low-carbon world will require a radical rethink of governance and the economic systems. The required footprint reductions in the case of developed countries are at least 47% in nutrition, 68% in housing, and 72% in mobility by 2030 and over 75% in nutrition, 93% in housing, and 96% in mobility by 2050.
The transition to zero carbon means a transformation to a new world. A new reality where change will be more radical than we can begin to imagine. For individuals, focusing efforts on changing lifestyles in the most beneficial areas such as meat and dairy consumption, fossil-fuel based energy, car and air travel.
We cannot prevent greenhouse gas production without re-engineering both our economy and current behaviours. We have moved from climate change to naming it climate urgency. The pace and scale of change needed will challenge our existing systems, and new approaches will need to be invented quickly. Progress has to be fast, and it has to start now.
Why this matters
This decade the environment will be at the forefront of demands from the public, with governments and industries having to adapt to this new altered reality.
Copenhill ski slope/ BIG
The 400-metre long slope covers thee roof of a power plant in Copenhagen.
Solar
Photo by Eric T. White
Nonohouse/Mecanoo
A building that reduces and absorbs harmful nitrogen at The Green Village TU Delft.
Human Change
Psychological barriers
The real fight for the Earth’s future is only just beginning. The most pressing question is how to persuade people to act, and to act now, both on an individual basis and collectively. The challenge before us might not be purely scientific or technical but psychological and goes beyond changing cultural norms.
People have grown tired of hearing about the data and would prefer not to think about climate change and its implications. They want to maintain their habits and reject new information that contradicts their established beliefs. The climate debate is not about carbon dioxide and temperature-change models. It is about biases, values, and ideology. Climate change communication is shaped by our experiences, mental and cultural models, and underlying values and worldviews.
Thinking about environmental threats reminds us of our own mortality, which is difficult to contemplate and yet a stronger apocalyptic tendency is starting to form. Climate change exacerbates inequalities, not only in poor, developing countries, but also in industrialised, wealthier ones. In developing countries, women and girls are disproportionately affected by the negative impacts of climate change. It deepens existing social inequalities and threatens their health, safety, and economic well-being.
Radical change is needed to limit the consequences of climate change, to make people cross psychological barriers they should be informed and encouraged in a positive way, having the motivation to change requires a new set of convictions, ultimately everyone wants to do what is best.
Why this matters
Until we change our values, we are all, in a certain sense, climate change deniers. Can our societies adapt quickly enough?
We Will be Forgotten/ Contra x It’s Freezing in LA
Exhibition exploring ecosystems in the aftermath of conflict and escalating ecological disasters.
Shame Plane/ Studio Grafik+Program
A website which allows you to input where you are flying to and from, revealing the direct harm you will cause to the planet, measured in the metres squared of arctic ice that will melt.
Parallel Lives/ Eva Jack
Eva created a video installation for natural-history institutions. Humans must get behind display glass to experience Parallel Lives, which prompts visitors of natural-history museums to view other species in a different light and create an other angle than our anthropocentric vision of the world.
Beyond Ego
Changing consumerism
We, humans, tend to place ourselves at the centre of the universe and to behave as if we were the superior species. The crisis requires us to face hard truths and limits set by nature while also reimagining the stories we tell ourselves.
Are there too many people to make a sustainable planet? We, humans consume on average 2.8% of our total bodyweight in food, per day. Although humans only account for 0.01% of the biomass on earth, our footprint is hugely out of proportion with this tiny percentage. Ants eat 30% of their total bodyweight. It is the manner of our consumption that is the problem. The focus needs to shift to more ecosystem services than ecosystem consumption. Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits that humans freely access from the natural environment and properly-functioning ecosystems. Properly functioning ecosystems provides us with agricultural produce, timber, clean drinking water and the natural pollination of crops and plants.
Our current consumption is responsible for up to 60 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and between 50 and 80 percent of total land, material, and water usage. Consumer culture, with its emphasis on always buying newer and better products, may be part of what is preventing us from recognising the scope of the climate crisis and making the types of large-scale changes necessary to address the crisis.
Global consumer demand is set to increase significantly over the coming decade, as millions of people in developing countries enter the middle class and have increased spending power. China, India and Africa will take the lead in consumer market growth.
Why this matters
In the coming years climate change is making us rethink the way we eat, dress, travel and work. Consumers will have to make substantial changes to their lifestyles and create a new reality.
Geo-Design: Junk/ Van Abbemuseum
Exhibition that looked at trash and the new landscapes, new global connections, new financial models, new policies and new modes of living around the world it has created.
Repair Service/ Studio Mend
A service that offers the repair of garments which have flaws from long-term use like holes, stains or weakened fabric, a precious trace of your garments lifetime.
Our Desires Fail Us/ JP King and Sean Martindale
The documentary directly confronts the accumulated effects of individual consumer behaviour, acknowledging that everything must go somewhere when there is no away.
Ecological Coexistence
Nature has the answers
Earth is a self-regulating super organism, that will eventually balance itself. When it will be the new norm to prioritise the environment, we will have to reframe our relationship with nature, scrapping the notion of our separation from nature and redefining our ecological coexistence. Maybe the most promising answer lies in returning to nature, in restoring natural forests and utilizing nature’s genius to provide solutions to our manmade problems.
Humanity has changed nature profoundly from microbes to mammoths. Our natural world may be fixable, but it will never be the same. It is in constant flux. Big systemic changes are necessary to evolve with nature and the organisms who fail to adapt to these changes will become extinct.
Geo- and bio-engineering hold the promise of a solution to our problems by modifying living systems. Geo-engineering is climate engineering or climate intervention. Biological engineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products. Policies have to evolve to structure the progress from science and engineering.
Humans have been altering the genetic code of plants and animals for millennia, by selectively breeding for desirable features. The ethics of bioengineering is a complex and challenging issue, as it must blend the ethics of engineering, biology, medicine, and the physical sciences. Protecting the environment could mean we will have to move away from a conservation model of protecting the Earth and change to an evolution model. Nothing in life remains the same, nature and people must evolve.
Why this matters
Nature is leveraged as a solution to climate change. Progress that comes from science, engineering a better future for everyone.
Ideal Plant/ Salk Institute
California’s Salk Institute for Biological Studies is developing a plant that can store excess carbon dioxide in its roots, in a bid to curb the effects of climate change.
Pollination Equipment/ Ance Janevica
A special suit and finger extensions to encourage people to go outside and pollinate flowers to experience the vital role insects play in nature.
Win > < Win/ Rimini Protokoll
The win-win principle allows both sides in an interaction to benefit from it without the other side losing. “We are competing against jellyfish. And they are winning,” says the Australian marine biologist and jellyfish expert Lisa-Ann Gershwin.
Further reading
Neo Life/ by Jane Metcalfe and Brian Bergstein
25 Visions for the Future of Our Species. A collection of 25 essays, interviews, and works of fiction and art offering a big-picture perspective on the profound changes made possible by the merging of biology and technology.
This is Not a Drill/ by Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion are inspiring you to be part of the movement and take action now on climate breakdown. Extinction Rebellion is a global activist movement demanding change and action.
Drawdown, the Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming/ Paul Hawken
The 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming, based on the research by leading scientists and policymakers around the world.
Broken Nature/ Paola Antonelli & Ala Tannir
Exhibition catalog that highlights objects and concepts that reconsider humans' relationship with their environment, including research into both natural and social ecosystems.