Are the solutions to our environmental problems already present on our planet? How far can replicating natural processes help us in reducing our environmental impact? The earth’s climate has been regulated for billion years by numerous natural processes. As Janine Benyus suggests, “After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival [1].” Even today’s anthropogenic change has been dampened by the ability of ecosystems to absorb undesirable emissions and resource stress. Indeed, who’s to say that nature won’t regulate our impact itself without the help of innovation? This is a highly unlikely scenario, mainly due to our incessant destruction of our nature for capital gain – as environmentalist Paul Hawken puts it: “At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present and calling it GDP [2].” The reproduction of natural processes and design – ‘biomimicry’ – may offer the opportunity for us to work parallel to nature.
Biomimicry already has many applications – intelligent building design, aircraft and even simple inventions such as Velcro. One of the most exciting ideas presently being explored is cleanly harnessing the sun’s energy for consumption via the process of photosynthesis. This is nature’s method of energy production, which not only produces clean energy using sunlight (it’s only bi-product being oxygen), but also uses carbon dioxide in its production. In theory this sounds like an effective option in solving two of our most pressing issues – producing enough energy to sustain our seemingly ever-increasing global population, whilst reducing the presence of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. But up until recently, harnessing this energy into a useful form has been problematic and relatively low-scale. The use of cyanobacteria could provide this shift to mass production. Cyanobacteria are widely recognised as responsible for the ‘oxygen revolution [3]’, which provided conditions favourable for complex life. Their use in energy production, converting carbon dioxide and sunlight into ethanol, could be the most successful reproduction of nature yet, particularly in terms of dealing with our most pressing issues. For example, Joule Unlimited recently opened a pilot plant in New Mexico [4], and this could offer a possible blueprint for large-scale production.
There are of course a number of potential hurdles to overcome. Firstly such methods can be costly operations. Organisms need to be genetically modified to enhance photosynthesis whilst curbing their propensity to reproduce so that energy is used efficiently. Ethical barriers may also exist, as with any ‘God-playing’ ventures. It is difficult to know where to draw the line in terms of genetically engineering natural organisms for our benefit. As with any GM production, there are likely to be question marks over its morality. Efforts are being made to overcome this by producing ‘artificial leaves [5]’ at MIT, but this technology is far from ready for mass production.
Whilst still in its early days, energy production via biomimicry shows great promise, as displayed in existing reproductions of nature. Using these methods to tackle energy issues may require a shift in ethical values, and an acceptance that whilst we are exploiting nature for our own benefit, we are doing so to preserve the environment in which we and all living organisms live.
Learn more about other alternative sources of energy and how they could help harness power within your home.
[1] http://biomimicry.net/about/biomimicry/janines-book/chapter-one/
[2] http://www.up.edu/commencement/default.aspx?cid=9456
[3] http://io9.com/5874963/meet-the-molecule-responsible-for-giving-earth-all-of-its-oxygen
[4] http://www2.technologyreview.com/tr50/jouleunlimited/
[5] http://www.geek.com/geek-cetera/scientists-harnessing-photosynthesis-to-produce-fuel-cells-via-artificial-leaf-1448863/
