It is important to note that natural systems developed this remarkable ability to recycle only through millennia of trial and error. For example, when some bacteria first began to photosynthesize, the highly reactive free oxygen they produced was toxic to all living creatures. As it built up in the atmosphere, this led to a crisis known as the Oxygen Catastrophe. In response, new organisms evolved that could not only tolerate oxygen but even use it in their metabolism. But this took about 400 million years.

Humans are affecting the biosphere at a much faster rate, so we do not have the luxury of millions of years. Luckily we have the ability to adapt much faster as well. We do not always deploy this ability until we are desperate, since our current crude technologies are often simply dreamt up and widely adopted before considering their consequences. To do better we can proceed more proactively, looking to flourishing natural ecosystems as role model, and gauging the effects of each potential new technology or societal shift on the web of relations connecting us to the rest of the biosphere.

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Tomorrow I'll talk about biomimetic technologies. After that: system dynamics, ecological economics, ecological engineering, and the theory of leverage points! If you have any comments, please let me know.

(6/n)