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central
enterprise of the years ahead. Leading that effort is a growing
movement of
bioneers, biological pioneers who are using nature to heal nature, and
working
with
individuals, communities, business, and governments to implement real
change.
Offering practical solutions for virtually all our critical
environmental
problems,
these working models hold keys to planetary survival that can be
refined,
replicated, and rapidly spread around the world. Biology is indeed
destiny,
and
the survival of humankind rests upon our ability to live within the
limits of
the
natural world. Impassioned visionaries, the bioneers are pointing the
way.
What
People Are Saying About Restoring the Earth "Restoring the Earth is
a guide to
a
future that works - a future that's healthy and sustainable and
magnificently
beautiful. Restoring the Earth shines a beacon of hope and clarity."
(John
Robbins,
author of Reclaiming Our Health and Diet for a New America)
"Restoring the
Earth
is about wise guides and heroes - people whose lives embody solutions
to our
ecological crisis. If you've ever wondered what you can do to restore
the Earth,
read this book." (Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Prayer is Good
Medicine and
Healing
Words) "Restoring the Earth is full of concrete examples of how
ecological
pioneers are rising to the great challenge of our timecreating
sustainable
communities. This wonderful book gives us hope and inspires us to
become
bioneers
ourselves." (Fritjof Capra, author of The Web of Life) "Restoring
the Earth is
a
Declaration of Interdependence that is not to be missed - a road map
to a future
we
world all want to live in."(Jim Hightower, Progressive populist radio
host and
commentator) "Restoring the Earth tells the stories of present-day
pioneers
who
see the world in an entirely novel way. From their vision, an
extraordinary new
world is emerging." (Paul Hawken, author of The Ecology of Commerce)
About the Author : Kenny Ausubel is a filmmaker, entrepreneur, and
author. It
was
his vision that founded the company Seeds of Changes, a pioneer
enterprise that
markets heirloom seeds to backyard gardeners in an effort to preserve
the
bio-diversity of our food supply. He is the co-founder of the Bioneers
conference,
an annual event that attracts leading restoration ecologists from
around the
world.
He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife Nina.
Excerpted from Restoring the Earth : Visionary Solutions from the
Bioneers by
Ken
Ausubel and Kenny Ausubel. : The signs are everywhere, when you know
where to
look.
Like grass sprouting thorough the pavement, the force of life is
reclaiming the
earth and infiltrating culture the moment the machines go silent and
their
guards
fall asleep. Awareness of the inevitability of global restoration is
spreading
steadily among giant corporations, government institutions, grassroots
activists,
and individuals and communities around the world. Restoring the
Earth is
destined
to be the central enterprise of the years ahead, and leading the
effort is a
growing
movement of bioneers, biological pioneers who are using nature to heal
nature.
As
environmental restoration emerges as a major global industry, the
bioneers are
acting as the pilot fish guiding the dynamic transition to a future
environment
of
hope. Through it is not widely known, the bioneers have devised
practical
solutions
for virtually all our crucial environmental problems, and the problems
are truly
grave. Brother Can You Spare a Paradigm? Try as we might, human
beings have
been
unable to repeal the law of gravity or regulate the weather. In that
sense,
biology
is indeed destiny, as the ultimate fate of our species rests upon our
ability to
live within the limits of the natural world. As we witness the
widespread
degradation of the basic life-support system upon which human and all
biological
life depends, we are realizing that Earth itself is stronger than we
can imagine
and
will certainly survive our folly. But human beings as a species may
not prevail,
and
we are permanently destroying countless other species in a cascade of
extinction
bearing the unprecedented mark of the human hand. Many scientific
experts tell
us
that we have only the decade of the 1990s to launch a fundamental
reversal of
the
devastating damage we have visited upon Earth.
1. Environmental conditions are also precipitating mounting political
crises, as
journalist Robert Kaplan disturbingly illustrated in his article The
Coming
Anarchy.
Characterizing the environment as a hostile power, he wrote, "For a
while the
media
will continue to ascribe riots and other violent upheavals abroad
mainly to
ethnic
and religious conflict. But as these conflicts multiply it will become
apparent
that
something else is afoot, making more and more places like Nigeria,
India, and
Brazil
ungovernable. It is time to understand the environment for what it is:
the
national
security issue of the early twenty-first century. The political and
strategic
impact
of surging populations, spreading disease, deforestation and soil
erosion, water
depletion, air pollution, and, possibly, rising sea levels in
critical,
overcrowded
regions like the Nile Delta and Bangladesh - developments that will
prompt mass
migrations and, in turn, incite group conflicts - will be the core
foreign-policy
challenge from which most others will ultimately emanate, arousing the
public
and
uniting assorted interests over from the Cold War."
2. How have our advanced science and technology led our society to the
brink of
the
most unnatural disaster? What is our place in the natural world? How
do we set
about
restoring Earth, our home? In fact, practical solutions do exist for
almost
all
our environmental problems. Dedicated bands of bioneers have been
persistent in
creating and demonstrating innovative models. They span fields as
divergent as
restorative agriculture, ecological design, power generation, water
purification,
natural medicine biodiversity conservation, economic renewal, cultural
revival,
and
spiritual politics. They have produced successful prototypes and shown
their
effectiveness. These working models hold the keys to our survival and
can be
refined, replicated, and rapidly spread around the world. The
optimistic bioneer
vision is already empowering individuals, communities, groups, and
companies to
act
as a primary force in the fabric of restoration. The bioneers herald
a coming
Age
of Biology, one in which as human beings we ground our lives within
the limits
of
the natural world. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and we
are
learning
to emulate natural systems to fashion benign technologies and just
forms of
social
organization. Above all, the bioneers call for us to grow a culture
that
connects
with the sanctity of all life through the heart of nature. The
Superb Art of
Relationship Biology is not rocket science. It if far more complex
and subtle
than
the physics of sending metal to the moon. Ecology is the superb art of
relationship
in the fantastically elaborate web of life. As geneticist David T.
Suzuki
observes,
In fact, so exquisitely orchestrated is this global system of flowing
energy and
matter that the biosphere as a whole seems at times to have the
self-perpetuation
qualities that we normally associate only with intact living
organisms. The
entire
Earth, within its extraordinary capacity (within limits) to regulate
and
maintain
its own global ecological balance, acts as if it were a single great
superorganism
of planetary proportions.
3. This concept, elaborated as the Gaia Hypothesis by scientists James
Lovelock
and
Lynn Margulis, views the very Earth as a whole living system that is
self-regulating.
4. Margulis, a revolutionary microbiologist who has spent her life
studying
bacteria, happily underscores the fact that we live in a microbial
world. Our
bodies
may be little more than convenient hosts for the
three-and-a-half-billion-year-old
microbial community. Microbes, which make up at least 80 percent of
the Earth's
biomass, are now believed to have been the dominant player in creating
and
arranging
the rocks, seas, oil, soils gases, metals, and minerals of the Earth's
surface.
5. Without these organisms, all life would cease because decomposition
would no
longer occur and we would be buried in a matter of weeks under a heap
of eternal
biomass. Perhaps we should learn some respect for this invisible
microbial
polyverse, which cohabits our own universe and generously harbor us as
guests.
The
mystery of life and living organisms is probably so intricate and
profound as to
be
ultimately unknowable by human beings. Esteemed Harvard biologist
Edward O.
Wilson
paints this remarkable tableau of biological relationships among
leafcutter ants
and
fungi: The leafcutter colony is a single organism. The superorganism's
brain is
the
entire colony.Through a unique step in evolution taken millions of
years ago,
the
ants captured a fungus, incorporated it into the superorganism, and so
gained
the
power to digest leaves. Or perhaps the relationship is the other way
around.
Perhaps
the fungus captured the ants and employed them as a mobile extension
to take
leaves
into the moist underground chambers. In any case, the two now own
each other
and
will never pull apart. The ant-fungus combination is one of evolutions
master
clockworks, tireless, repetitive and precise, more complicated than
any human
invention and unimaginably old.
6. It is this sort of model of symbiosis that infuses the work of the
bioneers.
Their solution mimic natural forms and systems with biomorphic
(imitating
biological
forms) technologies based on nature and containing live intelligence.
They
embody
complex dynamic systems characterized by constant change. Bioneer
systems have a
pulse. They are alive and sovereign.
Customer Comments : A reader from Houston TX , October 27, 1998 A
resource book
that inspires This book gave me a positive pre-view of the future I
always
hoped
could be. For example, In the references for one of the chapters on
finances I
found
several mutual funds operated by environmental friendly companies.
These
eco-mutual
funds have made me money and a percentage of the profits the funds
earn go to
very
respectable environmental 'charities' etc. Read this book if you want
to find a
way
to feel good about what you investments are doing! A reader from
Vancouver ,
October 5, 1998 Exceptional, truly visionary! The solutions to local
and
global
challenges are the PEOPLE featured here. >From architecture to
medicine to
agriculture, this book offers leading-edge problem-solvers who will
knock your
socks
offhand teach you much in the process. Get ready to re-vision the
world I find
inspiration in every chapter, and can't wait for the world to feast
here as I
have.
The author shows a deep understanding of a number of disciplines that,
together,
present a systemic view of how we might move forward. A must read for
teachers,
college students, and parents concerned about the world their children
will
inherit.
eliz at sgi.com from Palo Alto, CA , November 22, 1997 Don't miss this
book!
Ausubel's Restoring the Earth is vital, inspiring, and unique. In
reading it,
you
will see the future of agriculture, design, medicine, and much more.
For once, a
book that fluidly merges and illuminates both social and environmental
realities.
For once, instead of simply depressing you or just screaming "somebody
do
something!"--it addresses these urgent realities with exciting
solutions that
are
*already* tried and true. This is more than a lucid, intelligent
outline of our
planet's most pressing circumstances, it is a series of well-written
stories
about
today's visionaries: innovative, real people that have come up with
almost
magical
solutions to save biodiversity and money at the same time. Reading
Ausubel's
book is
a great way to be educated and uplifted at the same time.
Lawrence F. London, Jr. Venaura Farm
intergarden.com InterGarden
metalab.unc.edu/intergarden InterGarden
metalab.unc.edu/permaculture PermaSphere
metalab.unc.edu/intergarden/orgfarm AGINFO
lflondon at mindspring.com london at metalab.unc.edu
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