Janine Benyus Quotes.
The more our world functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone.
If we are to use our tools in the service of fitting in on Earth, our basic relationship to nature–even the story we tell ourselves about who we are in the universe–has to change.
Life solves its problems with well-adapted designs, life-friendly chemistry and smart material and energy use.
The answers to how to live sustainably on our planet are all around us.
There are three types of biomimicry – one is copying form and shape, another is copying a process, like photosynthesis in a leaf, and the third is mimicking at an ecosystem’s level, like building a nature-inspired city.
Biologically inspired materials could revolutionize materials science. People looking at spider silk and abalone shells are looking for new ways to make materials better, cheaper, and with less toxic byproducts.
Nature works with five polymers. Only five polymers. In the natural world, life builds from the bottom up, and it builds in resilience and multiple uses.
Organisms don’t think of CO2 as a poison. Plants and organisms that make shells, coral, think of it as a building block.
Listening to nature’s operating instructions.
What if, every time I started to invent something, I asked, ‘How would nature solve this?’
Biomimicry is basically taking a design challenge and then finding an ecosystem that’s already solved that challenge, and literally trying to emulate what you learn.
Water is at the center of every chemical reaction, and therefore should be the earths most precious gift.
Life doesn’t use detergent to clean itself.
Per capita, I would say that Australia has more biomimetic projects going than many other countries I’ve been to.
Virtually all native cultures that have survived without fouling their nests have acknowledged that nature knows best, and have had the humility to ask the bears and wolves and ravens and redwoods for guidance.
Biological knowledge is doubling every five years.
Water is at the center of every chemical reaction, and therefore should be the earth’s most precious gift.
We’re basically this very young species, only 200,000 years old. We’re one of the newcomers, and we’re going through the same process that other species go through, which is, how do I keep myself alive while taking care of the place that’s going to keep my offspring alive?
For the 99 percent of the time we’ve been on Earth, we were hunter and gatherers, our lives dependent on knowing the fine, small details of our world. Deep inside, we still have a longing to be reconnected with the nature that shaped our imagination, our language, our song and dance, our sense of the divine.
Glue actually contaminates recyclables. We throw things in a landfill just because they’re glued together.
There are literally as many ideas as there are organisms.
Life creates conditions conducive to life.
Conserving habitats is a wellspring for the next industrial revolution.
Green chemistry is replacing our industrial chemistry with nature’s recipe book. It’s not easy, because life uses only a subset of the elements in the periodic table. And we use all of them, even the toxic ones.
When the forest and the city are functionally indistinguishable, then we know we have reached sustainability.
