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Regenerative farming is essentially farming in a way that regenerates soil health.

After decades of intensive, monoculture farming, many farms have degraded the microbes and other living things found in their soil. Now more and more farmers are transitioning to regenerative methods (such as planting multiple types of plants together) and seeing beneficial results.

The extra bonus is that these methods create a varied landscape of plants and flowers that are great for bee populations.

“Ultimately, to move into the 21st century, to be able to cope with the big challenges we have we need a healthier soil base.”

Thanks to @what-the-hellamidoing for sending this in!

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REGENERATIVE FUTURES

KEY QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON:

How has your sustainability thinking changed throughout the semester?

What were your key learnings and ‘aha’ moments?

How will you bring these ideas into your own practice?

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This mural in Valparaíso, Chile reads: “engrandece al mundo, hazlo bello y cuando te hayas ido deja que la tierra te extrañe” which loosely translates to “make the world great, make it beautiful, and when you’re gone, let it miss you”. 

Valparaíso is a city struggling with wildfires that frequently hit favelas on the outskirts of the city - and these disasters are only made worse with overcrowded housing, huge landfills, and poor sanitation (Rushton 2018).

The Movimiento Valparaíso Ciudadano, or Valparaíso Citizens Movement, have been tackling wildfires since its election in 2016. A coalition of feminists, ecologists, labour unions, and local co-ops, the Movement operates on a platform of social inclusion, and its coming into power “represented a political earthquake” in Chile’s previously neoliberal history (Rushton 2018).

Seeing as Chile also saw a student movement hit the streets in 2011, it’s heartening to see efforts to deal with climate change impacts come from the bottom-up. I started this semester with a cynical outlook on what the future might look like, thinking that big governments and corporations had too much power for anyone to challenge them.

However, activists in Valparaíso are re-imagining a future where those most vulnerable to climate change aren’t left out as the city develops - and where hierarchies between humans and nature no longer exist (Rushton 2018). The message of the mural in this image is clear: people should spend their time on earth helping it flourish in such a way that their contribution is missed after they’re gone. In a city where people have banded together to heal their relationships between each other and with the natural world, the notion of living a contributive existence is as beautiful as it is powerful.

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KEY IDEAS

THERE IS POWER IS SELF-ORGANISATION

A main principle of the ecological worldview is that the world is not only being shaped by governments and organisations, but also by the actions and interactions of individual people and other agents (Hes & du Plessis 2015, p. 216). This means that individuals are able to spread new ideas and galvanise behaviour change throughout a system, create collective behaviours through self-organisation, or create new structures within complex systems (p. 216). This means that, as past and present social movements have demonstrated, the role of the individual in bringing about social and environmental change should never be forgotten, as individuals play a crucial role even in seemingly chaotic systems.

POSITIVE RECIPROCITY

Stemming from the notion that individual actions can have positive ripple effects is the value of positive reciprocity. This “is not just about reciprocating in kind, but about reciprocating in a way that is of benefit to and advances the relationship between self and extended self” (Hes & du Plessis 2015, p. 217). In other words, regenerative thinking involves living with a benefit mindset - for example, by considering how my actions can contribute to the betterment of the ecological systems I live in.

REMEMBER YOUR PLACE!

A final key take-away lesson involves re-thinking the relationship between humans and other living beings. By remembering our place as a part of nature, humans can act to protect the environment from a place of love. By drawing from Indigenous knowledge systems that view Country as a holistic network of elements that nourish each other, we can work towards re-framing an anthropocentric, mechanistic worldview into one that sees all living beings as interdependent.

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MY FUTURE PRACTICE

Moving forward, there are several ideas from this subject that I will carry with me (for the rest of my life, I hope)

Be the hummingbird. As Hes & du Plessis (2015) mention in the story about the hummingbird, no action is ever too small to have an impact. Instead of getting caught up in the scale of the problems the world is facing, I will aim to work with what is directly in my sphere of influence - taking inspiration from the German poet Rilke who said “I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world” (Hes & du Plessis 2015, p. 215).

Look to nature for mentors and partners. Regardless of what turns my sustainability career ends up taking, I will look to nature to find solutions for any problems that may arise. I have already found biomimicry to be a useful concept in an urban planning subject I took this semester, for example, where the idea of following the laws of natural systems was a welcome change from the mechanistic thinking of the academic canon that the subject was rooted in. I’m sure that regenerative concepts will be an indispensable set of tools I’ll use in my career (and in my daily life!)

As cheesy as it sounds… stay hopeful. If there is one final message to take away from this subject, it’s that my view of the world doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. This subject had me looking for opportunities where in the past I may have only seen problems - and I plan on taking this radical hope with me long into the future.

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[White supremacy] presumes the superior way of understanding the world, through the word ‘science,’ which is charged with meaning. When we Native people use the word science, we mean something different. It’s similar, but it’s based on different assumptions and understandings. 'Science' simply means the accumulation of knowledge, and we do that in much the same ways. Knowledge, how you understand the world, is based on observation and interaction with the world. And that’s what Native people have been doing for thousands of years.

Dina Gilio-Whitaker, Indigenous scholar from the US, on the role of Indigenous knowledge in tackling climate change

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COLLABORATING WITH NATURE

KEY QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON:

What does it mean for you to collaborate with nature?

How have ideas of Biophilia and Biomimicry enriched your thinking and approach to your practice?

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Years ago, as I found myself delving into the world of reading fiction, I came across a genre completely new to me: solarpunk. Unlike its more dystopian science-fiction siblings - the cyberpunk and steampunk genres borne out of the ‘punk’ ideologies and anxieties of the 1970s and ‘80s  - solarpunk imagines an alternative future “that requires radical societal change” (Ketchell 2019). 

Instead of imagining a grim future for the planet, solarpunk offers an image of a world that is “in harmony with nature” (Basinski 2019).  This is a society that that has eschewed fossil fuels in favour of a full transition to renewables like solar energy (where the movement gets its name), and ponders the question of what this new society may look like (Ketchell 2019).

Solarpunk worlds have been conceptualised in various ways, but these visions often converge on multiple points: buildings covered in solar panels and greenery, the absence of large-scale industry,  and blends of “African and Asian aesthetic and cultural influences… in an effort to create a less mercilessly westernised image of what the world might become” (Basinski 2019).

Although solarpunk has also extended into an activist movement, it is the genre and aesthetic that I see the concepts of Biophilia and Biomimicry reflected in. As depicted in the image,* humans can look to nature as a mentor for guiding our designs and processes (Hes & Plessis 2015) - and perhaps, by emulating the wisdom of nature, we can work towards creating a world in which we spend our days drenched in sunlight, our trams float along rivers rather than concrete, and our buildings look more like treehouses than skyscrapers.

* Teikoku Shonen

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KEY IDEAS

BIOPHILIC DESIGN

Our visit to the Royal Park Nature Playground and the Children’s Hospital was  my favourite site visit for a couple of reasons: the playground fostered a sense of play as we looked for the 14 Principles, and the hospital showed us how biophilic design can create truly beautiful, rejuvenating spaces.

By tapping into the relationship between nature and human biology, biophilic design patterns can improve human wellbeing through their impacts on stress reduction, cognitive performance, and emotion and mood (Browning et al. 2014). Designers can even create micro-restorative experiences for people, like through “moments of sensory contact with nature” through a window or aquarium, as the hospital did so effectively (Browning et al. 2014, p. 17).

MENTORS IN NATURE

In order for humans to ‘remember’ our place as a part of nature, not separate from it, Hes & Plessis (2015) assert that we “also need to learn how to ‘do’ like nature” (p. 74). When trying to solve design and planning problems, for example, we can look to see how other organisms solve similar problems, and apply these lessons to the built environment. By following the laws of natural systems, we can direct our efforts into regenerating ourselves and the living systems around us (Hes & Plessis 2015).

PARTNERING WITH NATURE

A prime example of forming design partnerships with nature is the living machine (Hes & Plessis 2015). This concept stemmed from John Todd and other members of the New Alchemy Institute, who wanted to find a mutually beneficial way for humans to exist in the biosphere (Hes & Plessis 2015).

Their work on the problem of water treatment in the late 1980s was fascinating - by creating a series of self-contained networks of ecological systems, Todd and others had created a machine in which aquatic organisms could purify water (Hes & Plessis 2015) The living machine mimics nature’s laws to great effect, having been used successfully to treat sewage in single buildings, municipal treatment works, and treatment of factory effluent (Hes & Plessis 2015).

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MY FUTURE PRACTICE

As I work towards becoming more mindful of my place in nature, there are several ideas I want to keep in mind:

Remember that no matter what type of sustainability problem I may encounter in my life and career, nature (probably) has an answer. I should look to nature for inspiration as often as possible.

Incorporate nature into my daily life. Although thinking of the ‘bigger picture’ is essential for creating regenerative societies, I can still make an  effort to rejuvenate myself through spending time in nature - at least until biophilic design in the built environment becomes as ubiquitous as it ought to be.

Finally, I want to keep dreaming of what a solarpunk future may look like, whilst at the same time focusing on what can be done right now to make sure that that imagined future will one day become reality. I can follow the lead of other solarpunk activists who have become living embodiments of their hope for a better future - from establishing community gardens and green spaces to taking on collective action against larger structures, like oil companies and rampant capitalism, that might impede their progress (Basinski 2019). In other words, I must live out the radical hope that others have inspired.

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A song that is as much about being in love with a person as it is about being in love with rivers, water, and nature.

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You’ve heard of the hacker slogan “move fast and break things”? Solarpunk should move quietly and plant things. Don’t ask permission from a state beholden to oligarchs, and definitely don’t expect those oligarchs to do any of this for you. Guerilla gardening is the model, but look further. Guerilla solar panel installation. Guerilla water treatment facility restoration. Guerilla magnificent temple to the human spirit construction. Guerilla carbon sequestration megastructure creation. Figure out what a community needs to be prosperous, peaceful and sustainable in as long a term as you can wrap your head around, and start building whatever piece is most in reach before the absent state notices.

Andrew Dana Hudson

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REFERENCES

Basinski, A 2019, ‘You’ve heard of cyberpunk and steampunk, but what’s solarpunk?’, Medium, available at https://medium.com/@ajbasinski/youve-heard-of-cyberpunk-and-steampunk-but-what-s-solarpunk-e0e472bd9c

Browning, W, et al 2014, ’14 Patterns of Biophilic Design’, New York, Terrapin Bright Green, LLC.

Hes, D & Plessis, C 2015, ‘Chapter 4 - Working with nature’, in Designing for Hope: Pathways to Regenerative sustainability, Routledge, pp. 73–91, accessed from from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/lib/unimelb/reader.action?ppg=74&docID=1818203&tm=1485988437093

Hudson, A 2015, ‘On the Political Dimensions of Solarpunk’, Medium, available at https://medium.com/solarpunks/on-the-political-dimensions-of-solarpunk-c5a7b4bf8df4

Ketchell, M 2019, ‘Explainer: ‘solar punk’, or how to be an optimistic radical, The Conversation, available at http://theconversation.com/explainer-solarpunk-or-how-to-be-an-optimistic-radical-80275

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I watched this tonight on PBS Newshours.  It is a wonderful story about a playground designed for children, of all ages, who have a wide range of disabilities.  And it’s thanks to a MOTHER who wanted a place where her daughter could swing on swing and have a public place where she could enjoy the fun and activity she could easily and safely take part in.  PLEASE WATCH.

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My Solarpunk Manifesto

My solarpunk is not just about flower-covered fashion and far-off futures.

My solarpunk is about sustainability, about community, about anti-capitalism. It encompasses ecofeminism, afrofuturism, radical queer politics.

My solarpunk is about urban gardening and renewable energy, about food sovereignty, and public transportation. It’s solarpunk to take the bus. It’s solarpunk to buy used clothes.

My solarpunk rejects current notions of “environmentalism” that place rich, privileged people at the top. My solarpunk realizes that it is the rich that create environmental disasters and the poor that suffers. My solarpunk realizes that radical change will not come from the corporations, but from the bottom up, from the inner cities and the reservations and the slums.

My solarpunk stands with indigenous sovereignties, with reproductive justice, with antiracism, with anticonsumption, with unions, with liberation theology.

My solarpunk realizes that the world is deeply, deeply flawed. But my solarpunk believes that there is hope, and that hope will come from the communal, not from the corporate.

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But seriously, when we got our property, it was all just…grass. A sterile grass moonscape, like a billion other yards. With two big old maple trees. Just grass and maples, that was it. 

But then I got my grubby little paws on it, and I immediately stopped fertilizing, spraying, and bagging up grass clippings and leaves. I ripped up sod and put in flowers and vegetables. I put down nice thick blankets of mulch around the flowers and vegetables. 

When I first was sweating my way through stripping sod, I saw a grand total of 1 worm and 0 ladybugs. The ground was compacted into something that would bend shovel blades. 

Now, six years later, I can’t dig a planting hole without turning up fourteen earthworms, and there are so many ladybugs here. Not the invasive asian lady beetles; native ladybugs. They winter over in the mulch and in the brush pile. I see thousands of them. 

The soil is soft and rich. There are birds that come to eat, and bees of many sorts.

Like this is something that you, yourself, can absolutely change. This is something that you, personally, can make a difference in.