Page 4 RAIN July/August 1984 Ecology as the Basis of Design by Nancy Jack Todd and John Todd More than a decade ago, as I was reading the authors' biographies in Scientific American, I discovered that John Todd was a co-founder of the New Alchemy Institute. As I subsequently read more about the institute, its work intrigued me. New Alchemy's motto was "To restore the land, protect the seas, and inform the Earth's stewards." The laboratories where they tested and displayed their ideas about integrated living systems were called Arks. Here were professional scientists who were redefining the role of the scientist, venturing into new areas, and integrating their knowledge. In Bioshelters, Ocean Arks, City Farming, Nancy Jack Todd and John Todd present a synthesis of what they have learned over the years. Ecological design, according to the Todds, is "design for human settlements that incorporates principles inherent in the natural world in order to sustain human populations over a long span of time. This design adapts the wisdom and strategies of the natural world to human problems." The nine precepts of ecological design, which the Todds develop and explain in this book, are: . □ The living world is the matrix for all design □ Design should follow, not oppose, the laws of life □ Biological equity must determine design □ Design must reflect bioregionality □ Projects should be based on renewable energy sources □ Design should be sustainable through the integration of living systems □ Design should be coevolutionary with the natural world □ Building and design should help heal the planet □ Design should follow a sacred ecology In the section on biological equity, the Todds relate the fascinating story of their "Biological Hope Ship": "The idea was that the boat would produce and transport biological materials like seeds, plants, trees, and fish to impoverished areas with the hope of reviving the local biological support base and thereby imptoving the means for the human population to sustain itself." The concept evolved into the Ocean Pickup— intended to be as useful as its land counterpart. Several technological innovations helped make the ship light and sturdy, as well as inexpensive and easy to build. (For more information, write to Ocean Arks International, 10 Shanks Pond Road, Falmouth, MA 02540.) In the first excerpt below, the Todds demonstrate their ccmviction that "an area as comprehensive as a landscape can in many cases be restored with a wise use of scientific information and biological tools in place of capital-intensive strategies." The second excerpt—-which the Todds use to illustrate their ninth precept—echoes the second part of the book, "Redesigning Communities." There is a lot of useful information here, particularly on growing food and purifying water in the city. If there are any flaws in the book, they are in the last chapter, "The Surrounding Landscape," which is considerably weaker than the rest of the book. Here, the Todds leave their main areas of expertise to discuss the history ofagriculture and the nuclear risk. In all, this book is a valuable contribution. How wonderful it would be if the Todds' precepts of ecological design were part of everyone's education! —TK Excerpted by permission of.Sierra Club Books from Bioshelters, Ocean Arks, City Farming, by Nancy Jack Todd and John Todd, 1984, 224 pp., $10.95 from: Sierra Club Books, 2034 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94115. Although there are few areas in the world where the primal ecological integrity has not been violated, it is our hypothesis that there is a chance that the ancient ecology lives on, but in scattered forms—in bits and pieces in various parts of the world—where it is available to be reassembled. Taking as an example the depleted shores and waters of the Mediterranean, and envisioning how magnificent they must have been before the area fell heir to its destiny as the cradle of our civilization—there are other environments around the globe analogous to that of the Mediterranean. Some of the species differ somewhat but similar life forms with comparable structural relationships exist in parts of California, Chile, Australia, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent. It might be possible that organisms gathered from such areas combined with those in the Mediterranean area itself contain, in aggregate, a sufficient array of species from which to restore or recreate the ancient ecological integrity of the region. We have drawn up a pilot project to begin to tackle a project of such vast proportions, one that integrates our experience in biotechnology and the [tree] replanting ideas of [Elzeard] Bouffier, [Richard] St. Barbe Baker, and Wendy Campbell-Purdy [see Trees access].
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