Edited by Kenny Ausubel with J.P. Harpignies, Sierra Club Books, 2004

reviewed by Larry Caswell

World civilization is at a crossroads. The petrochemical based economies of the world are increasingly contributing to the breakdown of our natural systems which are the basis for all human activity. We are now faced with the necessity of making the ways in which we do business compatible with these essential systems. Kenny Ausubel with J.P. Harpignies addresses this challenge in the 2004 publication of Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies. This book includes essays from twenty-seven of the leaders in the growing field of sustainability and the use of biotechnologies. To begin, we should back up a few steps and look at the problems associated with the world’s current industrial economies.

First, we need to acknowledge the end of increases in our supply of cheap oil–the source of energy that has allowed economies all over the world to industrialize and the world population to mushroom. Expanding demand from countries like China and India with combined populations of over two billion will assure that oil prices will skyrocket as supplies become insufficient.

Second, our petrochemical based economies are creating disastrous repercussions around the world. Our use of fossil fuels is a direct cause of global warming. The side effects of global warming alone could prevent civilization as we know it from continuing into the future. In addition, the approximately 80,000 toxic chemicals we have created from hydrocarbons are now present throughout nature, including our own bodies. Their presence threatens a public health crisis of immense proportions.

In addition, nuclear energy has concentrated and spread radioactivity and long-lived toxic wastes into living systems around the world. This nuclear pollution raises a red flag concerning further expansion and even continued use of this energy source.

Finally, genetic engineering now threatens the world with an additional environmental threat: biological pollution. We are in danger of turning loose organisms which could affect living systems in ways unanticipated by their creators.

It is against this backdrop that Ausubel has collected essays from such noted authorities as Paul Hawken, Janine Benyus, David Suzuki, Amory and Hunter Lovins, Wade Davis, and Terry Tempest Williams that look to the wisdom inherent in our natural world to come up with solutions and alternatives to our current economy and its side effects. Solutions to our problems do exist, and they are “encoded in the ancient evolutionary intelligence of the natural world.” Hence we have the term “biomimicry”: innovation inspired by nature.

Dividing this collection of essays into five parts, the editors begin with a look at the idea of biomimicry and resultant technological applications that are able to decontaminate our polluted world. One example, bioremediation, is a natural process that uses laboratory-selected bacteria to eat or biodegrade pollutants. It can provide inexpensive and efficient ways for industries to begin cleaning up pollutants which have entered ground-water and soils. Another example is biosolvents, which are chemically derived from vegetable oils and can be used for such things as cleaning up oil spills. The use of techniques like these have enabled the clean-up of badly polluted sites at surprisingly low costs.

Part II looks at the ways in which humans can use natural relationships to maintain and restore the health of the land. It is pointed out that humans are a keystone species and have historically managed natural systems in ways that have protected and enhanced these systems while meeting the needs of the humans living there. The California landscape observed by the first Europeans was an example of an ecosystem successfully managed by indigenous Indians in that area. This section explores the many ways in which we can use our knowledge of the ecology of place to benefit the living systems which we are a part of, while at the same time gaining our sustenance from these systems.

Part III looks at the current state of our so called bio-technologies, points out the flaws present, and emphasizes threats to us and our environment. David Suzuki contends that we are too quick to apply scientific findings in the field without first understanding the possible side effects. One reason we are ready to jump to new technologies without more care is the potential for great corporate profit. In other parts of this section the reader learns that genetic pollution has a life of its own. For example, genetically engineered corn in Mexico has crossed with important ancestral corn varieties, permanently modifying their genes. The watchword seems to be caution, sustained by the awareness of our great ignorance of the side effects of new developments in this field.

Part IV discusses how we can apply nature’s operating instructions to our manufacturing economy. The reader finds that with nature’s help we can develop production processes which eliminate toxic inputs and by-products and at the same time lower production costs. The processes mimic nature, becoming self-contained with no wastes. Paul Hawken has coined the term “Natural Capitalism” to describe this emerging transformation of our economy. Part of Natural Capitalism is the preservation and restoration of natural capital: living system services, such as freshwater management and carbon dioxide absorption, which we have too often taken for granted.

The final section of Nature’s Operating Instructions deals with human values and culture. At root here is the way we view the natural world and our relationship with it. We cannot continue to view the world as the subject of our dominion, to do with as we please. The values we hold and the stories we tell must recognize the natural systems as the source of our livelihood and ourselves as an integral, non-separable part of the whole. We must ask ourselves what we should expect from nature and how we need to change the manner in which we obtain our needs. We must rekindle a sense of wonder and stewardship.

Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies is an excellent introduction to all of the above topics and at the same time provides additional references to useful sources for further study in these areas.