CITY DESIGN

How Green = Green Is Not Green. Think Full Spectrum, Please

Superformula logic

I’m a polymath. I can’t help it. The natural world and alpha, beta & gamma knowledge fascinate me so much, I have learned and learned and learned.

Until I could finally see through the systems.

It’s handy. In my professional life, I’m a systemic designer of economic and societal models. A designer of healthy cities, towns, and villages. I use dynamic math. Because math is the language of nature. And our biggest challenge is to become an adaptive species to our volatile planet.

After doing the math, I explain in simple words how things work. Why we are changing what needs to be changed. Why we do what we do in transition.

I design solutions for all kinds of problems. World problems. Nature problems. Economic problems. Society problems. Change-communication.

And all the time during my work, I see that even the most intelligent people have trouble seeing the full spectrum.

This is such an example.

We Don’t Need Trees

The call for trees is loud in the world. People keep shouting to each other we should not cut down trees. We should give trees better soil. More water. We need to plant more trees. We need trees! Trees! Trees!

But do we need to plant trees?

I dare to disagree.

We don’t need trees. We need shade. And a bamboo forest is way more resilient than trees. Bamboo is not a tree but a grass. You can eat it and build with it. Make biodegradable clothes. Make furniture. And easy barriers to trap sediments.

For super-fast restoration of mangrove forests without planting.

We need to cool the planet with green, blue, condensation, and evaporation. Not rain per se. But freshwater. Not trees per se. But all kinds of green, edible species. We need food after all. Choose the ones that combine well in certain cities, towns, or villages.

Adapt all solutions to local climate zones and local cultures.

And voila, a big step towards health has been made in a regional system.

Concrete Examples

In biology and ecology, we have the 5 Kingdoms of Nature. Theory given to us by Lynn Margulis, the science queen of microbes.

1. Bacteria
2. Fungi
3. Algae
4. Plants
5. Animals

We, humans, belong to the last group. Animals. We are nature. And what we see most and use most for our interventions in systems are toxic chemicals, petroleum plastics, and engineering. And if we go biobased (mostly food) we mainly use scarce crops and animals.

But there is a lot that we don’t use.

If we want to create cheap Abundance 4 ALL would it not be logical to use abundantly available materials and healthy processes to produce our products?

So, let’s have a look at what’s abundantly available everywhere.

• Seaweed — e.g. kelp absorbs 20 times more CO2 than land forestation
• Bamboo — there are 1,500 documented uses of bamboo and 2.5 billion people are dependent on bamboo
• Carbon & Hydrogen— contrary to other planets where the atmosphere is mainly hydrogen and helium, our atmosphere is mainly nitrogen and oxygen. Carbon in the air is warming the planet now. CO2. And methane CH4. If we design processes, we can put a spirulina greenhouse (which uses CO2 to grow superfoods) next to CO2 emission. The spirulina is using a pollution stream. Solving 2 problems in 1 go. Methane (the byproduct manure of animal raising) has a lot of hydrogen. Good for transportation. Go fill up your tank at the farmer.
• Aluminium & Silicon — our earth's crust has abundant aluminum, silicon, and iron. Wonderful! Instead of mining it and being dependent on China’s geopolitics, we can now do local phytomining out of the soil. And in polluted soil places (dump sites), we can even pytomine scarce metals and e-waste.
• Microbes — they are the biggest biomass on earth. We now use them to make microbial plastics. Products can be strong during their lifespan and biodegradable afterward.
• Fungi — they are a wonderful source of proteins instead of meat. We grow fungi on farms as an extra income stream for the farmers. We inject the sides of a wood chip path with mycelium for edible harvest. Or we grow shitake on tree stumps. Or we grow oyster mushrooms on coffee waste in the cities.
• Insects — a great source of proteins. You don’t have to eat them whole. You can make healthy vegan food if you are not too picky about what’s vegan.
• Algae — for me, this is the most fascinating species to be inspired by. I’m a mermaid, in love with the sea. Algae come small and big. The smallest, the diatoms make 20–30% of the oxygen on our planet. We breathe them in every day. And they transfer light into energy with 95% efficiency. We are using this knowledge now to make better solar solutions with abundantly available silicon.

What About Trees in Towns?

Hmm… I started this story with trees. What about them? I was recently in Greece with a farmer who grew chestnut and cherries. And the trees are ill. Because of drought. Because of climate change. Because of whatever…

So, I had a long talk with him about the rules of thriving.

What are the rules of thriving?

• Accept current reality — certain species of trees might be leaving certain areas of the world and reappearing in other areas
• Adapt to local circumstances — grow something else to eat. Or eat what’s edible if you are hungry.
• Use what you have locally available — in this case, we made a longer-term plan to make the soil around the trees healthier with crushed volcanic rock and biochar as a shelter for soil microbes. And we made a short-term farming plan for fungi, peppers, and nickel.
• Edible green in a city — Cities will only be cooling the planet if they are evaporating moisture. That means greens. Athens is full of greens. Oranges you can’t eat. Olives no one picks. And more. Why don’t we design cities with functional green? Edible. Or smells mosquitos don’t like so they will be malaria-low. Lavender. Citrus-herbs. Walnut trees.

Bottom Line

What’s the bottom line? We need to see a fuller spectrum of solutions for everything if we are going to make a dent in the future.

Green is not just trees. Blue is not just rain.

The main thing is that we become adaptive humans in a local spot on our planet. We need evaporating cool cities that cool the planet. We need roads that clean the water and infiltrate it when it’s cold, evaporate it when it’s hot.

We have the material science for this. So, let’s not waste time…

And if you want to become a polymath looking through systems like me? Study biomimicry and Superformula (dynamic math 2003).

Come, let’s make better systems…

I’m the founder of science think tank Abundance 4 ALL. YouTube Channel — Abundance 4 ALL Living LAB on Mondays and educational downloads

Thank you, Gaia, for giving me Wild Writing © Désirée Driesenaar, 2023