This week we had two of the hottest days recorded in human history. We're seeing how our weather patterns changing and breaking down in ways that have been predicted for years but ignored until recently. So today, I want to take a look at systems, and how we are starting to better understand them.
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design
One of the things I find most fascinating about nature is its complex system. We can see parts of the system, but rarely understand, or can see, the full picture. This NASA emissions model let's us see CO2 gasses not just from the source but also shows how they travel around the world, helping us understand how wind and weather patterns distribute smoke and greenhouse gasses. It's really quite mesmerizing and reminds me of watching the waves on the ocean. (Really, check out the link, it's very cool.)
nature
In the past I've talked about how rewilding offers a way for us to address climate change through conservation (you can read both articles about that here and here). By conserving land and letting it regenerate and rewild, we improve biodiversity. Biodiversity makes a system resilient, and that's what we need; a more resilient system.
A report from Mongabay shows that more studies are starting to show that saving key species can help provide carbon sinks. "Many nature-based climate solutions rightly emphasize the role of plants and soil as carbon sinks, but animals have a profound effect on how effective these sinks can be."
These studies are showing just how much more there is to learn about these systems. We think that letting plants repopulate an area is good. And it is. But we didn't understand the impact that adding wildlife back into the system could have.
The report also says that: "...an experimental study conducted in a tropical forest in Guyana found that the storage of carbon in trees and soil increased significantly, from 3.5 to four times, as the number of tree species increased from 10 to 70. However, as the number of mammal species increased from five to 35 on the same plots, tree and soil carbon storage increased by four to five times."
In order for a system to work well, it needs all of its components. And in nature, that includes the microbiome all the way up to the largest predator in the area. It's fascinating and more complex than we'll ever probably understand.
reimagine
Rather than talking about ecosystems, Project Vortex is an art collective that creates art from what we can take out of them. Plastics. There has been a lot of news recently about the dangers and presence of microplastics in our bodies from water bottles and packaging. We know that plastic, a chemically altered material, doesn't break down and never decomposes—even though scientists are working on bacteria that could metabolize it.
So Project Vortex aims to take plastic out of the ecosystem and turn it into art. The pieces of work have such a huge range. Some are thought provoking, some are beautiful, and some are funny. These pieces are created from found plastic show the variety and breadth of the problem we face in finding alternatives to the mess we've created. And something I find really fascinating about art created from plastic; when you see it from far away, sometimes the piece can look like other materials and seem very vibrant. But upon closer inspection you find that it's actually made up of bits of trash that we threw away and forgot about—even though it won't ever go away.
