Survey 64% of the population believes that climate change is a "global emergency
Beyond sustainability there is a concept that is gaining momentum in recent years: "regenerative" development.
From agriculture to economy, from design to urban planning, the idea is to create "the conditions conducive to life", a recipe taken from nature itself and its ability to develop increasingly complex and diverse ecosystems.
"Sustainability by itself is not enough for us",
points out the biologist, thinker and environmental communicator Daniel Wahl, born in Munich (1971) and settled in Mallorca, author of a book ahead of its time that finally sees the light in Spanish:
Designing regenerative cultures
(Ecohabitar).
"The word sustainability can be inappropriate if we ask ourselves: what do we really need to sustain?" Wahl says.
"After working for years and even completing my thesis on sustainable design, I realized that we have to go one step further.
We need to move towards a regenerative, resilient and adaptable culture
that serves to create a prosperous future for the planet. and for humanity ".
Culture, the fourth leg of the equation
Daniel puts the emphasis on the word "culture", because in his understanding it is also the fourth leg that was missing until now in the equation: "The economy, ecology and society have been considered as the three legs of sustainability. But the Perhaps the most profound change is the one that must take place at the cultural level, because that is where the key to our vision of the world lies. Culture is what marks our patterns of behavior and thought, and the one that will allow us to leave those ideas behind. " short-termists "who have brought us to this critical point."
Designing Regenerative Cultures
was originally written and published in English four years before the pandemic.
But its message of "health and resilience" is extremely topical, coupled with its value as a response to the climate emergency, the loss of biodiversity or the depletion of resources, among other environmental crises that had been accumulating under the carpet.
"We are witnessing the collapse of a system that no longer serves us
," warns Wahl.
"The important thing is to admit that this is part of the process of life itself. This is how life on Earth has evolved over 3.8 billion years and this is how it will continue to function."
Daniel Wahl feels a debtor among others of Fritjof Capra, author of
The web of life,
or of the professor of Environmental Studies David Orr.
Nor can he forget what he learned with John Todd (the inventor of eco-machines) or Janine Benyus, the author of
Biomimicry,
from whom he received one of the most valuable lessons.
"Life tends to create the conditions conducive to life.
Nature has that prodigious ability to regenerate, adapt and function in a new context
. It is up to us to decipher how it does it and apply it to the economy, food production or to the design of cities, which should function as authentic ecosystems. It is also up to us to find our own place, along with the rest of the living beings, and stop believing that we are above nature or that we can control it ".
Without residues
In nature, for example, the concept of waste does not exist:
everything is reused by closing cycles
, in a system that aspires to emulate what we already know as a circular economy.
"Regenerative" development goes even further and aims to imitate the enriching flows of living systems, with its ability to restore damage and adapt to change.
With his feet on the ground, after serving as director of the Findhorn College in Scotland and combining it with his work with Gaia Education or International Futures Forum, Wahl has spent a decade trying to apply the theory in Mallorca: "I settled here because I was convinced that
the The best testing laboratory is an island,
with well-defined boundaries. And in this case, four islands, of very different sizes, and linked by the sea, with all its regenerative power. "
Long before the pandemic hit, Daniel Wahl gave seminars talking about "regenerative tourism" and introducing the idea of the circular economy "to a sector that until then had operated with an extractive and degenerative system."
The coronavirus has been like a tsunami for the islands
, which have suddenly discovered that it is not possible to depend exclusively on the "monoculture" of tourism.
The case of Mallorca
"You have to diversify the economy in the islands and you have to create above all a regenerative connection between land and sea," warns Wahl, who was a marine biologist and diver instructor in his youth.
"Sooner or later, tourism will return to the island, but it will be on a smaller scale and with a new model
that will no longer be" extractive ", but will leave wealth on the island and promote organic food cultivation, local supply networks or the new electric mobility. The islands could also be a
hub
for new green technologies for the naval industry. And of course they would have to preserve the sea as an extraordinary source of wealth, with sustainable fishing and protection of the coasts ".
Typical Mallorcan landscape D.
WAHL
On the islands, Wahl attests, there is already a throbbing magma of change that came from before, but is emerging right now.
"There are many initiatives underway, but I think the time has come to create synergies.
We need a catalyst to serve as a meeting point between initiatives
promoted by local people and people coming from abroad."
Wahl aspires neither more nor less than the creation of a Learning Center for Bioregional Regeneration that will make the Balearic Islands a world reference, not only for "green recovery", but for "authentic transformation in the face of the big questions that we will have to answer in this crisis. "
Everything will revolve in a future that cannot be postponed around the concept of "bioregion", Wahl predicts: "An economy resilient to crises will have to reorganize itself based on proximity, with water basins as a reference, and at the level of communities and regions. yes, with a vision of planetary health and collaboration and solidarity on a global scale ".
In the opinion of the Wahl, it has been curious to see how, under the pandemic, and despite movement restrictions, these networks of activism have been strengthened and the powerful idea has emerged with more force than ever.
"
2020 has been a tragic year for many, but in the end it may be the turning point.
I believe that it is now when people have opened their eyes and have finally become aware. The 21st century may at the end be the century of regeneration" .
Function as 'living systems'
Dozens of organizations around the world are already working on the concept of "regenerative development", applied primarily to economics, agriculture and the design of local communities.
In October 2019, the first world meeting was held in Boulder (Colorado), the Regenerative Earth Summit.
We synthesize here some of the most recognized examples.
Regeneration International.
The movement created in 2015 and promoted by the Indian ecofeminist Vandana Shiva to promote the transition towards a "regenerative" agriculture in the face of the challenge of climate change and hunger in the world.
of
Regenesis (New Mexico).
Co-created in 1995 by Pamela Mang, Tim Murphy and Ben Haggard, it is one of the pioneering groups of the idea, bringing together the work of educators in the fields of permaculture and eco-design in the southwestern United States.
Capital Institute (New York).
Dumped in the application of "regenerative" principles in the field of economics and finance, and in the functioning of communities as "living systems".
Its impulse has served to create the Network of Regenerative Communities, spread over eight countries.
Regenerative Costa Rica.
A world reference for the preservation of nature, Costa Rica has been chosen as the first "hub" for regenerative development, with a division of the country into "bioregions" and economic relocation plans that take into account "the roles of all components of the web of life ".
Regenerate Australia.
The project sponsored by the WWF, with the allocation of 270 million euros to restore habitats and revitalize communities affected by the devastating fires that ravaged the southeast of the country between 2019 and 2020.
Commonwealth of Nations.
Under the auspices of Patricia Scotland, the Commonwealth (comprising 53 nations and 2.4 billion people) launched the global initiative "Regenerative Development to Reverse Climate Change."
The work of the British economist Kate Raworth
(The Donut Economy
) serves as an obligatory reference to seek a meeting point between human well-being and planetary limits.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
science
Science and Health
Environment
EnvironmentThe journey of packaging to give it a second life
Climate crisis Extreme weather takes its toll
Borrasca Filomena If we melted all the snow that fell in Madrid for 30 hours ...
See links of interest
Catalonia elections
Work calendar
Everton - Fulham
Internazionale - Lazio
Villarreal - Real Betis
Sporting de Gijón - Malaga
Castellón - Fuenlabrada