Can sustainability be inspired by design from nature?

• Main Author: Kirke, MSJ
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Arctic; Global warming; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/26762/; http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/26762/1/11642661.pdf

Economically and politically mankind's natural environment has become one of the most important issues within modern society. With the realisation that thousands of years of polluting the earth and stripping its resources without restraint is having a massive effect on ecosystems and surrounding environments. For example, there is real concern that one of the wide ranging effects of this greed and exploitation is the issue of global warming. "Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss/' (nationalgeographic.2010) A more sustainable way to live alongside natural habitats and the integration of nature to mankind's modern thinking and needs is key to a more sustainable and manageable approach to the relationship with not only local environment but also the environment on a global scale. "Just as our banking sector is struggling with its debts - and paradoxically also facing calls for a return to socalled 'old-fashioned,' traditional banking - so Nature's life-support systems are failing to cope with the debts we have built up there too. So, if we don't face up to this, then Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust"- HRH The Prince of Wales, The Richard Dimbleby Lecture 'Facing the Future' 8 July 2009. (Verkaik, R. 2009)