Nature-based solutions are messy. You already know this … just look at a building site. Humans are animals and like every other creature on the planet, it’s in our nature to constantly rebuild the world around us. The effort of any animal to reconstruct things will go through a protracted period of disorder(Of energy and ecosystems). Ecosystems are thermodynamically driven. Disorder occurs when energy dissipates and becomes more chaotic. For example, the release of hot air into the atmosphere results in that energy is freer to disperse (maximum entropy). The opposite is true when energy is locked into biological processes, when it is stored inside molecules (minimum entropy). Stability in ecosystems occurs More before fitting back in. Our idea of ‘messy’ is when something stands out and that’s a given, when the landscape around is modified and changing. What we think neat is messier than it looks, and what we think messy is nature doing its job for us.
Weeds, weeds weeds, shame, shame, shame
After I allowed my garden to grow, I received a beautifully curated, printed note hand delivered to my letterbox. It simply read:
“Weeds, weeds, weeds, shame, shame, shame”
Locals became dismayed when the owners of Knepp Farm embarked on their rewilding project. Seeing neatly cropped land replaced with scrub and rough grass was appalling to their eyes. Someone even went to the effort of writing them a poem about it.
Our impression that landscapes we build are tidy is an illusion our minds create for us. Nature-based solutions are messy. EcosystemHow ecosystems function An ecosystem is a community of lifeforms that interact in such an optimal way that how ecosystems function best, is when all components (including humans and other animals) can persist and live alongside each other for the longest time possible. Ecosystems are fuelled by the energy created by plants (primary producers) that convert the Sun's heat energy More function(Of an ecosystem). A subset of ecosystem processes and structures, where the ecosystem does something that provides an ecosystem service of value to people. More is invisible and does not correlate with our sense of what a landscape should look like. The DMC Delorean used in the Back to the Future films became famous because it looked good. Underneath, there was little sportscar-like about it.
To build a home on Earth requires the diversity and abundance of animal life needed to fulfil every job in the ecosystem construction process.
When we allow carbon to be thoroughly integrated into food chainA single thread in a food web illustrating the chain of animals that eat each other. At the base of the food chain are small high-energy (fast metabolism) animals and at the other end large low metabolism animals. An example would be whales eating krill that eat plankton that eat algae. Or lions that eat gazelles that eat grass. More processes, it is in the most highly ordered, dense and safe form possible. This stabilises climate and gives us food to eat. When we build things without animals, that’s little use to our survival. Weather systems are thrown into chaos when soils are drained of their nutrientsEnergy and nutrients are the same thing. Plants capture energy from the Sun and store it in chemicals, via the process of photosynthesis. The excess greenery and waste that plants create, contain chemicals that animals can eat, in order to build their own bodies and reproduce. When a chemical is used this way, we call it a nutrient. As we More and energy is released into the air and oceans.
The invisible underbelly of our modified landscapes is barren and chaotic. From a planetary function and human survival perspective, it’s really messy.
The messiness of nature-based solutions we see, is the system correcting itself
Fields of crops or urban parks are an illusion of tidiness we perceive, because on the outside, they look uniform and ‘fit’ our world view. The fact that land will erupt with life the moment it is left to nature, reveals how much free surplus energyThe energy of a system that is emitted as waste and is not part of ecosystem processes. There is always some free surplus energy as this creates the basis for evolution where new species exploit gaps in the ecosystem where free energy becomes available. Surplus energy can occur as a result of disruption or disturbance. When free surplus energy reaches More there is in the system. That’s the energy that causes ecosystem malfunction and chaos. It’s also the same reason why we have invasive pests.
When we abandon land, animals immediately ship nutrients in, in vast quantities. The plants that begin to grow are among the first building blocks. It’s like a delivery of bricks, cement and sand. It’s only when animals start to work with these raw ingredients that they start to resemble something liveable. Remember, the systems and processes humans exist in, are the ones that wildlife create (because we are an animal). To build a home on Earth requires the diversity and abundance of animal life needed to fulfil every job in the ecosystem construction process.
Changing our world view
Before we face the reality of the biodiversityWhat is the definition of biodiversity? When we ask, what is the definition of biodiversity? It depends on what we want to do with it. The term is widely and commonly misused, leading to significant misinterpretation of the importance of how animals function on Earth and why they matter a great deal, to human survival. Here I will try to More crisis we have to see through the illusion we’ve made for ourselves. We need to change our world view and not think nature-based solutions are messy. Worrying about how things appear in the short term ignores the fact that animals are the only way to create a habitable Earth and are actually in the process of rebuilding things for our survival.
