Nature's Complexity Defies Engineered Solutions
© 1999 Streamline Publications
The natural world is full of surprises, often because we fail to perceive it as it actually is. While, as an example, we can appreciate the rugged and beautiful California Coastline—its compelling beauty resulting directly from its irregularity—it would make for a far neater world if the west coast ran directly north and south. Reno's location at a longitude west of Los Angeles offends our sense of order.
No question that it is the very human propensity for ordered, numerical neatness that has made American industry and technology the continuing envy of the modern world. President Kennedy asked for the moon before the end of the 1960s and NASA engineers gave it to us with American math and engineering prowess. Such technological triumphs continue unabated—the international space station, Mars missions, the human genome project; the Internet and the computer revolution; microsurgery; fuel cells.
One discipline, however, stands out for its refusal to cooperate with the "linear" world that industry finds so comforting—plant biology. For millennia agriculture has fed the world while retaining its mystery. Growers did not often know exactly why crops grew and produced food, only that by following time-proven methods, they would—for a while at least.
The biological unknowns and inherent complexity of nature can be discomforting to an engineer expected to sign off on a project that includes landscaping.
Hard engineering solutions, such as concrete-lined river channels to stave off erosion may appear successful until they are found to contribute to other problems such as increased storm runoff. They may even cause erosion effects in unlined areas from the increased water volume and speed they generate.
While it would be tempting to lay blame at the feet of engineering hubris, it would be more accurate to look at the pressures that builders face from government and economic concerns. For example, flood insurance providers will certainly feel greater comfort when provided with hard numbers and well-engineered assurances.
Truth is, with the current state of knowledge there is no way of predicting how nature will respond to our meddling with the Earth. Like the ancient farmers, we only know from hindsight and then with a high level of inaccuracy. At the microscopic scale of plant biology, tiny changes can engender dramatic effects.
Regardless, we are still stuck with integrating human activity and our necessary physical infrastructure into nature's plan. We still have to face the consequences of our well-meaning ignorance. Our choices should rightly consider favoring a soft approach to the landscape, allowing biology to work for us. It has been proven again and again, that when we arm wrestle with nature we'll surely be pinned.
Read more about this subject. Visit The Best of the LEAF-let:
Ecology, Erosion Control, and Hand of Government.
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