Let the Earth do its own lifting We hear a lot about what we can
do to look after the earth . but clearly not enough about how
the earth looks after itself. The media have started using the
great idea and word resilience but they don't know what it means
( it was my profession but few therebe that practice and teach
it now) This neglected and complex vantage viewpoint ( its
easier to subdivide a problem than to see it "in context" ) is
critical to the future of our world because the earth can do the
job ( say recycling of water and nutrients ) a lot more
efficiently than we can. How different is our anthropomorphic
view different from that of our forefathers - really? This
reality of limited perspective is not widely talked about by
engineers who are used to methodically building from the bottom
up ( which is fine) and who have been seeking (politically) more
control in environmental matters for decades . ( the problem for
the poor is that our engineering solutions are often simply too
expensive too!) Newcome