Fritjof Capra
A Science For Sustainable Living
ELP 2011
Ecological Sustainability
A sustainable human community is designed in such a manner that its ways of life,
businesses, economy, physical structures, and technologies do not interfere with
nature's inherent ability to sustain life.
Ecological Literacy
Understanding how nature sustains life involves a new ecological understanding of life
("ecological literacy"). It also involves a new kind of "systemic" thinking — thinking in
terms of relationships, patterns, and context.
A New Scientific Understanding of Life
The material world, ultimately, is a network of inseparable patterns of relationships.
The planet as a whole is a living, self-regulating system. The brain, the immune system,
the bodily tissues, and even each cell is a living, cognitive system. Evolution is a
cooperative dance in which creativity and the constant emergence of novelty are the
driving forces. With the new emphasis on complexity, networks, and patterns of
organization, a new science of quality is slowly emerging.
Living Networks
Networks are the basic pattern of life. Ecosystems are networks of organisms;
organisms are networks of cells, organs, and organ systems; cells are networks of
molecules. Wherever we see life, we see networks.
Living networks are functional networks — nonmaterial patterns of networks of
relationships. Living networks are self-generating. They continually create, or recreate
themselves by transforming or replacing their components.
Social Networks
Social networks are networks of communications. Like biological networks, they are
self-generating. Each communication creates thoughts and meaning, which give rise to
further communications, and thus the entire network generates itself.
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Two Developments
rise of global capitalism
electronic networks
(flows of money and information)
maximize wealth and power
of the elites
creation of sustainable
communities (ecodesign)
ecological networks
(flows of energy and matter)
maximize sustainability
of the web of life
The New Capitalism
The information technology revolution created has given rise to a new type of
capitalism. Its core economic activities are global; the main sources of productivity and
competitiveness are innovation, knowledge generation, and information processing; it
is structured largely around networks of financial flows.
The Global Casino
Capital works in real time, moving rapidly through global financial networks, in a
relentless global search for investment opportunities. The impact of the new economy
on human well-being has been mostly negative. It has produced disastrous social and
environmental consequences; it has severely endangered the financial wellbeing of
people around the world.
Changing the Game
The new economy is producing a multitude of interconnected harmful consequences:
rising social inequality and social exclusion, a breakdown of democracy, more rapid
and extensive deterioration of the natural environment, and increasing poverty and
alienation.
The new global capitalism has threatened and destroyed local communities, invaded
the sanctity of life, turned ecology into engineering, and life itself into a commodity.
"We must change the game!"
A Network of Machines
The global market is a network of machines, programmed according to the fundamental
principle that money-making should take precedence over
any other human value. However, the same electronic networks of financial and
informational flows could have other values built into them. The critical issue is not
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technology, but politics.
The Global Civil Society
A global coalition of NGOs ("global justice movement") formed around the core values
of human dignity and ecological sustainability. The NGOs in the global justice
movement have become effective political actors, independent of traditional national or
international institutions. They constitute a new kind of global civil society.
A Network of Scholars
The global civil society relies on a network of scholars, research institutes, think tanks,
and centers of learning. Most of these research institutes are communities of both
scholars and activists who are engaged in a wide variety of projects and campaigns.
Three Issue Clusters
Three clusters of issues are focal points for the largest and most active grassroots
coalitions: the challenge of reshaping the governing rules and institutions of
globalization; the opposition to genetically modified foods and the promotion of
sustainable agriculture; ecological design: the redesigning of our physical structures,
cities, technologies, and industries so as to make them ecologically sustainable.
Ecological Literacy
Over billions of years, the Earth's ecosystems have evolved certain principles of
organization to sustain the web of life. Ecological literacy is the knowledge of these
principles of organization, or principles of ecology. Ecoliteracy is crucial for designing
sustainable human communities.
Principles of Ecology
• One species' waste is another species' food;
• matter cycles continually through the web of life;
• the energy driving the ecological cycles flows from the sun;
• diversity assures resilience;
• life did not take over the planet by combat but by networking.
Ecodesign
Design is the shaping flows of energy and matter for human purposes. Ecological
design is a process in which our human purposes are carefully meshed with the larger
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patterns and flows of the natural world. Ecological design principles reflect the
principles of organization that nature has evolved to sustain the web of life. This
requires a fundamental shift in our attitude toward nature — from finding out what we
can extract from nature, to what we can learn from her.
The Ecodesign Revolution
There has been a dramatic rise in ecologically oriented design practices and projects,
e.g. a worldwide renaissance in organic farming, the organization of different industries
into ecological clusters, the shift from a product-oriented economy to a "service-andflow" economy, Green architecture, hybrid-electric cars, hydrogen fuel cells, etc.
Characteristics of Ecodesign
Ecodesign technologies and projects incorporate the basic principles of ecology: smallscale projects with plenty of diversity, energy efficient, non-polluting, community
oriented, and labor intensive (plenty of jobs).
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