SA Biomimicry Workshop

Here is an amazing opportunity for anyone in the design, engineering, environment and sustainability world! A 6-day Biomimicry workshop presented by Janine Benyus and Dr. Dayna Baumeister.

From 30 August – 6 September you can join these these world renowned experts at the Leshiba Wilderness in the Limpo Valley near Kruger National Park, South Africa.

You can also download the official brochure and application form here. Closing date for application is 1st July 2009.

CPSL is also organising public lectures in Cape Town on 27th August and in Johannesburg on 9th September – please see our website for more details

More information on the presenters:

Janine Benyus

• United Nations Environment Programme’s 2009 Champion of the Earth for Science & Innovation
• Time magazine’s Hero of the Environment award
• Biologist, Innovation Consultant
• Author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature

Dr. Dayna Baumeister

• Co-founder of The Biomimicry Guild
• MS in Resource Conservation and a PhD in Organismic Biology and Ecology from the University of Montana
• 11 years as a biomimicry educator, researcher and design consultant

Visit www.biomimicryinstitute.org for more information.

Wilson’s Law – How Important Is It That We Conserve Biodiversity?

This is a short article from the Dot Earth section of the New York Times, reporting a recent idea of probably the greatest living biologist, Edward O. Wilson.

It hinges on the difference between our (increasingly energetic) efforts to save the systems that obviously support human civilization (energy, water, clean air, etc.) and our (less energetic) efforts to conserve the vast webs of species that have no obvious human utility yet together provide the basis for planetary life. This is a profoundly important distinction.

Original article: Andrew Revkin. The New York Times. 11 July 2008. Read more…