The need for the restoration of Planet Earth is based on the importance of ecosystems to human life on Planet Earth, and the tipping points that have been reached with regard to the Earth's critical atmospheric, hydrological and ecological systems.  There are also ethical considerations regarding preservation of species, and the health of their habitats, that support the need for restoration.

Researchers have calculated the value of the services provided by nature for free to humankind - 33 trillion dollars per year, almost twice the global gross national product. Source:

https://www.nature.com/articles/387253a0

Earth Restoration should be our collective response to the scientifically supported conclusion that we are approaching and currently passing through some critical tipping points in relation to the Earth's life support systems, such as those listed down towards the bottom of this page.

Restoring the planet is not about imposing new levels of austerity - just the opposite in fact.   It is satisfying and productive to restore the land on a small scale.  Imagine doing it on a large scale.  Or watch a video on restoration - such as Green Gold, link provided below - so you don't have to imagine it.

Green Gold - A Documentary about Large-Scale Restoration Projects

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/green-gold/

The ideas presented on this website are my own way of trying to make sense of how we might fix the big, and typically interconnected, problems on our planet.  This website does not represent an official program or dogmatic belief system. 

THE HYPOTHESIS

Hypothesis: Education is the most cost effective way to change course, to turn away from destructive environmental practices and towards sustainability.

Expanded Hypothesis: An emphasis on education (specifically, forward-looking education) is necessary to help guide us into a future of sustainable civilization, abundant food and natural resources, peace, and space exploration.  We need to educate ourselves.  We need to provide better sustainability education for our children.  The knowledge attained needs to be applied for it to be of much use to humanity.  We need to promote and initiate restorative/corrective actions, at this time in history. 

A LIVABLE PLANET FOR ALL

This is not a game to most of humanity.  Naked Greed in the form of corporate excesses and blatantly lopsided political influence is putting us all in grave danger, make no mistake about that.  Greed is not the only game in town, thankfully.

It is possible to envision a world which is not dominated by big money and corporate interests.  We can, if we choose, imagine and build a world that looks something like this: open source, peaceful, and sustainable - a world composed of a colorful constellation of locally self-reliant communities, with adequate resources and human rights protections for all peoples.

MANY SCIENTIFIC FRONTIERS TO EXPLORE

Humanity should consider this time in history as an unprecedented opportunity.  We have an amazing array of scientific frontiers ahead of us to explore, map and share.  With appropriate oversight and compassion, we can use the diversity of new scientific knowledge (and technology) to greenly and quickly take care of everyone's basic needs on Earth.  This in turn will allow us to fully initiate an unprecedented planet-wide restorative effort, while also relieving some of the immediate pressures on ecosystems adjoining human settlements.  

One of these scientific/technological frontiers seems to be particularly important to the human species (and pretty much every other species on Earth) at this time.

THE GREEN FRONTIER

The Green Frontier: sustainable, renewable, ecological.  This is a wide open frontier, and it needs to be explored by people who are interested.   Designers take note: knowledge of ecology and design principles are combined in the up-and-coming field of ecological design, a vital part of this vast green frontier.  If you would like to see some of the features of the Green Frontier, including some excellent DIY and design resources, see the links below.

GREEN, SUSTAINABLE, DIY AND OPEN SOURCE DESIGN RESOURCES

ARBORSCUPLTURE

Tree furniture made from living trees can be low cost or free to create - and it demonstrates a totally sustainable way to make outdoor furniture. In the future, imagine eco-parks with living benches and jungle gyms for the young ones.

Arborsculpture - Examples of Living Trees Used for Practical Applications Like Outdoor Furniture

http://arborsmith.com/

Living Architecture

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211117-how-indias-living-bridges-could-transform-architecture

The Art of Tree Shaping

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/art-tree-shaping

Arborsculpture - Wikipedia Definition and Useful Information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_shaping

Grow Your Own Furniture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy-Zg8QaITc

BIOMIMICRY

Genius of Biome Report

http://issuu.com/hoknetwork/docs/geniusofbiome?e=3095950/2547879

https://static.biomimicry.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/13-05-15_GoBiome_FINAL.pdf

LOW IMPACT AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS

Sepp Holzer - Aquaculture - Short Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFQUKQVwRXU

Josef Holzer - Krameterhof - Europe's oldest permaculture farm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P81ZLODRQo&list=PL51CD2457A21AAD7D&index=6

Patterns in Permaculture - Short Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpqm21irxiU

Polycultures in Permaculture

http://tcpermaculture.com/site/2013/05/01/proven-permaculture-polyculture-plantings-part-1/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAIZnfqT3YU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znZXcQIRJYM&feature=share

Perennial Vegetables - Permaculture in Practice

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/perennial-vegetables-zm0z12amzkon.aspx#axzz2i7VjYzgL

The Fukuoka Method - Orchards and Rice Farming

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSKSxLHMv9k&feature=share

Seed Balls for Restorative Planting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWyduWsoy8o&feature=related

Permaculture Videos Page

http://www.youtube.com/paulwheaton12

Raising Blue Crabs in Freshwater Ponds or Tanks

http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/8014/scientists-harvest-blue-crabs-in-freshwater-ponds

http://www.ehow.com/how_6616554_farm-blue-crabs.html

Aquaponics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9CCxdkOng&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU9x_W9X-tM&feature=fvwrel

SUBSISTENCE GARDENING

During World War II, Americans grew Victory Gardens because food was scarce.  Now, at a time when we should be growing Subsistence Gardens because of potential global food security issues, we Americans just mostly seem to grow great expanses of lawn (which are not at all productive, but rather simply wasteful for the most part).   

FEEDING HUMANITY - SEED BANKS

Feeding the Future using Seed Banks

http://phys.org/news/2013-07-future-seed-banks.html

LAWNS TO GARDENS

Think of the environmental impact of converting 1/4 of America's wasted lawn space into productive gardens.  Local food is greener than organic, they say.   Lawns pollute, gardens sustain.  A sustainable future means less lawns for now.  Maybe we can turn the moon into a giant golf course, in order to compensate those who really miss the grass. But in the meantime...less lawns, and more gardens, more habitat, more forests.  Just kidding about the moon, by the way.

RESTORATION OF ECOSYSTEMS AND LOCAL ENVIRONMENTS

Useful Plants - Designing for a Regenerative Landscape

http://pdcastsusworldradio.libsyn.com/getting-to-know-plants-designing-for-a-regenerative-landscape

Bioremediation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioremediation

Mycoremediation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoremediation

Greening the Deserts and Reversing Global Warming

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI&feature=share

Is a constructive conservation the last chance for biodiversity? 

http://phys.org/news/2013-10-chance-biodiversity-pragmatic-approach.html

SOLAR LINKS - DIY

Warning: the Solar Links below are dedicated to solar energy, with an emphasis on concentrated solar power. Concentrated sunlight can be, and typically is, dangerous (hot!) if the sun happens to be shining - please only proceed with Do-It-Yourself (DIY) projects with caution and appropriate safeguards.

Solar Oven Plans (28 Do-it-yourself plans for making solar ovens, and even a rocket stove). 

http://www.solarcooking.org/plans/

Solar Position Calculator - NOAA

http://www.srrb.noaa.gov/highlights/sunrise/azel.html

Solar Position Calculators - NREL

http://www.nrel.gov/midc/solpos/

Open Source Solar Dish Project

http://www.harbornet.com/sunflower/pvdish.html

Concentrated Solar Power Directory

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Concentrated_Solar_Power

 DIY Non-electric Phase Change Solar Tracking System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AZuteYr46s

DIY Solar Resources and Videos

 http://greenpowerscience.com/index.html

World's First 3-D Printed Solar Powered Stirling Engine

http://www.offgridworld.com/worlds-first-3d-printed-solar-powered-stirling-engine/

SMALL SCALE HYDROPOWER LINKS

Undershot Water Wheel DIY project

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Hydro/UnderShot/WaterWheel.htm

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN LINKS

Sustainability by Design on TedTalks (7 talks)

http://www.ted.com/playlists/28/sustainability_by_design.html

Sustainable Design Entry on WikiPedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_design

Ecological Design Collaborative (EDC)

http://www.ecodesign.org/services.html

GREEN BUILDING LINKS

Cal-Earth - The California Institute for Earth Art and Architecture

http://calearth.org/

Building with Cob

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/cob.htm

Cob Oven design shown in pictures - nice mosaic finish

http://dayonedesign.blogspot.com/2009/03/voyage-of-great-atuin-cob-oven.html

Building a Scottish Blackhouse

http://naturalhomes.org/blackhouse.htm

Green Building Methods

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/index.htm

U.S. Green Building Council

http://www.usgbc.org/

Eugene Tsui on Architecture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouVNmvDG8Ao

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtdwWhKl7gU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6ZTHvfj-VY&feature=related

OPEN SOURCE AND MODULAR DESIGN LINKS

Open Source Farming

http://opensourceecology.org/

Physicist Develops Open Source Farming Equipment

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/19/147110017/building-a-village-one-home-brewed-tool-at-a-time

Box Beam Design

https://archive.org/details/boxbeamsourcebook

Living Design by Ken Isaacs

http://popupcity.net/2009/07/free-classic-how-to-build-your-own-living-structures-by-ken-isaacs/

3-D PRINTING

3-D Printing Houses Using Dirt as a Primary Constituent

https://www.techradar.com/news/these-3d-printed-houses-are-made-with-a-dirt-cheap-material

TRANSPORTATION

Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies

http://www.et3.com/

Transportation Technologies

http://www.thevenusproject.com/technology/transportation

Flywheel Technology, Bicycles and the Copenhagen Wheel

http://www.oregonlive.com/cycling/index.ssf/2013/12/copenhangen_wheel_could_be_a_g.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/09/smart-wheel-flykly_n_4247102.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uszpvHPa_B8#t=261

Biofuels Breakthrough

http://www.energypost.eu/exclusive-report-boeing-reveals-biggest-breakthrough-biofuels-ever/

THE NEW ECONOMY 

Time Banking Article

http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/time-banking-an-idea-whose-time-has-come

TimeBanks USA

http://timebanks.org/

Open Source Software for Local Currencies

https://blog.opensourcecurrency.org/

Commonomics: How We Can Build Local Economies That Work for Everyone

http://billmoyers.com/2013/10/11/commonomics-how-we-can-build-local-economies-that-work-for-everyone/

FUNDING THE RESTORATION OF THE EARTH

Funding restoration projects is essential to their success in many or most cases, presumably.  Funding of restoration projects can be accomplished through entrepreneurship, as well as collective action taken by governments and volunteer-supported organizations.  There is money available for innovative green ventures, such as: https://sharpsheets.io/blog/environment-sustainability-vcs-us/

Additionally, crowd-sourced funding is an alternative way to launch a new and innovative green venture. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are examples of this type of funding platform.

Here is an example of a Kickstarter campaign that is based on promoting green and restorative design: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thechoiceisours/the-choice-is-ours-documentary-series

Here is an article about a prediction model for Kickstarter campaigns:

http://phys.org/news/2013-10-kickstarter.html

Creating a Community Investment Fund: A Local Food Approach

http://www.resilience.org/resource-detail/1924971-creating-a-community-investment-fund-a

And below, there is a link to the Buckminster Fuller's work, whose futurism included the development of Synergetics.

BUCKMINSTER FULLER AND SYNERGETICS

Synergetics and other Bucky Books Online

https://archive.org/details/buckminster-fuller-synergetics-explorations-in-the-geometry-of-thinking

http://www.bfi.org/about-bucky/resources/books

Buckminster Fuller Institute - Design Science 

http://www.bfi.org/

MINING THE GREEN FRONTIER FOR IDEAS

The productivity of living ecosystems can be emulated, on almost any scale, to create wealth from raw materials.  It is suggested herein that we all consider using sustainable design principles, such as those laid out in previous sections (check out the Genius of Biome Report for instance) - and apply a lot of imagination, time and energy - to create new green businesses.  The Green Frontier is not only ripe for exploration, but it is a veritable wellspring of ideas that can launch us into a Global Renaissance, or at the very least, something better than what we have now.   

HABITAT FOR PEOPLE AND NATURE

Since 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by Oceans, we can look out to sea for new places for people to live.  

http://www.seasteading.org/ 

We don't have to continue the trend of turning good farm land into housing for more and more people.  We can have floating cities instead, with constructed coral reefs attached to help restore the embattled coral reef systems.  If done correctly, the cities could be beneficial to the oceans instead of detrimental.  

Using principles of biomimicry, sustainable construction, and marine biology, and taking the necessary time, energy and resources to do it well, we could colonize the oceans in a healthy, mutually beneficial manner. Imagine a stunning array of artificial islands, reefs and floating cities, designed to be more beneficial than harmful to their surroundings.  Nature has been providing habitat for millions of types of plants and animals, for millions of years, and we could certainly try harder to emulate (and accommodate) nature's bounty and beauty in our large scale building projects. 

Welcome to Frankenstein's Planet, a vast uncontrolled experiment that has no scientific underpinnings.  A patchwork of natural and artificial environments, pieces of ecosystems and monoculture croplands randomly juxtaposed, destructive development continually pushing into natural areas in every major biome.

A science experiment would call for a control group (or control planet) which is left alone to compare to the Frankenstein Planet that is being created.  We don't have a second Earth to compare with what we have done to this one.  

If you ask an Environmental Scientist whether it is a good idea to do random experiments with the only planet you have (introducing millions of new chemicals in a very short period of time, changing the atmospheric and ocean chemical make-up at random, removing species from ecosystems at random, etc.) , they will no doubt tell you that it is a very bad idea.

The scientific search for truth and understanding is a human trait.  It seems to come from the logical side of our brains, the part that wants to make sense of the world.   We have developed the scientific method to help us tease out the truth from fiction, and it would probably be prudent to place this method up on some kind of High Alter, next to, say, Religion and Stardom.

AND THE LIMITS OF HUMAN UNDERSTANDING

Our brains seem to be quite limited in their ability to understand the complexity that we now know exists all around us - such as the complexity of the quantum world, which we cannot see, yet still affects everything that we experience.  

Astronomers are showing us how vast our known universe is, with millions of galaxies, each containing tens or hundreds of billions of stars.  Universe, the verb, is too big for one ordinary human mind to study and understand in detail, at least in one lifespan.  You could never even begin to take in the particulars of each star system in Universe.  Let alone all the planets, moons and asteroid groups/belts, nebulae, etc.   

We also know that ecosystems are quite complex.  And we know that there are hundreds of thousands, and probably millions, of unknown species of microorganisms on Planet Earth.  Completely unknown to science.  Even most of the ones named by science are not well understood, with relation to how they function within their ecosystems.  We don't know exactly how important they are to the macroscopic ecosystems, by any means, but we know that they are vital parts of our bodies and of the planetary biomes.  We live on a largely unexplored planet, from a biologist's point of view (cite Edward O. Wilson, from his book The Diversity of Life).

To help the non-specialists and laypeople, there should be some way to help sort out important complex scientific issues in the future.  Something, like, say, science courts.

K. Eric Drexler, one of the founders of the science of nanotechnology, advised us to set up science courts to help protect us from the inherent dangers of nanotechnology.  You can't see it with the naked eye - it is way too small.  Somehow, sometime, somewhere, and soon, we need some way to try to sort out fact from fiction.  Politicians and bogus research groups should not be allowed to say that black is white, day is night, and bad is really good, and have that lie become the basis for government policy and decision making.  Science courts could help with that.   

Warning: Science courts might prove to be prone to corruption as are other types of judicial systems - except for this time, they simply shouldn't be allowed to be corrupted.  The price is too high.  Why bother to have the court at all, if it is just to become a political football? 

INTEGRITY IN SCIENCE

Truth and fiction should be separate subject areas - support scientific integrity.

https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/preserving-scientific-integrity-federal-policymaking

http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/how-corporations-corrupt-science.html

DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS ARE PART OF THE EQUATION

Millennium Alliance for Humanity & the Biosphere

http://mahb.stanford.edu/

Suppression of democracy typically prevents adequate protection of the environment and human rights.   Even in America, considered a relatively democratic democracy, there seems to be an endless battle which pits the rights of the average person against corporations on an unlevel playing field. This has led to the building up of corporate rights, while eroding those of the private citizen, for decades.  

Research Fracking in the USA if you have any doubt about can happen to your rights (including water rights), when corporations take aim at them.

America's Bill of Rights and Constitutional Amendments 

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Courtesy of the United Nations

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

PEACE AND SECURITY

There are two very different paths to security, one involving ever more invasive technology and ever decreasing rights for human beings, or the path of peace through social investment.  

Since most of us are familiar with the first path, let's look at the proposed other path.  By investing in care for people, providing for their basic needs regardless of ability to work for instance, we can create a dividend to collect for societies.  That dividend is decreased crime and related expenses.  If we progressively approached a peaceful world through taking care of everyone, then hopefully there would not be any reason for people to resort to extreme measures of violence.  

THE PEACE DIVIDEND

There is also a peace dividend which corresponds to money not spent on military, war and reconstruction.  The global peace dividend could be worth as much as 8 trillion dollars a year, according to article below.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-25/global-peace-dividend-could-reach-8-trillion-a-year-study-says.html

The Peace Dividend could help fund the restoration of our home planet, if governments decided that they wanted to fund this type of critical life-support infrastructure for humanity (and all living beings on this planet).  This is part of the interconnection of the issues facing humanity.  What is affordable in a peaceful world is not necessarily affordable in a world torn by devastating violence, as in today's world.  Also note the connection between crime, the cost of incarceration, and the economic connection: http://phys.org/news/2013-10-crime.html

CHILDREN ARE THE FUTURE

Protecting the rights of children - advocating for those least able to understand or defend their rights - is one of the keys to a successful sustainable civilization.    

Children are the future.  The way that we raise and educate them sets the stage for the kind of future they will inherit.  It is sort of like programming a computer, except that it is human civilization itself we are programming, not a computational device.

FOR THE CHILDREN

Since our hypothesis has been that education is the best way to move forward, it is logical to look at ways to improve education for young learners.  We can look at Finland and learn from them, for instance, since they are considered to have the best educational system in the world.  We can steer young learners toward excellent websites and programs.  Below are some links to resources, for the benefit of children, parents, educators, and learners of all ages.

Some Innovative and Excellent Learning Approaches

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/finland-best-country-in-the-world-education/

Online Learning Resources - Including Various Interactive Educational Activities

https://sites.google.com/site/transformactal/educational-links

Advocacy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Advocacy

http://www.globalfundforchildren.org/

http://www.firstfocus.net/

BIOREGIONALISM AND WATERSHEDS

Political boundaries could follow ecological boundaries such as watersheds.  Everyone in the watershed would make decisions together, democratically, about issues that effect their common welfare.  Just an idea, not that I am for artificial boundaries between peoples by any means.  

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3019858/visualized/a-new-map-of-the-us-created-from-where-we-get-our-water?partner=rss#1