Regenerative Thinking for Sustainable Development

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Six, Number Three
March/April 1997

"If the supreme disaster of our times is the closing down of the life systems of the earth, then the supreme need of our times is to bring about a healing of the earth."

Thomas Berry, Dream of the Earth

REGENERATIVE THINKING IS NEEDED FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

by C. Dean Freudenberger

It is my thesis that working toward a more comprehensive understanding of the concept of sustainability is a prerequisite for approaching both the challenge of overcoming our spiritual crisis and developing a global plan of action for sustainable development. The excitement and challenge involved in the quest for sustainable development nurtures and reshapes the human imagination. This reorientation is essential for generating the political Will to make the needed transition from an exhaustive human life-style involving our prevailing science, technology and industry, to one that is regenerative and therefore sustainable.

For the purpose of overcoming serious objections to the term sustainable development, I prefer the word regenerative development. This suggests the need for human thought to be cognizant of the earth's most fundamental process of regeneration. This involves an entirely new mind-set.

Three years after I began my work in agricultural development in the Belgian Congo (Zaire) in 1956, I observed that corn yields in one field had declined considerably. I had used the same methods that were successful in previous years, but this yield was marginal. A local villager saw me walking the rows in an attempt to discern reasons for the decline. I asked him what needed to be done. He replied, "Go into the forest and see what it teaches."

In the forest the soil is sheltered from the sun, heat, and downpours of the rainy season. There is no erosion. Organic matter accumulates and decomposes at a steady rate. I discovered that all the trees and shrubs had extensive surface feeder roots within the upper half-inch of soil. Below the feeder roots there exists a large support system. Some roots grow downward to a depth of nearly forty feet. The layer of decaying vegetation teemed with insects and fungi of every description. Above, I could hear birds chattering. Their songs were joined by the sounds of rodents and reptiles. The whole forest was alive.

The forest taught me that land is more than soil. It is more than real estate, territory, or raw material. I discovered that we are inter-dependently related to the land and share with it a marvelous, mutually enhancing relationship. In observing how the forest functions, I realized that such a system provides for continuous replacement of all required resources through its own functional process and the energy and materials used in its life-cycles. A sustainable (therefore, regenerative) system rebirths itself from generation to generation. The forest is primarily dependent on renewable resources. The composition and volume of waste from the process is within the capacity of the environment to reassimilate without damage. If these parameters of life are exceeded, decline is inevitable.

One way to conceptualize this common process of regeneration is to think of all ecosystems as containing five functioning processes.1

Life processes depend on (1) conversion of solar rays, through photosynthesis, to provide the delicate blend of gasses that make life possible. In order for energy and essential materials to reach all members of earth's community, there has to be a means of (2) distribution ö wind, ocean currents, migrations. All these processes are continually mingling and cross-fertilizing.

As air and water flow over and through the landscape, plants and soil provide (3) filtration that purifies the earth's systems. Everything that is produced across the face of the earth ultimately returns to the earth for (4) assimilation. Nature provides for the (5) storage of essentials for life ö water in aquifers, forest litter lodged in soil.

During the past two centuries these ecological processes have been pressed to their limits by human intervention. Now, natural processes are no longer independent of human activity. This is what makes our modern situation historical. When viewed from a regenerative perspective, our contemporary science, technology, industry and economic order are all fatally flawed because they fail to respect the fundamental principles of existence within our biosphere.

Regenerative development challenges us to rethink what motivates moral decision-making. Ethical insights must be revised if they are to meet the challenge of regenerative development. The beginning step is to ask, "Why care?"

Within the Jewish and Christian traditions, the idea of caring is not new. The moral basis for humanity's acceptance of the gift of the garden, or land, is that humankind shall cultivate and keep it. The ancient Hebrew concept of dominion (Gen.1:26) involved a responsibility for the maintenance of justice and righteousness within the domain of one's rule.

Choosing to care is an act of responsible freedom. It is an act of gratitude. Choosing to care is a basic human right. If, for whatever reason, we are unable to choose freely to care, we are denied a fundamental element of our humanity. Caring is our only tangible way of expressing gratitude for life and for our brief moment of opportunity to participate in it. Generating a global Will for planetary survival will require spiritual insight and commitments which reflect a profound sense of gratitude for the life of the planet and our moment in its history. What a task for the religious community!