John Todd wins first Buckminster Fuller Challenge prize for proposal to restore strip-mined land

[bananas]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/uov-bft062008.php

Public release date: 23-Jun-2008

Contact: Joshua Brown
University of Vermont

Buckminster Fuller takes on big coal
Vermont visionary wins first Fuller Award with green plan for Appalachia

In the quest for coal, over a million and a half acres of Appalachia have been strip-mined, whole mountains removed, trillions of gallons of toxic slurry left behind, and communities devastated. Not exactly a promising place for a new green economy to arise.

Or maybe it is.

For his startling and bold proposal to clean-up this disaster, Comprehensive Design for a Carbon Neutral World: The Challenge of Appalachia, John Todd, a research professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont, won the first annual Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

The $100,000 prize from the Buckminster Fuller Institute was awarded in a ceremony in New York City on June 23, 2008 at the Center for Architecture.

"Dr. Todd's proposal sets forth a profound vision to heal the environmental and economic scars of the Appalachian region and a detailed strategy to build a dynamic sustainable economic basis for lasting renewal," wrote the award jury in picking his submission out of entries from around the world.

The jurors, including Vandana Shiva and William McDonough, were impressed with how Todd proposed to "use biological processes to restore degraded coal lands in Appalachia, and use the process to return atmospheric carbon to the soil," they wrote.

To develop his proposal, Todd—who was named a "Hero of the Earth," by Time Magazine in 1999—drew on the concept of ecological succession. Over time, damaged land can rebuild soils, support pioneer plants and grasses, then shrubs, fast-growing trees, and finally, a mature forest. Todd has taken this classic idea of ecology and applied to the human economy.

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http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/24/two_decades_after_his_death_visionary

June 24, 2008
25 Years After His Death, Visionary R. Buckminster Fuller Continues to Inspire Efforts for a More Sustainable Planet

Guests:

Jaime Snyder, filmmaker and co-founder of the Buckminster Fuller Institute. He is Buckminster Fuller’s grandson and studied and worked with him until his passing in 1983.

Dr. John Todd, renowned biologist and pioneer in the field of ecological design. On Monday, he was awarded the first-ever $100,000 Buckminster Fuller Challenge prize for a proposal to transform strip-mined lands in Appalachia into a self-sustaining community. He is currently a research professor at the University of Vermont.

Hunter Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute and founder and director of Natural Capitalism, which promotes entrepreneurial and sustainable solutions to environmental problems.

<snip>

Hunter Lovins, let’s begin with you on the significance of Buckminster Fuller.

HUNTER LOVINS: Buckminster Fuller was in many ways the founder of what we now call sustainability. He wrote about many of the issues that we’re now talking about twenty, thirty, forty years ago. And it is appropriate that we award the inaugural Buckminster Fuller Award to Dr. John Todd, who is also one of the founders of this area that we call sustainability.

<snip>

AMY GOODMAN: That theory of design, Dr. John Todd, if you could you speak about it, what you’re planning to do, who you’re working with?

DR. JOHN TODD: Well, my plan is to take the million-plus acres of Appalachia that have been absolutely devastated by surface coal mining and try and restore those lands to create a new economy, perhaps a new kind of economy that’s never been seen before, one based on renewable energies, including the sun and the wind and biomass, and an economy that’s also based on going back to the great legacy of Appalachia, namely its biological basis. And so, my plan basically calls for restoring the soils and restoring the forests and doing these in a highly integrated way that’s never been seen before.

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[SpiralHawk]

1. Bravo !

This would be a great post in GD, too. Thank you.

k and r.

[NV Whino]

2. Good stuff

Recovering the strip mined lands would be a major step forward.

[phantom power]

3. I don't get it.

I didn't hear him propose a single idea that I haven't seen proposed a dozen times elsewhere. He won a prize for that?

And where's the "economy" part?

[kentauros]

4. I'd like to change this quote slightly:

"Coal miners and some of their machinery could be employed in the process," he notes.

and replace the word "could" with "are required by federal and state law to" :)

The following is a good method to employ for the remediation process, too:

from "Helping the Ecosystem through Mushroom Cultivation" by Paul Stamets
The first significant study showed that a strain of Oyster mushrooms could break down heavy oil. A trial project at a vehicle storage center controlled by the Washington State Dept. of Transportation (WSDOT) enlisted the techniques from several, competing bioremediation groups. The soil was blackened with oil and reeked of aromatic hydrocarbons. We inoculated one berm of soil approximately 8 feet x 30 feet x 3 feet high with mushroom spawn while other technicians employed a variety of methods, ranging from bacteria to chemical agents. After 4 weeks, the tarps were pulled back from each test pile. The first piles employing the other techniques were unremarkable. Then the tarp was pulled from our pile, and gasps of astonishment and laughter welled up from the observers. The hydrocarbon-laden pile was bursting with mushrooms! Oyster mushrooms up to 12 inches in diameter had formed across the pile. Analyses showed that more than 95% of many of the PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) were destroyed, reduced to non-toxic components, and the mushrooms were also free of any petroleum products.

After 8 weeks, the mushrooms had rotted away, and then came another startling revelation. As the mushrooms rotted, flies were attracted. (Sciarid, Phorid and other "fungus gnats" commonly seek out mushrooms, engorged themselves with spores, and spread the spores to other habitats). The flies became a magnet for other insects, which in turn brought in birds. Apparently the birds brought in seeds. Soon ours was an oasis, the only pile teeming with life! We think we have found what is called a "keystone" organism, one that facilitates, cascade of other biological processes that contribute to habitat remediation. Critics, who were in favor of using plants (as in "phytoremediation") and/or bacteria, reluctantly became de facto advocates of our process since the mushrooms opened the door for this natural sequencing.

I do have to ask who would pay for this project? I would hope that the coal companies could be required by law to not only pay for their mess but help in the implementation of the cleanup. Also, what about the former tops of these mountains? Are they going to be refilled with the tailings or turned into mountaintop lakes? Their geology is forever ruined, and I don't know what effect further erosion will have on those pits and the mountains. The mining companies have to take responsibility for the damage they've wreaked, whether voluntarily or by law/force. Todd's plan is certainly workable, but how are we going to set it up and get it going, much less enforced if we have to rely on the mining companies to do that (likely unprofitable in their minds) job?

[diane in sf]

5. John Todd and Paul Stamets--2 remediation heroes for our times. Thank you

great addition to this thread