Beneath the mossy floor of North American temperate forests lies an intricate network exchanging the needs and nutrients of its trees. Coursing through the soil, a multitude of fungal species attach to the roots of Spruce, Firs, Poplars and Pines. From one tree to another, these mycorrhizal fungi weave thin threads that interconnect the forest like a fiber-optic web. As the night falls, as the moon ebbs, as the seasons change, the mycelium tapestry allows individual trees to sense the give and take of their networked neighbours. A Birch catching the morning sun through a break in the canopy informs the others by a surge of sugars flowing into its roots. A Spruce short on water lets its neighbours know by its abnormal draw. A Douglas fir attacked by insects alerts its neighbours by a sudden shift in its need for nitrogen. As each individual signals and senses, the collective mutualistically adapts to both cycles and events in their environment. As each individual integrates, so too does it flourish— and with it the collective resiliency, vibrancy and abundance of the forest.
THE WAY THAT a forest and fungi work together to increase the awareness and abundance of their ecosystem provides us with our fifth and final Earthen ethic. Already embodying our first four ethics, temperate forests and their mycorrhirzal networks exemplify the enriching spiral of matter and energy tending towards ever more diverse organisms and ever greener ecosystems. However, this intricate 'wood wide web' (as scientists affectionately call it), reveals a further, all encompassing phenomenon. As we shall see, the means by which the mycorrhizal bimome steadily increase its collective awareness is a microcosm of the billion year process by which Earth has transformed from barren to biosphere. By looking closely at how this distinctly Earthen pheonomon has unfolded over our planet's history, we shall lay out our fifth and final Earthen ethic. With the help of the principle of 'awaring' (as we shall affectionately call it)¹ we can not only ensure that our enterprises are green, we can also make them greener and greener. And, most importantly— know that this is so.
To begin, let us return one more time to Earth's primordial story.
Two billion years ago, Earth's surface was a barren, desolate place. However, as we saw in Earth's stellar story the cycles on its surface adapted. With each spin they found ways to ever better disperse the Sun's shine. Steadily, our planet's unique cosmological character unfurled ever more effective dissipations of solar energy.¹
As early cellular systems emerged, fundamental to their flourishing was a sensitivity to respond and adapt to changes in their environment. In particular, those changes that cyclically repeat.²
For the first simple cells, nothing was more patently periodic than the cycle of day and night. Thus the first Eukaryotes developed phytochromes and cyptochromes photoreceptors to detect varying wavelengths and intensities of light.³ As they became aware of the rhythm of the sun, they entrained and optimized their bodies and behaviours to capture and transform the cycles energy and matter around them.⁴
As plants emerged, they built further upon this primal awareness. Ferns learned to conserve water and exchange gas by opening their stomata during the day and closing them at night. Trees learned to drop their leaves during the cold seasons. Conifers learned to sync the ebb and flow of their sap with the pull and push of lunar cycles.
As plants of all kinds proliferated, a second tier of organisms came to survive upon the first. They did so by developing a sensitivity to the oscillations of the plants on whom they depended. Early insects came to sense and sync their reproductive cycle with the blooming cycles of flowering plants. Birds came to sense and sync their movements with to seasonal fruit. Sea worms came to ajust their spawning with the lunar grow patterns of tidal sea grass.⁵
As organisms fell into webs of independence, the more organisms were aware of the cycles of their fellows, they more they could adapt. However, this meant more than just sensing their environment, but so too signaling to each other. The clearer the signal that its fruit were ripe, the better a tree could share and distribute its seeds. The better a bee could sense a plant's flowers, the more effectively it could find food. As both sense and signal spiraled into countless channels of communication and compensation, the environmental awareness of individuals and of the collective steadily augmented. Both above ground, and below.
Here, today's temperate forests with their below ground mycorrizal networks stand as a magnificent microcosm of this distinctly Earthen phenomenon.
Just as Earth's emerging organisms steadily became more aware of their interconnection in order to thrive, so too do the inhabitants of the fungal forests embody this pattern to also thrive. Indeed,these forests illustrate magnificently, the precise pattern at play. By sensing and signaling their give and take of nutrients to their fellow trees, the mycorrhizal forest can sync, adapt and optimize as a collective. As this signaling and sensing cyclically repeats, each nodal tree in the network gets to know the character of its fellows. Perhaps a certain tree is gluttonous with its glucose. Perhas another is finicky with its phosphorus! Or perhaps, as Sussane Simmard has observed, a tree is particularily nurtuous, magnimous even mothering with its dispersal of nutrients out to sapplings. Either way, a tree’s pattern not only let’s its neighbours know whether it is a sapling or a Spruce, but also determines the tree’s engagement with others: whether more roots and mycellium go its way, whether its nutrients flow, whether its needs are met, and indeed, whether it and the forest thrive.
Of course, from the kincentric view of the world, humans as ecological entities, also have ecological characters. Just like a tree within a forest, our human enterprises give and take from the ecosystems in which they are immersed. From the material resources they require to the financial energy that flows throught them, their operation is inextricably interconnected with ecological effects. In this way, just as a tree establishes a characteristic pattern of give and take, so too do our projects and products, endeavours and enterprises.
Today, as we strive to ensure our human enterprises are green, Trees and Earth show us the way forward.
Just as Earth tends its processes towards awareness, so too can we can intend with our own. When our enterprises cyclically share their ecological give and take, then the awareness of all is augmented. Such enterprises, by fulfilling this and the other four Earthen ethics, can then be considered to be an ecological contribution, and green.
Conversely, no matter how green an enterprise may seem, if it fails to fully inform how it is green, it fails to be green.
After all if we cannot discern how an enterprises meets the other four Earthen ethics, how can we truly discern whether its character is green or grey?
A product may be marketed as 'green' because it is made with organic material— but a forest may have been cut for the crop.
An organization may operate as a not-for-profit— yet the spaces that it presides over may be barren of biodiversity.
A service may have been made with net-zero emissions— yet tons of carbon may have been dispersed in its shipping.
Or not.
In this sense, it is irrelevant whether an enterprise is concealing its impact, or whether it has simply failed to know their own impact for themselves. In so far as the ecological awareness of all those involved is unaffected (or decreased!), it directly impedes mutualist adaption: Without accurate knowledge of an enterprises ecological impact, humans seeking to entrain their own cycles and systems to the benefit the biosphere, will make mistakes in their energy allocations: purchasing products, soliciting services or working for enterprises that are taking more than they give.
Thus, when evaluating the greenness of an act, product or process we must ask: Is the enterprise raising the ecological awareness of all those involved? Has the enterprise undertaken a comprehensive disclosure of all its ecological give and and takes?
In short: is the full ecological character of the enterprise being made known?
Here again, character is key.
As we have seen throughout the Tractatus, it was Earth's cosmological character that, in contrast to the other planets, led the greening of its surface. As we also saw, Earth’s greening was characterized by five fundamental dynamics. Consequently, to know the character of a system on planet Earth (be it an ecosystem, animal or enterprise) we must evaluate the extent to which it reflects and emobodies these five Earthen facets. Wehn it comes to our human process, products and enterprises, a comprehensive disclosure of an enterprise's attainmnet of each the five Earthen principles is requisite so that it may aware those that it touches. Then, to the extent that an enterprise embodies these five facets of ecological contribution, we can evaluate it shade of green.
In this way a green enterprise will...
1. Discloses its plan for the cyclical spiral of its products or services in a way that ecologically enrich (defined by the numerical balances of facets 2, 3, 4).
2. Disclose its spiral of financial energy out to the benefit of people and planet.
3. Discloses the way it cycles its principle elements (such as carbon) towards concentration and sequestration.
4. Disclose the way its spaces support biodiversification.
5. Expresses and realizes its commitment of cyclical disclosure (i.e. daily, quarterly, annually, etc.) of facets 1-4.
Through this five faceted ecological accounting and disclosure the greeness of our enterprises, products and processes can scintillate like a tree’s Spring buds — a vivid green a beacon to eyes weary of a long grey winter.
An shoe maker can publically declare its intention to be first and foremost of ecological service and struture its financial and ecologically accounting accordingly.
A corporation can report that for each 1$ of internal profit 200$ were dispersed out to fellow for-Earth enterprises with net green impact.
A server provider can report that for each kilogram of carbon used in its making, a net of 100kg have been sequestered.
A company can disclose how its support for biodiversity (the number of species per cubic meter of space) has increased each year for the last decade by 200% leading to several thousand unique species sharing space with them.
With such accounting and intentions in place, the stars are the limit to the green impact that can be acheived. For those of keen to be green, the choice in our economic and social interactions of what services, products and enterprises to put our energy will be as clear as night and day.
Then, with renewed confidence, we can then choose to work for or buy from such enterprises, sure of the color, character and the well-being vitalized. With our support, such enterprises can steadily increase their give to vastly exceed their take — for their well being, ours and everyone’s.
This full embodiment of the five principles of Earthen ethics is what we shall call a for-Earth process of human enterprise.
Powered by humanity's rising planet passion such Earth Enterprises are uniquely poised to transform even the most dire systemic pollutions from spirals of depletion into spirals of enrichment.
Starting with our modern management of plastic.