At the Bioneers conference in October, I learned about the launch of two sites that celebrate the Earth's biodiversity. The hope is that by making people aware of the wisdom and diversity that abounds on Planet Earth that we will not only be more inspired to conserve and protect wildlife and ecosystems, we will also use this wisdom to guide our own inventions and designs as we restructure our world to combat global warming.



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The Encyclopedia of Life Project

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The goal of this project is to create a separate web page for each species on the planet. Here's how the site describes the project:

"The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is an ambitious project to organize and make available, via the Internet, virtually all information about life present on Earth. At its heart lies a series of web sites—-one for each of the approximately 1.8 million known species. Each site is constantly evolving and features dynamically synthesized content ranging from historical literature and biological descriptions to stunning images, videos and distribution maps. Join us as we explore the richness of Earth's biodiversity!"

Would you like to get involved? There are quite a few ways you can help, whether you are a scientist, photographer, avid naturalist on your own time, teacher, or student. Learn the details (http://www.eol.org/content/page/help_build_eol). This is a great way to demonstrate your commitment to Earth and its biodiversity.

As the site fills, out each species will have a page that includes a series of photos, a detailed description of behaviors, ecology, and classification. Here's a screenshot of the page for Reindeer (http://www.carolmcclelland.com/gctipimages/reindeer.jpg).

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Ask Nature

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Ask Nature (http://asknature.org/) site has been designed by the founder of Biomimicry, Janine Benyus. Here's how the site describes it's mission:

Imagine 3.8 billion years of design brilliance available for free, at the moment of creation, to any sustainability innovator in the world.

Imagine nature's most elegant ideas organized by design and engineering function, so you can enter "filter salt from water" and see how mangroves, penguins, and shorebirds desalinate without fossil fuels.

Now imagine you can meet the people who have studied these organisms, and together you can create the next great bio-inspired solution.

That's the idea behind AskNature, the online inspiration source for the biomimicry community. Think of it as your home habitat—whether you're a biologist who wants to share what you know about an amazing organism, or a designer, architect, engineer, or chemist looking for planet-friendly solutions. AskNature is where biology and design cross-pollinate, so bio-inspired breakthroughs (http://asknature.org/aof/browse) can be born.

Biomimicry is an emerging industry/perspective that has the potential to completely rewrite how we design, manufacture, and build our world. It's one of the most inspiring concepts I've seen. Take a look at the site to see examples of biomimicry at work.

Interested in getting involved with AskNature? Take a look at how you can become an active member of this community. (http://asknature.org/article/view/get_involved)

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Collaboration between Encyclopedia of Life and AskNature

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In the months to come, AskNature will use the Encyclopedia of Life to expand their database with more species that provide insights about how to solve the problems we face with global warming. The result will be an invaluable database that will allow designers, architects, engineers, and chemists to find planet-friendly solutions more quickly and efficiently.