Old-growth forests model self-sustaining community efficiency that human societies can emulate.
Evidence
The old-growth forest is as stunning in its elegance of function as in its beauty. Under conditions of scarcity, there can be no frenzy of uncontrolled growth or waste of resources. The “green architecture” of the forest structure itself is a model of efficiency, with layers of foliage in a multilayered canopy that optimizes capture of solar energy. If we are looking for models of self-sustaining communities, we need look no further than an old-growth forest. Or the old-growth cultures they raised in symbiosis with them. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1050
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Old-growth cultures can regenerate from land memory like forests do — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 1079; Healing land requires shifting people’s worldview toward old-growth cultures — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 1078; Old-growth moss communities embody centuries that no technique can compress — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 535
Broader Connections
- Healing land requires shifting people’s worldview toward old-growth cultures
#expands(0.82) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1078 - Old-growth cultures can regenerate from land memory like forests do
#expands(0.80) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1079 - Old-growth moss communities embody centuries that no technique can compress
#exemplifies(0.75) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 535