Prof Ferdinando Boero
marine biologist, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn , Naples

We are a species that is dependent on technology. This has now led us to squeeze every last drop out of our natural resources. We have reached such a dangerous point that our ecological footprint is jeopardising our continued existence on the planet. We have to finally learn how to stop living like plunderers and to live in symbiotic coexistence instead. Intimate knowledge of the way in which the living world works is a prerequisite for any form of sustainability.

Nature abhors a vacuum. We are moving from a sea full of fish to a sea full of jellyfish. There are already signs that human influences such as overfishing and pollution are shifting the balance in the oceans from highly developed, fish-based ecosystems back to an older stage of development. And at that stage – as in the Palaeocene – jellyfish begin to dominate again.  This species has hardly changed in 500 million years of natural selection. They are perfect creatures and have survived all previous mass extinctions. Alternatively, to put it more ironically: if God wanted to appear in his own image, it would probably be as a jellyfish.

 

Dr Tinkara Tinta
marine biologist, Marine Biology Station Piran

Under unfavourable conditions, some jellyfish are able to revert to an earlier phase of their life cycle for a certain period of time and to wait in this “rejuvenated” stage until the stress factors have disappeared. Their ability to regenerate and their survival strategies are fascinating.

 

Prof Dr Vera Meyer
microbiologist, TU Berlin

 The invisible has always appealed to me more than what is visible and apparently easy to understand. Viewed under a microscope, fungal structures are incredibly beautiful and aesthetic. Fungi are nature’s waste managers and are true masters of metabolism. At the moment, it is good for us to think along visionary lines. In view of the climate crisis, we urgently need to find answers. And nature offers us many.

Some mushrooms are stunningly beautiful, while others are repulsive and ugly. They are in equal measure visible and invisible to us. Mushrooms therefore have an almost mystical effect on many people. They capture people’s imaginations and countless myths have grown up around them.

In a future in which climate change, rising sea levels and consequently migration will characterise our everyday lives, houses made of mushrooms could be a utopian answer to these challenges. When the ‘mushroom houses’ are no longer needed, they could be returned to nature through controlled composting. Our vision of living in mushrooms, dressing in mushrooms and living with and from mushrooms both irritates and fascinates people.

In nature, positive interactions such as symbiosis dominate. Nature is only able to survive because its resources are shared.

 

Mark Stüttler
Mushroom Research Centre Austria Innsbruck

One thing is clear: if the last few decades had not always been about maximising profits for the few, but really about the well-being and healing of human beings and our planet, then mushrooms would already be an integral part of many areas of our lives today.

We can also learn a lot from fungi when it comes to the way we interact with one another: for instance, from the way fungi live and communicate – and even co-operate – via their unique mycelial network; how they live together communally with trees and other living beings and support one another.

 

Designer Maurizio Montalti
SQIM / ephea / mogu RADICAL BY NATURE, Inarzo Italy

Fungi are a network of many different types of cells that all contribute to the intelligence of the system. It is very interesting to draw parallels with social organisations. You quickly recognise the ability of a colony – which is made up of many different cells – to work in the interests of the collective rather than the individual.

Fungi are absolutely incredible organisms, and I believe that they are capable of things which we haven’t even figured out yet, as in the case of the Chernobyl reactor after the explosion and the disaster, where some fungi actually seemed to be able to feed on the radiation in the environment. To me, that is not necessarily surprising, but rather fascinating, especially when we consider the possibility that fungi could derive from outer space.

 

Josef A. Holzer
Krameterhof, Lungau Land Salzburg

On our farm in Salzburg’s Lungau region, we want to show what is possible when you utilise the complexity, diversity and productivity of nature.

At Krameterhof, we can show that there are agricultural alternatives to agrarian uniformity, and that it is pays off to deal with nature and its resources in a responsible manner. From our perspective, economy and ecology are not opponents, but rather partners.

 

Mykhailo Nesterenko
Rewilding Europe Ukraine

To have a resilient delta, you have to restore its functioning ecosystem. First of all, we need to ensure that the natural processes are all working. That includes flooding, sedimentation and the development of vegetation. For this reason, we removed parts of the dykes and flooded the area. And we saw an amazing return of nature and vegetation. We have settled large herbivores there to create a mosaic and beautify the area in such a way that other bird species, amphibians and fish can have their spawning grounds. It is very much a breathing, dynamic system.