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Urban Times reflections: Type III

August 15th, 2012

Urban Times asked me to share some reflections on my comics. Below is the fourth article in this ongoing series.

The Comic Art of Stuart McMillen: Type III

Stuart McMillen is a cartoonist from Brisbane, Australia who draws comics on science, society and environmental sustainability. In an exclusive series of articles, Stuart reflects upon his comics for Urban Times.

Type III summary

Type III describes the 1980 volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens, which devastated the natural ecosystem immediately surrounding the blast zone. The comic describes the successive types of organisms which helped to recolonise the mountain, ranging from weedy, fast-growing ‘Type I’ species, through to the organisms which constitute the stable, mature ‘Type III’ ecosystem.

Parallels are made between the strategies of Type I organisms with current human industrial practices. The reader is left to contemplate whether human industry will evolve to Type III maturity like a stable ecosystem.

Mount St. Helens

Type III is about the other story of Mount St. Helens. Usually seen only as an force of destruction, I tried to show the flip side of the coin. In the comic, I recast the iconic volcano as a shining example of nature’s versatility, creativity and resilience.

In a devastated environment, seemingly sterilised beyond hope, life found a way to bounce back. From invisible microbes, to hardy lupins and tunnelling gophers, the work was done on many fronts. Though all acting in self-interest, the organisms’ efforts inadvertently served a common purpose.

Over time time the Mount St. Helens landscape transformed in a dynamic process tending toward diversity and stability. Almost poetically, the pioneering lupins and fireweeds were shaded over by shrubs and small trees eager for their time in the sun. More and more, the system folded in on itself, with nutrient recycling, symbiotic relationships and niche specialisations increasing in importance with time.

Unlike the human system mentioned in the comic, we have the opportunity to see the future of the Mount St. Helens ecosystem. The eagles, beavers, bears and wolves of woods surrounding the blast zone give a preview of the species destined to spread across when the time is right. Exactly what the human Type III system will resemble remains to be seen.

Industrial ecology

As interesting and picturesque as Mount St. Helens’ story is, Type III was a comic spawned from my interest in industrial ecology systems theory.

The Type I, Type II and Type III classification system was heavily inspired by Biomimicry (1997) by Janine Benyus (new / used aff), as well as the textbook Industrial Ecology (1995) by T.E. Graedel and B.E. Allenby, which informed her work. I was lucky enough to have Brad Allenby review early versions of the Type III script, and offer his input into the validity of the comic’s ideas.

Industrial ecology is a exciting contrast to conventional industrial practices, based on wasteful linear processes. Industrial ecology aims to maximise efficiency and resource recycling in ways which resemble food webs. In nature there is no such thing as ‘waste’ by the dictionary definition of “useless or worthless material”. Instead, materials are constantly swapped and reused by organisms evolved precisely for nutrient recovery.

Industrial ecology challenges us to apply the strategies of nature to the way we conduct business.

A real-life Type II system: Kalundborg Eco-Industrial Park

Perhaps the most famous real-world example of ‘industrial ecology’-like recycling can be found in the Kalundborg Eco-industrial Park in Denmark. Wikipedia describes the resource flows within the park:

“At the center is the Asnæs Power Station, a 1500MW coal-fired power plant, which has material and energy links with the community and several other companies. Surplus heat from this power plant is used to heat 3500 local homes in addition to a nearby fish farm, whose sludge is then sold as a fertilizer. Steam from the power plant is sold to Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical and enzyme manufacturer, in addition to a Statoil plant. This reuse of heat reduces the amount thermal pollution discharged to a nearby fjord. Additionally, a by-product from the power plant’s sulfur dioxide scrubber contains gypsum, which is sold to a wallboard manufacturer. Almost all of the manufacturer’s gypsum needs are met this way, which reduces the amount of open-pit mining needed. Furthermore, fly ash and clinker from the power plant is used for road building and cement production.”

One of the key points about the park is how the resource recycling partnerships occurred in a spontaneous, collaborative way. Natural ecosystems niches are filled in an opportunistic way, and Kalundborg was no different. Rather than beginning with a top-down design, Kalundborg’s recycling loops were identified and formed in a gradual, unplanned fashion. The environmental benefits of this efficiency are a nice plus, but the prime motivation behind the business’ recycling efforts were financial: it is simply more profitable to be frugal with energy and resource use.

By sharing information and collaborating with their neighbours, sum total of activity in Kalundborg seems to be greater than if they were operating in isolation. Rather than heating water from ambient temperature, or ordering resources from suppliers far afield, the businesses harvest the fruit of their surroundings. As with nature, there is no such thing as ‘waste’, with the residues of old processes being used to feed new ones.

The Kalundborg experiment began in 1972, and has been gradually been evolving since then. Though not a Type III system (its coal-fired power plant is clearly unsustainable in the long-run), it sets a Type II example for others to follow.

The Type III comic: reflections

Although I mostly live in a reality bubble, sometimes I step back to consider how different my comics are from everything else on the web. I mean, a 24 page comic comparing ecological succession with the human industrial system? I’m not exactly competing with the gag-a-day crowd of cartoonists!

With Type III I wanted to transcend the nit-picking debates we have on environmental issues (bottles versus cans, hand dryers versus paper towels) and look at the big picture. The very big picture.

Like St Matthew Island and Supernormal Stimuli, Type III is a comic is about many topics at once. On one level it is about the real-life recovery of nature following the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. On another level, it is an honest look at our lifestyle; a big-picture scorecard for humanity against nature’s benchmarks of success.

But on the most important level, the comic is about hope. Hope that we can work towards a Type III future. Hope from the knowledge that there are natural ecosystems which behave in the Type I and II ways (which we too-often attribute as unique failings of humans). Hope that there is room for us all in a Type III system which thrives on diversity of the weird and wonderful.

As the comic states, it’s not that Type I and Type II systems are categorically ‘bad’. If that was the case, the world would never recover from disasters like Mount St. Helens. The critical point is learning that humanity’s current Type I/II strategy is unsustainable, and needs to be transformed to Type III-like harmony as soon as possible.

View more in the Urban Times series here.

Tags: biology, cartoon, comics, ecological succession, ecology, environment, industrial ecology, industry, making of, Mount St. Helens, natural resources, nature, science, sustainability, Urban Times, volcano
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Urban Times reflections: Purpose

July 18th, 2012

Urban Times asked me to share some reflections on my comics. Below is the second article in this ongoing series.

The Comic Art of Stuart McMillen: Purpose

Stuart McMillen is a cartoonist from Brisbane, Australia who draws comics on science, society and environmental sustainability. In an exclusive series of articles, Stuart reflects upon his comics for Urban Times.

Purpose Summary

Part 1 of Purpose portrays an ‘explorer’ character engaged in a struggle against the natural world. Over the course of the comic, more and more of the surroundings are cleared of nature until the final panel reveals a world almost fully occupied by people.

Part 2 of Purpose begins with the same character looking upon a grim, desolate planet. A narrative unfolds which is the mirror image of Part 1, showing the character taking steps to return the land back to full prosperity.

Inspiration

The follow-up comic to St Matthew Island, Purpose revisits the theme of environmental sustainability, but focuses on the attitudes behind our actions.

The epicentre of inspiration behind Purpose was reading Ishmael (new / used aff) by Daniel Quinn. Released in 1992, the novel was widely hailed as a touchstone for readers seeking to make sense of our civilisation’s attitudes and values. Written in a quasi-fictional setting, almost the entire book consists of a dialogue between an unnamed student and a teacher named Ishmael.

I came to the party in 2011, and ended up rating Ishmael as my favourite read of the year. Quinn’s unique novel cuts to the heart of Western civilisation’s struggle against nature: a wrestle which Quinn pins to a set of deep-held beliefs unique to our culture. Ishmael has its critics, but the book connected many dots for me, and left me wondering how to move forward as a person.

Writing the comic

So what do you do when you discover your whole culture is built on quicksand?

I wrote. I tried unpicking the unspoken attitudes of our culture, and spelling them out in terms as stark and concise as possible.

I extrapolated. I stretched the attitudes to absurd proportions. An obsessive mentality eager to control every plant that grows on Earth, every animal that stands on Earth. The ultimate goal? Turning chaos into order. Turning nature into food. Turning food into people.

That is our purpose

“Turning nature into people. That is our purpose.”

Written out in such simple terms it sounds ludicrous. A caricature. A greenie straw-man.

But do our actions point to a different story?

In my country, Australia, there is a strong voice of dissent against any plans to surrender “our” resources to nature. Ending broad-scale tree clearing? Flushing extra water down the Murray River? Creating a marine reserve in the Coral Sea?

Out of the question.

The dominant mentality hates the idea of losing control. Of ceding defeat. Of ending ‘progress’. Of acknowledging flaws in the strategy that took us to here.

Why should we let nature waste our resources? Why should we care about the arrows on the food chain which don’t terminate at humans? We own this joint, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Owners of the planet

The dominant mentality comes piped directly from the scriptures: humans are the ‘owners’ of this planet, and it is our job to liberate it from the chaos of the wild.

It’s an all-pervading mindset, passed down through our culture and accepted even by those who do not consider themselves religious or creationists. Something in our subconscious still harks back to the time when we thought the world was made for man, and man was made to rule the world.

We use language like “our fisheries” and “our wildlife” to describe the parts of nature placed here for our exclusive use. We talk of “our oceans” and “our solar system” to describe our surroundings, brought into creation so that we could have a home. Everything in the world, everything in the universe remains framed around human beings.

The Purpose comic: part 1

Purpose, part 1 remains the starkest piece I have published. Even too strong for some, who saw it as a slap in the face to the average reader.

Although the protagonist of the comic wears ‘explorer’ clothes, I maintain that our modern society is following the same strategy as the settlers that came before us. Outwards the suburbs march. Inwards the forests shrink.

The average reader may not agree with the mission of the protagonist, but is nevertheless an accomplice through the machinery of globalised capitalism. Someone, somewhere is cutting into the natural world to create the goods associated with our modern lifestyles. Even if we may not chop down the trees with our two hands, we inadvertently vote for their destruction with our purchases.

By the end of Part 1, the reader has long since stopped being a willing participant with the protagonist’s mission, yet sees the logical conclusion of our civilisation’s mindset.

Unlike the explorer character, who relishes in the suppression of nature, the average reader sees this destruction as a sad sin of omission, rather than a sin of commission.

The Purpose comic: part 2

It’s not enough to point to the error of our ways. There must be an alternative to turn to. As Daniel Quinn notes in Ishmael, “you can’t just stop being in a story, you have to have another story to be in.”

So if our ‘purpose’ is what brought us here, what should we now live for? Being an optimist, I was not satisfied publishing Part 1 without an antidote. Part 2 at least tries to imagine the motivation which could lead us out of the self-created valley, back to a summit of natural abundance.

All too-often we try to be ‘less bad’ to the environment. Or environmentally benign. To me, those goals do not go far enough. Instead, we need to be restorative.

I believe our motivation must be found in the restoration itself. Seeing the improvements. Helping nature recharge itself. Watching the planetary systems return to full glory.

Unsurprisingly, I found that the answer came from reversing the mindset of the Part 1 explorer. From obsessively suppressing nature, to finding joy with the chaos of nature. From recognising that man belongs to the world, rather than the world belongs to man.

Epilogue: completing the circle

With Purpose originally inspired by Ishmael (new / used aff), it was great to get a compliment back from Daniel Quinn. As well as sharing the comic with his website followers, Daniel congratulated me for packing “a lot of valuable messages into just a handful of drawings”.

View more in the Urban Times series here.