We don't know how much energy pollution from anti-Nature
technology affects the environment in general. Logically it should
be most prevalent near power stations, large factories and the like.
However, when rivers, which are the arteries of the blood of the
Earth (see Chapter 11), and normally transmit energy to the sur-
rounding countryside, are turned into 'lifeless corpses' (as
Schauberger used to say), what effect will this cadaverous energy
have on the environment? Clearly, if humanity is to reverse the
downward devolutionary spiral, our first priority must be to change
over to Nature's energy systems.The choice before us
Humanity lived a relatively natural and sustainable lifestyle until
fairly recent times. The growth of industry and its massive demand
for energy resources has introduced increasing degrees of instabil-
ity. Going back over 2000 years, but much more clearly in the last
350 years, it has been possible to chart a different kind of develop-
ment which has brought with it a deterioration of the natural envi-
ronment, increasing disorder and inefficiency.
Callum Coats shows this divergence of the two systems in the
accompanying chart (Fig. 5.1). In the last 150 years with rapid
industrialization, a scientifically based technology developed, and
the divergence shown by the lower curve has become dramatic, with
dire consequences for the environment.
By contrast, the curve rising up toward 'ectropy' shows how nat-
ural evolution builds more complex systems with more evolved
species on the foundation of earlier ones. This is how biodiversity
increases. The appearance of new species requires a surplus of evo-
lutionary energies deriving from the improved conditions of inter-
dependence. It is as though the growth in natural capital from the
sound economy of evolution produces interest or surplus energy
from which new life forms may be formed. Nature's system is so
economical that little is wasted. The many seeds, nuts and fruits
which sustain all the currently existing life forms, can be seen as the
surplus on Nature's interest.
The mineral resources of the Earth, which are Nature's base cap-
ital, should never be used. As we shall see in Chapter 17, Schauberger
illustrates how they are essential building blocks in the production
of formative energies. The indigenous people understood their
- ENERGY PRODUCTION