the internal combustion and steam engines on which our civiliza-
tion depend not even 50% efficient? The energy that is not turned
into power or motion is wasted and heats up the atmosphere,
adding to the greenhouse effect. From his observations of Nature
came the answer, which is probably the most important of
Schauberger's discoveries — that we use the wrong form of
motion.
Our machines and technological processes channel agents such
as air, water and other liquids and gases into the type of motion that
Nature uses only to decompose and dissolve matter. As a conse-
quence, the air, water and other substances are devitalized and
debilitated, affecting their surroundings. The energy produced by
our technology is harmful because, by its very nature, it causes dete-
rioration in the environment through strengthening those energies
that break down structures and degrade quality, while at the same
time suppressing those that increase quality and thus help plants
and animals to be healthy.
Biodynamic and organic gardeners have commented that they
value Viktor Schauberger's advice on how to treat materials that
Nature breaks down for recycling, for these insights have been lack-
ing for this form of cultivation (see Chapter 17 for more on this topic).
Through its dependence on the decomposing mode of motion
our technology is dangerously affecting the vital biodiversity and
balance of our ecosystems, the stability of our societies, and is one of
the main causes of human-generated global warming. The form of
motion on which we depend for building and development is the one
that Nature uses to destabilize and break down. Nature uses another
form of motion for creating and rebuilding. It is hardly surprising
then, that our technology is self-destructive and unsustainable.
Our mechanical, technological systems of motion are based on
explosive, outward pushing energies which always meet resistance,
producing heat and friction. This form of movement goes out at a
tangent, producing the fastest movement at the periphery (as in a
wheel), a form of motion that is disintegrative, noisy and inefficient,
because so much of the energy is dissipated. The effect is to break
apart, to fragment. This is the way we generate our power; from the
inside to the outside. It is called centrifugal movement, and is a
process that Nature will use only to break down before reassembly
into some other form takes place (see Fig. 1.2, p. 33).
By contrast, Nature uses the opposite, centripetal, form ofHIDDEN NATURE