SEEDHUBS ARE THE REAL EMERGENCY.
This blog post, as well as all other inital posts, have been revised September 2024.
In order to re-green our planet, we need to make choices. And no single choice will stand alone, as all of our choices are inter-connected & points upon which we agree, sometimes, if not often, are scattered due to politics, lobbying, differing philosophical lenses or a varying range of practical approaches.
However, 2 objectives are very clear to most of us:
Most of us agree on the need for action to re-green our planet.
It also is pretty clear the window of time we have is about 10-15 years.
The struggle is about how we are going to get this done in coming decade, taking into account the chaotic melting pot of polarising forces at play. We are at risk of massive migration, political struggle and even proliferating war, which could lead to ‘casual’ self-destruction. Besides making choices on which methods we shall use to re-green our Earth, how do we get our tree-planting application and adjoint treewallet into the hands of billions?
In my humble opinion, we are lucky no single one method will do; Just like an energy-mix, we need a diversified strategy to re-green and re-wild our planet & moreover, all of those strategies together will have to organically grow as renewed data comes in, as our insights evolve and as we materialise advances throughout the coming decade and yonder…
At best, and in a positive scenario, we have Artificial Intelligence as a tool to help us calculate, navigate and balance all of the incoming data. We also have an interesting crypto-driven game like Alien Worlds which is showing us how different virtual governance systems can go and grow together. We humans have the capacity of working together over boundaries and even opposing fractions to achieve goals that benefit us all, like the survival of our species. The question are if, when and how we can surpass our (sometimes fundamental) differences and different approaches…
A very simple way of seeing this, are the following facts:
Tesla company has factories in the USA, the EU and China.
A lot of applications on our smartphones function on and are built for different operating systems.
Now. If we look at planting trees and plants that go along with these trees, especially fruit bearing ones, we notice that the success rate of planting with drones is relatively limited. Drones are a valid method, but what we truly need is plants and trees being cultivated in seedhubs or so-called plant nurseries. All of this is aligned with water provision, protection from extreme weather & soil condition. Hence, our emphasis on (playful) education, especially in terms of true biodiversity. Ecosystems interwine naturally, and thus natural ecosystems go hand in hand with socio-economic ecosystems…
More things could be noted here, yet for our purposes now, the most important thing to note is we need to focus on building more nurseries for trees and plants. Except for hooking the (web3 & green) technology up, we should have our full focus on seedhubs. A lot of areas in the world are simply not growing enough seeds into trees. So, it is actually logical this must be one of our top priorities.
If you look at it geographically, we need sites on all continents to start the coordination of seedhubs. And we have to start that yesterday, so basically now. Without hesitation. Because drones alone will not cut it, due to a limited success rate. A drone cannot help change the soil much, for now. Well, drones can assist, but they cannot do everything. Furthermore, monoculture is problematic for the soil too. We need a holistic approach, in line with natural ecosystems, as well as socio-economic and technological ecosystems.
So, we need to be more cunning in our planting-strategy-mix. Re-wilding similarly is clearly a part of a diversified strategy. It will help us partially realize our targets, however not in full, as it needs a few hands: like protecting young trees in harsh circumstances, for instance in extremely heated areas… So that leaves us with plant and tree nurseries as quintessential key to our success coming decade _to state the obvious.
Now, there are a few ways of doing this, but our suggestion is mainly to bring the nurseries to local communities. We need co-ordination on many levels: global, continental, national, regional. However, the real building and growing power should be at community level. Seedhubs should be in hands of people locally. They have the best know-how of local circumstances. Locals, local non-profits & companies alike, and local communities know their own soil.
Furthermore, co-ordination needs to go hand in hand with all kinds of geographically, broader reaching levels. This is obvious too. There are regulations, laws, political and economical groups: very local onto transnational. Neglecting these would be dumb. To get the work done, we must think in terms of effective and smart cooperation. Better than knocking-out a local market or serviceprovider, it is better to look at ways of how certain goals can be met together. Especially, as we have to move swiftly.
Co-ordination also must be dealt with in terms of what kind of plants and trees are the best, in a vast array of circumstances. There must be voting and governance mechanisms in place that allow for a balanced choice, serving all kinds of groups. Again, we should look at local and regional organisations who know their soil, climate, as well as the broader market; We must streamline, sauce and spice local needs, realities and visions with larger trans-regional and global visions.
Imagine planting pine-trees everywhere? Kind of useless. A nordic pine tree will not grow all the way down South… It is simply easier, more efficient and comfortable to rely on the know-how already available locally. If there is a strong permaculture organisation, why push another planting strategy down the throats of people? But rewarding farmers bound to industrial ways of cultivating land to plant more trees, flowers and other vegetation, seems sensible too. (check regen.network)
We won’t elaborate too much on this here, but in order to get a reasonable Return On Investment which can provide for all the elements we need in place, we must make smart choices in terms of which fruit-bearing trees should be planted where & what kind of (agroforestry) mix we aim to create in which region. It will always be a compromise between legal and political requirements, economical forces, soil situation, climate conditions, motivation(s) & circumstances of local people.
But what we eventually will be able to do with our application is provide a service which will reward people locally who wish to start plant and tree nurseries. These Seedhubs can be built in schools, in backyards, on rooftops, near local sportclubs… The options are sheer endless, actually. Where extra protection must be guaranteed, we can foresee such help. Because if we generate the right mix of plants and trees, proper Return On Investment should cover all necessary costs with relative ease, as well as seamlessly integrate Return On Involvement: gamification executed properly brings about that magic…
Since we are fond of working through hybrid organisational forms, we need to immediately point towards the power of gaming and tech in this whole equation. The tech is prone to be regenerative & is readily available to help us in our efforts. Education through gaming is a powerful tool. People play to learn, if decent rewarding mechanisms are in place: people will get active. These gaming cultures and gaming economies are being built as we speak. We just have to ride the wave & connect to a growing number of service providers.
Some people maybe don’t want to get their hands dirty with soil, but combining actions in the virtual world with actions in the real world is what probably will allow us to be successful. VR-glasses bring a grandmother to the terrain where her granddaughter is planting trees. AR-glasses help people build a greenhouse properly. Someone playing in the Metaverse can reward a community with a shovel or a tree or even a whole nursery by one single swipe of their hands. Virtual and real world combinations are almost limitless. And so forth, and so on.
To conclude our writing here, we wish to give you 3 more hints. And you may believe us when write: we will come back to the subject of these seedhubs. More than once.
Cards in our game can represent fractional land ownership. So there is a revenue stream in terms of buying (and (conditionally) selling) real land, connecting that to the virtual. Then we can plant plenty of trees on that land & for instance refurbish some old farm or old buildings. These can be used for instance as work spaces, stay-over or teambuilding venues (with respect to the local nature…) As batteries evolve: water, wind and solar are in play to provide more valuable energy.
If we wish to offer local communities seedhubs, we can see a few clear paths. (A) One is using geodesic domes. These can also be mounted on rooftops…They are the most powerful structure. Some companies are really specialised in this and thus the knowhow around these types of structures is highly evolved in terms of materials, temperature regulation, size, combinations with aquaponics for instance, climatological conditions… (B) Another path is literally digging into the ground in the style of so-called Walipinis or sunpits & use the thermal protection of the Earth. (C) We also see options of combining the above into fully integrated domes. (D) Moreover, we should keep an eye on 3D-printing, as it becomes easier to use…
In whatever form we wish to help local communities build millions of these smaller seedhubs, we must help people understand why and how they can realise this. It seems like a ridiculously big task, but if you break it down in its logical parts, it suddenly becomes much more realistic. Futures are contracts which help stabilise price in fluctuating market conditions. So, if we know the amount of trees and plants, we can trade the amount of future benefit they will bring, under condition of future CO2 reduction, biodiversity certification. Moreover, one should consider the benefit under the form of fruit, nuts, oil or other production. We just need proper exchange and rewarding mechanisms in place. Crypto-tech like NFTs (Non-Fungible tokens) harbour enormous potential to realise this exchange of goods, services and rewards.
Not convinced yet? Have a look here what The Guardian tells us: HOW CAN WE GROW NEW FORESTS IF WE DONT HAVE ENOUGH TREES TO PLANT?
Wish to see a really cool video on Geodesic Domes? Go and have a look in our blogpost on GAME SYNTAXIS.
