These are spinneret glands

まず短い例から紹介します

on the abdomen of a spider.

これは蜘蛛の腹部にある

They produce six different types of silk, which is spun together into a fiber,

出糸突起腺です

tougher than any fiber humans have ever made.

ここから繊維状に紡がれた ６種類のシルクを作り出します

The nearest we've come is with aramid fiber.

人が作ったどんな繊維よりも丈夫です

And to make that, it involves extremes of temperature,

一番近いものがアラミド繊維です

extremes of pressure and loads of pollution.

アラミド繊維を作るには極度の高温や

And yet the spider manages to do it at ambient temperature and pressure

圧力が必要で汚染の負荷もあります

with raw materials of dead flies and water.

蜘蛛はこれを普通の温度と圧力で

It does suggest we've still got a bit to learn.

原料と言えば死んだハエや水でこれを作ります

This beetle can detect a forest fire at 80 kilometers away.

ここから学ぶことがあるはずです

That's roughly 10,000 times the range

この昆虫は80キロ離れたところから森林火事を感知します

of man-made fire detectors.

これは人口火災探知機の

And what's more, this guy doesn't need a wire

１万倍の範囲です

connected all the way back to a power station burning fossil fuels.

しかもこの昆虫は

So these two examples give a sense of what biomimicry can deliver.

化石燃料を燃やす発電所を電源とする必要もありません

If we could learn to make things and do things the way nature does,

これらの３つの例からバイオミミクリで何かできると感じられます

we could achieve factor 10, factor 100,

私たちが自然界のやり方を真似すれば

maybe even factor 1,000 savings

資源やエネルギーは10分の１

in resource and energy use.

百分の１どころか千分の１まで

And if we're to make progress with the sustainability revolution,

節約できるかもしれません

I believe there are three really big changes

そして持続可能を掲げての改革を進めるにおいて

we need to bring about.

3つの大きな変化を

Firstly, radical increases in resource efficiency.

もたらす必要があります

Secondly, shifting from a linear, wasteful,

まずは資源効率の抜本的向上

polluting way of using resources

次に廃棄物や公害まみれの

to a closed-loop model.

一方通行の資源の使い道を

And thirdly, changing from a fossil fuel economy

閉ループに移行していくこと

to a solar economy.

3つ目に化石燃料経済から

And for all three of these, I believe,

太陽燃料経済への移行

biomimicry has a lot of the solutions that we're going to need.

これら3つにおいて

You could look at nature as being like a catalog of products,

必要な解決策がバイオミミクリにあると思います

and all of those have benefited

自然を製品カタログと考えてみてください

from a 3.8-billion-year research and development period.

それらはすべて

And given that level of investment, it makes sense to use it.

38億年の研究開発期間から恩恵を受けています

So I'm going to talk about some projects that have explored these ideas.

投資のレベルを考えると それを使うのは理に適っています

And let's start with radical increases

これらのアイデアを研究したプロジェクトを紹介します

in resource efficiency.

急進的な資源効率の向上から

When we were working on the Eden Project,

はじめましょう

we had to create a very large greenhouse

エデン・プロジェクトでは

in a site that was not only irregular,

巨大なグリーンハウスを

but it was continually changing because it was still being quarried.

変わった場所というだけでなく

It was a hell of a challenge,

採石中で常に変化している場所に作らなければなりませんでした

and it was actually examples from biology

それは過酷な挑戦で

that provided a lot of the clues.

実際に生物学が

So for instance,

多くの手がかりをくれました

it was soap bubbles that helped us generate a building form

たとえば

that would work regardless of the final ground levels.

どんな地表にも対応できる

Studying pollen grains

建物型の生成には石鹸の泡がヒントとなりました

and radiolaria and carbon molecules

花粉の研究や

helped us devise the most efficient structural solution

放散虫類や炭素の分子は

using hexagons and pentagons.

六角形や五角形を利用して

The next move was that we wanted

最も効率的な構造解の考案に役立ちました

to try and maximize the size of those hexagons.

次の段階として

And to do that we had to find an alternative to glass,

これらの六角形のサイズを大きくしようとしました

which is really very limited in terms of its unit sizes.

そのためにはガラスの代替を見つけなくてはなりません

And in nature there are lots of examples

それはサイズの面でかなり限りがありました

of very efficient structures based on pressurized membranes.

自然界には沢山の例があります

So we started exploring this material called ETFE.

加圧膜を基盤とした大変効率的な構造です

It's a high-strength polymer.

そこで私たちはETFEという材質の研究を始めました

And what you do is you put it together in three layers,

高強度のポリマーです

you weld it around the edge, and then you inflate it.

これで何をするかと言うと ３つの層に重ねて

And the great thing about this stuff

端にそって溶接し 膨らまします

is you can make it in units

これの素晴らしいところは

of roughly seven times the size of glass,

１つの大きさがガラスの７倍ほどに

and it was only one percent of the weight of double-glazing.

作ることができるのです

So that was a factor-100 saving.

しかも重さは２重ガラスの１％です

And what we found is that we got into a positive cycle

これが百分の１の節約です

in which one breakthrough facilitated another.

そして１つのブレイクスルーが他の突破口を作るといった

So with such large, lightweight pillows,

肯定的なサイクルに乗ったのです

we had much less steel.

このように大きくて軽い素材を使っているので

With less steel we were getting more sunlight in,

鉄はかなり少ないです

which meant we didn't have to put as much extra heat in winter.

鉄が少ないので日光が沢山入ります

And with less overall weight in the superstructure,

冬の暖房が少なくてすみます

there were big savings in the foundations.

上部構造全体が軽量なので

And at the end of the project we worked out

基盤も大きく節約できます

that the weight of that superstructure

プロジェクトの終わりには

was actually less than the weight of the air inside the building.

上部構造自体の重さは

So I think the Eden Project is a fairly good example

その内部の空気よりも軽くなりました

of how ideas from biology

エデン・プロジェクトは生物学からのアイデアが

can lead to radical increases in resource efficiency --

いかに資源効率の

delivering the same function,

急進的向上に繋がるかという良い例だと言えるでしょう

but with a fraction of the resource input.

ごくわずかな材料で

And actually there are loads of examples in nature

同じ機能を提供するのです

that you could turn to for similar solutions.

自然には同じような解決に導く

So for instance, you could develop super-efficient roof structures

実に多くの例があります

based on giant Amazon water lilies,

たとえば アマゾンの巨大睡蓮から

whole buildings inspired by abalone shells,

素晴らしい効率の屋根の構造を開発できます

super-lightweight bridges inspired by plant cells.

あわびの殻に触発された建築物

There's a world of beauty and efficiency to explore here

植物細胞から発案された超軽量の橋

using nature as a design tool.

自然をデザインの素材とした

So now I want to go onto talking about the linear-to-closed-loop idea.

美しく効率的な世界が広がっています

The way we tend to use resources

一方通行から閉ループへのアイデアについて紹介します

is we extract them,

通常私たちは資源を取り出して

we turn them into short-life products and then dispose of them.

寿命の短い製品を作り

Nature works very differently.

使用後は処分してしまいます

In ecosystems, the waste from one organism

自然はまったく別です

becomes the nutrient for something else in that system.

自然の生態系では １有機体からでたゴミは

And there are some examples of projects

その生態系の中で 他への栄養になります

that have deliberately tried to mimic ecosystems.

意図的に自然の生態系を模倣しようとした

And one of my favorites

プロジェクト例はいくつかあります

is called the Cardboard to Caviar Project

私のお気に入りの１つが

by Graham Wiles.

クラハム・ワイルズの

And in their area they had a lot of shops and restaurants

ダンボールからキャビアプロジェクトです

that were producing lots of food, cardboard and plastic waste.

彼らの地域では店やレストランが多く

It was ending up in landfills.

たくさんの食料 ダンボールやプラスティックのゴミを出します

Now the really clever bit is what they did with the cardboard waste.

これらは埋立地に運ばれます

And I'm just going to talk through this animation.

彼らはこのダンボールのゴミを賢く利用しました

So they were paid to collect it from the restaurants.

アニメーションで説明します

They then shredded the cardboard

彼らはレストランからお金をもらってダンボールを回収します

and sold it to equestrian centers as horse bedding.

ダンボールを細断して

When that was soiled, they were paid again to collect it.

馬のベッド用に乗馬センターへ売り

They put it into worm recomposting systems,

汚れた頃にお金をもらって回収します

which produced a lot of worms, which they fed to Siberian sturgeon,

それをミミズ再堆肥化システムに入れ

which produced caviar, which they sold back to the restaurants.

たくさんに増えたミミズをシベリアチョウザメに与え

So it transformed a linear process

サメからキャビアを得て レストランに売ります

into a closed-loop model,

これは直線的な過程を

and it created more value in the process.

閉ループへと転換させました

Graham Wiles has continued to add more and more elements to this,

そして一連の過程に価値を作り出しました

turning waste streams into schemes that create value.

グラハム・ワイルズはより多くの要素を付け加え続け

And just as natural systems

廃棄物の流れから価値を生み出す仕組みを作りました

tend to increase in diversity and resilience over time,

自然のシステムが時とともに

there's a real sense with this project

多様性や復元力を増す傾向があるように

that the number of possibilities

このプロジェクトには

just continue increasing.

可能性がいくつにも

And I know it's a quirky example,

増えつつあるという実感があります

but I think the implications of this are quite radical,

これは風変わりな例ですが

because it suggests that we could actually

非常に大きな意味合いを持っています

transform a big problem -- waste -- into a massive opportunity.

廃棄物という大きな問題を

And particularly in cities --

壮大な可能性へと変換できることを示唆しているからです

we could look at the whole metabolism of cities,

都市では特に

and look at those as opportunities.

全体の代謝を見て

And that's what we're doing on the next project I'm going to talk about,

機会ととらえることができます

the Mobius Project,

それについてお話しします

where we're trying to bring together a number of activities,

メビウス・プロジェクト

all within one building,

数々の活動を一つの建物の中に

so that the waste from one can be the nutrient for another.

結集して

And the kind of elements I'm talking about

廃棄物を他の栄養にしようとする試みです

are, firstly, we have a restaurant inside a productive greenhouse,

まず

a bit like this one in Amsterdam called De Kas.

稼働中の温室の中にレストランを作ります

Then we would have an anaerobic digester,

アムステルダムのデカスのようなものです

which could deal with all the biodegradable waste from the local area,

次にその地域の生分解性廃棄物

turn that into heat for the greenhouse

すべてに対応できる嫌気性消化装置を設け

and electricity to feed back into the grid.

廃棄物から生まれる熱を温室に使ったり

We'd have a water treatment system

電気に変えて配管網へフィードバックします

treating wastewater, turning that into fresh water

汚水を新鮮な水へと

and generating energy from the solids

処理するシステムを取り入れ

using just plants and micro-organisms.

植物や微生物を利用して

We'd have a fish farm fed with vegetable waste from the kitchen

固体からエネルギーを生成します

and worms from the compost

台所から出る野菜のくずやコンポストからの

and supplying fish back to the restaurant.

ミミズを餌に魚の養殖をして

And we'd also have a coffee shop, and the waste grains from that

レストランに提供することもできます

could be used as a substrate for growing mushrooms.

コーヒーショップを設けて コーヒーのかすを

So you can see that we're bringing together

マッシュルームを育てる菌床に使うこともできます

cycles of food, energy and water and waste

ご覧いただけますように食物やエネルギー

all within one building.

そして水や廃棄物の循環を

And just for fun, we've proposed this for a roundabout in central London,

１つの建物に結集するのです

which at the moment is a complete eyesore.

遊び心で これをロンドン中心のロータリーに提案しました

Some of you may recognize this.

今のままではまったく目障りな風景です

And with just a little bit of planning,

見覚えのある人もいらっしゃるでしょう

we could transform a space dominated by traffic

これがほんの少しの計画で

into one that provides open space for people,

交通機関に支配される空間から

reconnects people with food

人が食物と再びつながれて

and transforms waste into closed loop opportunities.

廃棄物を閉ループのチャンスに変換する

So the final project I want to talk about

オープンスペースを提供する空間へと変換できるのです

is the Sahara Forest Project, which we're working on at the moment.

今日お話しする最後のプロジェクトは

It may come as a surprise to some of you

今私たちが取り組んでいるサハラ森林プロジェクトです

to hear that quite large areas of what are currently desert

驚く方もいらっしゃるでしょうが

were actually forested a fairly short time ago.

現在は砂漠状態の広大な場所が

So for instance, when Julius Caesar arrived in North Africa,

あまり遠くない過去は森林だったのです

huge areas of North Africa

例えば ジュリアス・シーザーが北アフリカに到着したとき

were covered in cedar and cypress forests.

北アフリカの大半は

And during the evolution of life on the Earth,

杉や檜の林に覆われていました

it was the colonization

地球上の生命の進化の過程で

of the land by plants

植物の定着こそが

that helped create the benign climate we currently enjoy.

現在私たちが恩恵を受けている

The converse is also true.

穏やかな気候を作ったのです

The more vegetation we lose,

逆も然り

the more that's likely to exacerbate climate change

植物を失うほどに

and lead to further desertification.

気候変動は悪化し

And this animation,

砂漠化につながる可能性が高いということです

this shows photosynthetic activity over the course of a number of years,

このアニメーションは

and what you can see is that the boundaries of those deserts

長年にわたる光合成の活動を示します

shift quite a lot,

これらの砂漠の境界が

and that raises the question

常に変化しているのが見えます

of whether we can intervene at the boundary conditions

ここから 境界の変動を止めることが出来るか

to halt, or maybe even reverse, desertification.

また砂漠を縮小させることが出来るかという

And if you look at some of the organisms

疑問がわいてきます

that have evolved to live in deserts,

砂漠に適応するように

there are some amazing examples of adaptations to water scarcity.

進化した生き物には

This is the Namibian fog-basking beetle,

水不足に適応した素晴らしい例が見られます

and it's evolved a way of harvesting its own fresh water in a desert.

これはナミビアの霧から水を得る昆虫

The way it does this is it comes out at night,

砂漠で新鮮な水を自己採集できるように進化しました

crawls to the top of a sand dune,

どうやるかと言うと 夜

and because it's got a matte black shell,

砂丘の上によじ登ります

is able to radiate heat out to the night sky

艶のない黒い甲冑に覆われているので

and become slightly cooler than its surroundings.

闇夜に熱を放出でき

So when the moist breeze blows in off the sea,

周りのものよりも少し温度が下がります

you get these droplets of water forming on the beetle's shell.

こうして海辺からの湿った微風が吹くと

Just before sunrise, he tips his shell up, the water runs down into his mouth,

甲冑にこのような水滴が出来ます

has a good drink, goes off and hides for the rest of the day.

日が昇る直前に 昆虫はお尻を突き上げて 水を口に運び

And the ingenuity, if you could call it that,

おいしい水を飲み 残りの日を隠れて過します

goes even further.

この知恵と呼べるものは

Because if you look closely at the beetle's shell,

さらに進化します

there are lots of little bumps on that shell.

昆虫をもっと近くでみると

And those bumps are hydrophilic; they attract water.

甲冑に小さな突起が沢山あります

Between them there's a waxy finish which repels water.

この突起物は親水性で水を呼び寄せます

And the effect of this is that

突起物の間はワックス状で水をはじきます

as the droplets start to form on the bumps,

そして効果はというと

they stay in tight, spherical beads,

突起物の上で水滴は

which means they're much more mobile

固い球状の数珠の形となり

than they would be if it was just a film of water over the whole beetle's shell.

ただ水が甲冑全体を

So even when there's only a small amount of moisture in the air,

濡らした状態よりも転がりやすくなります

it's able to harvest that very effectively and channel it down to its mouth.

空気中にあまり湿気がない場合でも

So amazing example of an adaptation

かなり効果的に採集し 口に運ぶことができます

to a very resource-constrained environment --

資源がかなり限られるなかで

and in that sense, very relevant

驚くべき適応例です

to the kind of challenges we're going to be facing

ある意味これは

over the next few years, next few decades.

数年先 数十年先に我々が

We're working with the guy who invented the Seawater Greenhouse.

直面するだろう課題にも通じるものです

This is a greenhouse designed for arid coastal regions,

私たちは海水温室を発案した人と協働しています

and the way it works is that you have this whole wall of evaporator grills,

この温室は乾燥した海岸地域向けに設計されました

and you trickle seawater over that

どうやるかと言うと この蒸発器グリルの壁全体に

so that wind blows through, it picks up a lot of moisture

海水をしたたらせることで

and is cooled in the process.

風が吹くたびに 温室の水気が増し

So inside it's cool and humid,

温度は下がります

which means the plants need less water to grow.

それによって内側は涼しくて湿気が高く

And then at the back of the greenhouse,

植物の成長にあまり水がいりません

it condenses a lot of that humidity as freshwater

そして温室の後ろ側で

in a process that is effectively identical to the beetle.