Glossary of Terms
Sustainability is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely. The term, in its environmental usage, refers to the potential longevity of vital human ecological support systems, such as the planet's climatic system, systems of agriculture, industry, forestry, and fisheries, and human communities in general and the various systems on which they depend.
In the words of the Bruntland Comission, sustainable development is; "Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs."
Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a relatively new science that studies nature, its models, systems, processes and elements and then imitates or takes creative inspiration from them to solve human problems sustainably.
A Closed System (wikipedia)-- A closed system is a system in the state of being isolated from the environment. It is often used to refer to a theoretical scenario where perfect closure is an assumption, however in practice no system can be completely closed; there are only varying degrees of closure.
Earth taken in its entirety is an almost closed system in some ways. It is not completely closed however since it is open to the suns radiation. Living beings are not closed systems, from a more technical standpoint, living beings are actually self organizing, disipative structures held far from equalibrium. We take in matter and we produce "waste". Our metabolic processes depend upon the energy available around us in the form of chemicals that are loaded with energy beacuse they are far from chemical equalibrium. Life maintains this chemical imbalance in concert with all other life on earth.
