Assignment 2

ID5200: Intro to Biomimicry

Aryamaan Singh
CE20B017
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Contents
Question 1 ............................................................................................................................................... 1
(a) ........................................................................................................................................................ 1
(b) ........................................................................................................................................................ 2
Question 2 ............................................................................................................................................... 3
Goal 1 .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Goal 2 .................................................................................................................................................. 4

Question 1
(a)

Organism What is the Organism? Polar Bear

What challenge it must
Challenge Walk on ice without slipping
address?
Polar bears have tall bumps on their paws called
papillae which are 1.5 times taller than those present
How does the organism
Strategy in the feet of other breeds. This allows them to get 1.3
address this challenge?
times more surface area hence increasing the friction
by 30-50%.

To walk on ice
This is represented by the Biomimicry Taxonomy as:
Why does the organism need
Function • Group: Modify
this strategy?
• Sub-group: Modify Physical State
o Function: Modify Position
Polar bears live in harsh conditions of the Antarctic
Conditions in which the where the have to essentially walk on ice to hunt and
Context
strategy is used. survive. Ice are slippery solids, and it is nearly
impossible for a regular mammal to walk on it.

Function

I choose to study polar bears and their ability to walk on ice in the Antarctic without slipping. To learn
more about this organism and its strategy to overcome this challenge, I went to asknature.org and
using the Biomimicry Taxonomy found the function ‘Modify Position’ under group ‘Modify’, sub-group
‘Modify Physical State.’

Strategy

Suspecting that taller papillae served a specific purpose, the researchers created 3D models of the
polar bear paw pad that showed that taller papillae result in better traction, which is an important
characteristic to walk on ice. More specifically, they found that the papillae were 1.5 times taller than
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those of brown or black bears. They also found that the taller papillae meant that polar bears had 1.3
times more paw surface area, giving the polar bear paws a 30–50% increase in frictional shear stress.

Context

About 98% of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, a sheet of ice averaging at least 1.6 km
thick. The continent has about 90% of the world's ice. All animals living here must adapt to move on
ice to pray and protect themselves from predators.

(b)

It is important to understand Earth’s Operating System with respect to biomimicry because the earth
has limited resources to foster all the survival of all the organisms. At a systems level we see that life
allows life to flourish. This is the lesson that must be learnt from the nature and applied in
biomimicry solution.

Biomimicry designs should not only replicate the natural functions to satisfy human needs but must
also be sustainable. They along with their by products must be reusable, recyclable or up cyclable and
should not harm the nature in any way.

This is an important lesson that must be kept in mind while applying biomimicry.
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Question 2
I am focusing on UNSDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. My goals for this UNSDG are:

Goal 1
Target 12.A: Support developing countries' scientific and technological capacity for sustainable
consumption and production.

Indicator 12.A.1: The amount of support to developing countries on research and development for
sustainable consumption and production and environmentally sound technologies.

(a) Who and what is impacted by this challenge? How are they impacted?
This challenge affects the national economies of all the companies and therefore the entire
commonwealth. Citizens and environment both are impacted by this. This challenge focuses
on research and development of technologies to optimise all the sectors of a value chain.
Technologies can enable better crop yield and efficient extraction of minerals, their
manufacturing as well as processing followed by the supply chain and ultimately their
disposal. Sustainable consumption and production when achieved, will reduce the load on
nature for replenishing the depleted resources as well.

(b) What smaller problems make up this challenge?

This challenge is made of many small problems. Some of them include:
• Unequal distribution of resources around the globe.
• Lack of technical know-how and the skilled labour to develop these technologies.
• Not all countries have enough wealth to invest in R&D. Some of them are still
struggling to meet their humanitarian needs.

(c) What is the cause-and-effect relationships?

Cause
Unequal distribution of resources
Lack of skilled labour in developing
countries
Effect
Some countries were able to procure these
resources cheaply while others have to spend
heftily
Countries with more skilled labour could research
on sustainable solutions easily available while
others were unable to do so

Many developing countries were former colonies,

are involved in wars or are dealing with terrorism
Struggling to meet humanitarian
along natural causes like crop failure and floods.
needs
This has redirected the resources of the country
away from developing new technologies.

(d) What do you already know about this challenge?

I know that there are many schemes that allow the citizens of these countries to study abroad
and ultimately build their human resource in skilled labour. Apart from this, these countries
receive aids from developed countries to help overcome their humanitarian requirements.
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The developing countries still use conventional unsustainable methods like coal power plants
to provide basic amenities to their citizens.

(e) What do you need to know more about to address this challenge?
I believe that I need to learn more about:
• The supply chain of these countries for everything ranging from electricity to
educational resources.
• I need to learn more on how and why these countries are at wars or are facing
terrorism to figure out a solution that would satisfy all and shift focus on research and
development of technologies instead.

Goal 2
Target 12.B: Develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable tourism.

Indicator 12.B: The number of sustainable tourism strategies or policies and implemented action plans
with agreed monitoring and evaluation tools.

(a) Who and what is impacted by this challenge? How are they impacted?
This challenge impacts the economy of each nation. Tourism is a major source of income for
many countries. This industry encompasses everything from travel of the tourists to making
souvenirs from traditional art. A substantial amount of food and water resources are spent in
ensuring a comfortable stay for the tourists and for the growth of the industry to support the
national economy. This makes it extremely important that each sub-sector of this industry
follows sustainable practices to protect the environment. This needs to be monitored and
logged properly to track the load on nature around the country or the world. If sustainable
practices are not followed, it will ultimately lead to the end of this industry leaving everyone
unemployed with devasted nature.

(b) What smaller problems make up this challenge?

This challenge is made of many small problems. Some of them include:
• The cost of sustainable practices is higher than the conventional ones.
• Lack of awareness and motivation to adopt these practices by the locals.
• Few government schemes to implement sustainable tourism.

(c) What is the cause-and-effect relationships?

Cause
High cost of sustainable practices
Lack of awareness and motivation to
adopt these practices
Effect
The stakeholders resolve to cheaper unsustainable
alternatives to maximise their profits
Many stakeholders in this industry belong to rural
background with this as primary source of income.
The lack of knowledge keeps them from exploring
new practices and make them stick to the
traditional ways of performing tasks.
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Since there is no push from the governments to

Insufficient inputs by the adopt these practices, they are not enforced.
governments to promote Because of this, people resolve to cheaper and
sustainable tourism
traditional methods.

(d) What do you already know about this challenge?

I know that there are many national parks and wildlife sanctuaries coming up around the
world which protect the ecology as well gives the tourist a great experience by integrating
heritage and local culture. More and more airports are being built along with renovation of
the roads and railways to allow efficient travel connecting the remotest areas and hence
providing job opportunities to the locals. However, with the increase in demand for the luxury
by the tourists, the hotels are generating a lot of waste which is unsustainable.

(e) What do you need to know more about to address this challenge?
I believe that I need to learn more about:
• The economic state of each stakeholder and the reasons why they are reluctant to
switch to sustainable methods.
• Various areas where the no government polices are present regarding sustainable
tourism and how they can be implemented.