![]() ![]() Sustainable development has its own hierarchy: avoid, minimize, restore/rehab, and compensate. Still, guess which one of those steps gained the most traction in American culture. Reducing plastic use is best, reusing our materials is good, and if all else fails, recycle. This is a form of mitigation hierarchy, in which steps are outlined in terms of effectiveness. The phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” is unavoidable in a world struggling with the polluting effects of plastic. The idea has quickly gained momentum, but the study of greening gray infrastructure is still a very young science, and we still have a lot to learn. A common example is an artificial reef, where hard surfaces underwater offer a place for coral to grow. The principle behind it is that if a green solution, or one that is more environmentally friendly, cannot be found, then the harm of the development is minimized by building in such a way that the development should still help promote biodiversity. To try to lessen the environmental impact of coastal developments, some have tried integrated greening of gray infrastructure, or IGGI for short. While these may be essential for continued development and protection of our buildings, these hard surfaces are usually a poor replacement for the roles played by natural coastal ecosystems. However the structures we build in and around the water are understandably a hard surface (think seawalls). We build more and more, especially along coveted coastlines that are valuable for business, leisure, and beauty. Photo from “The Life of Michael Angelo” by Romain Rolland, published in 1912.Īs the human population continues to grow, so do our impacts on the environment. Michelangelo’s David with a fig leaf covering his nudity. Just as a fig leaf doesn’t really stop Michelangelo’s David from looking naked, greening infrastructure may do little to actually stop environmental harm. They warn that the practice of “greening” new coastal developments, or changing new projects so they look more environmentally friendly, is nothing but a fig leaf if it is simply used as a fast pass to continue exploiting the environment. ![]() Now a group of marine scientists have pointed out the most recent iteration of the fig leaf, but this time it represents a tendency to sin against the environment. ![]() In the book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve discover they are naked, they cover themselves in leaves, leading Saint Bede the Venerable to declare the fig leaf as a symbol of the tendency to sin. When nudity in art became passé, it was a common practice to cover the genitals of sculptures with a small, curly fig leaf. The fig leaf can be used to cover a multitude of sins – or so medieval art censors would have you believe. A diver in an artificial reef, which is also an old, sunken car. Greening of grey infrastructure should not be used as a Trojan horse to facilitate coastal development. B., Airoldi, L., Bulleri, F., Challinor, S., Chee, S. ![]()
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