Dr. John Todd: Eco-Visionary
I hope everyone enjoyed (and is still enjoying) the holiday season. I’m having a little trouble breaking free from R & R mode myself (unlike many others in the ‘green blogosphere’), but it’s definitely important to get things rolling again before 2007!
I came across a cool post at Hugg referring to a video of a presentation by Dr. John Todd (filmed at the 2005 Green Festival in San Francisco).
I watched it this afternoon (a little over 40 minutes) and found it very interesting. Unfortunately you can’t see the slides he is referring to, but don’t let that deter you.
John Todd is definitely one of my personal heros and I’m always on the lookout for any news on his activities.
His ‘eco-machine’ concept (also referred to as ‘living machines’) is utterly brilliant. Not too long ago I talked about “aquaponics” - well his total-system approach is like aquaponics on steroids (all-natural, healthy steroids that is).
As he describes in the video, one of his large-scale eco machines (housed in a 7000 sq foot greenhouse) handles 80,000 gallons/day of raw sewage from the city of South Burlington Vermont. It contains 18 tanks, with 18 different ecologies - a wide selection of plants and other organisms which process the water as it flows through the system. After two days, what was once raw sewage leaves the facility as clean water.
For those of you unfamiliar with this eco-visionary, I would highly recommend you check out this John Todd interview at EnviroEducation.com. It’s a tad dated, but provides great background info.
Here is an exerpt from that page:
Dr. John Todd is an internationally-recognized biologist and a visionary leader in the field of ecological design who was named a “Hero of the Earth” by Time magazine in 1999 and one of the 20th Century’s top thirty-five inventors by the Lemelson-MIT Program for Invention and Innovation. He holds four patents and is the inventor of Living Machines, or ecological engines, for the treatment of wastes, production of foods, generation of fuels and the restoration of damaged aquatic environments.
Author of over two hundred technical and popular articles on biology and planetary stewardship, Dr. Todd is the Founder and President of Ocean Arks International, a non profit research and education organization; co-founded Living Technologies Inc., an ecological design, engineering, and construction firm in Burlington, Vermont; and a Research Professor in the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.
Some of Dr. Todd’s other accolades include the Bioneers Lifetime Achievement Award (1998), the Charles and Ann Morrow Lindbergh Award for technological innovation on behalf of the environment (1998), the Environmental Merit Award from the USEPA (1996), The Teddy Roosevelt Award for Conservation (1990), the United Nations (FUNEP) Award for contributions to the global environment (1990), the USEPA Chico Mendes Memorial Award for environmental restoration (1989), and the Swiss Threshold Award for his contributions to human knowledge (1980).
He has degrees in agriculture, parasitology & tropical medicine from McGill University and a doctorate in fisheries and ethology from the University of Michigan. He has received two honorary doctorates in science and engineering respectively and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Green Mountain College in 2000.
I highly recommend you also check out John Todd Ecological Design to learn more about Dr. Todd’s work. It seems to have been updated since the last time I visited (not too long ago). I find all his projects fascinating, but the natural swimming pool and the agricultural eco-park are especially cool.
Also be sure to visit Ocean Arks International, John and Nancy Todd’s non-profit organization.
Both of these websites provide lots of pictures that will help you get more out of the Google video.
Technorati Tags: john todd, green festival, eco machines, living machines, sustainability, sustainable, ecological engineering, ecological design, aquaponics
Written by Bentley on December 27th, 2006 with no comments.
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