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INNOVATION TECHNOLOGY 067“ TODAY, SOME 90 PER CENT OF ALL POLLUTED WATER FINDS ITS WAY INTO RIVERS, LAKES, AND COASTAL ZONES, THREATENING HEALTH, FOOD SECURITY, AND ACCESS TO SAFE WATER (UN WWAP 2013) ”Baleen Filter’s sewer mining programme is part of a plan to end marine pollution and counteract climate change, recover carbon-neutral waste for energy and reclaim water fit for irrigation.University of South Australia start-up, Baleen Filters (technology of same name) are recognised experts in liquid/solid recovery and water re-use across industry, with more than 200 installations across Oceania, capturing product losses and enabling zero-discharge since 1999. The company pioneers best practice in wastewater infrastructure and seeks to facilitate cleaner production internationally.BALEEN PROPOSES “SOLUTION” TO END CLIMATE CHANGEYuri Obst, Founder and CEO of Baleen, explains:“Visualise a future in which Earth’s natural cycles and circular economies co-exist. Marine outfalls are transformed into sewer mining facilities with micro-plastics and non-biodegradables recovered (as recyclables) separate from energy-rich ‘‘Waste’’ (as feedstock) and nutrient-laden ‘‘Water’’ reclaimed for irrigation. Baleen is proven, durable and ready to form Pictured: WORLD OCEANS: Humanity’s future depends on its preservation part of regional waste collection systems involving co-digestion of other post-consumer energy-rich wastes (for example, food) for biogas conversion.” The Bible says that the intended habitat for humanity was a place called Eden, a place in which Humanity and Nature coexist in harmony. Our world is quite the contrary, fuelled by the freewill of every man and woman. Entire ecosystems and human cultures are diminishing on an unprecedented scale. Humankind has consumed much of the resources that had taken the Earth 250 million years to produce, placing the Earth’s core physical systems at risk of abrupt and irreversible change.HUMANITY HAS DISRUPTED EARTH’S ECOSYSTEMSIf we are to counteract this change we need to understand that the Earth, the biosphere which sustains us, is an ecosystem of which we form part and an ecosystem whether micro or macro exists only because of a symbiotic relationship among its parts. Humanity’s neglect of Earth’s ecosystems is not sustainable. Much like the global financial debt crisis, Earth’s ecological debt continues to mount unabated. Truly, the Earth is far too precious to end up in environmental bankruptcy.We need to reconcile our relationship with Nature to avoid impending catastrophe. The way to do this is by revitalising the ecological processes that sustain the biosphere. There are four fundamental processes which sustain an ecosystem: the water cycle, nutrient cycling, energy flow and community dynamics (to counteract change). Foremost, water is essential to any ecosystem. Water cycles through the atmosphere, soil, rivers, lakes, and oceans distributing nutrients to support life. This cycle also involves exchange of energy, which leads to temperature changes, contributing energy flow. These heat exchanges influence climate. Consequently, water has a profound influence on climate change and is essential to all processes.WATER CYCLE IS KEY TO SOLVING CLIMATE CHANGEThe Ocean is the by far largest single ecosystem, home to the most abundant life on Earth, but has suffered as a consequence of industry and growing coastal populations. It is also the largest carbon sink on Earth, absorbing 90 per cent of global warming and 30 per cent of all carbon emissions (WMO GAW 2014), but its supporting ecosystems are collapsing as a consequence of pollution. Today, some 90 per cent of all polluted water finds its wayinto rivers, lakes, and coastal zones, threatening