Stephen Miller, the webmaster of Ecoversity.org (and the man behind biomagic) just posted a new Ecoversity Case Focus: this time on oceans. Like in so many other places --most of the news about our oceans is pretty dire: overfishing, acidification, coral and reef whitening, die-off. How come we humans take our environment so for granted ? Part of the answer is of course that our attention has been elsewhere: in many cases a virtual world has replaced the direct contact and observation of the natural world. We are not bonding in the same way with our environment as our species used to: We have become very self-absorbed in the things that reflect who we think we are as humans.... a car, a tv, computers, but also our food, etc. --all of them providing technologically mediated environments that mirror our human needs and incredible technological ability -- but obscure the source of it all: nature. Nature itself has become commodified and has become in many ways alien to vast segments of the population.
How to re-establish our common bonds and understand the unique human position and role in nature ? How to reconnect in such a way that will change our habits ?
One thing that occurred to me is how little we really know about our direct environment. We know about the earth's resources in quantitative terms, mainly numbers and statistics related to economics, or pending global catastrophy.
But the knowledge I am talking about here comes from familiarity, even intimacy with nature, through clear observation and experimentation. Something even as seemingly familiar as water, never ceases to amaze -- releasing its endless secrets generously to
the dedicated scientist and dillitant alike -- yet, only deepening its mystery every step of the way. Its unique crystalization, its woven structure, its regenerative ability, etc., etc. In the excellent 'Home' movie it is pointed out that the quantity of water on the planet earth has been constant and all of the species in the world have drunk the same water. Perhaps most wondrously: when we look for life, here or elsewhere in the universe, we first look for water --since we know that water is the giver of life. 
No wonder that the Hindus deified the water element as Bhava, an all powerful god. Bhava is the "nature of life of the worlds....water is the reservoir of the seed of the seven worlds....the element water is the one protector of life..."
Watching the slow motion watersplashing in the 'Spirit of Water' movie , I realized that that the mycelial formations and mushrooms I documented earlier, actually are very similar to water forms.
Genetic material from the spore, conducts the water into some kind of preconceived mold, that in its turn expresses a much slowed down water flow form solidifying momentarily in space. It is interesting to consider all living beings as water-flow-forms of one kind or another...trees, or the body of a dolfin... leaves...mushrooms... or even whole landscapes
Somehow there must be a vibrational memory between water and DNA --how else does DNA transmit its cellular messages ?? (something which to my knowledge has never been truly understood or explained).
Look at the grain of a wood or a leaf: you can understand the flow of water. We ourselves are bags of water, carrying around seawater from the primordial oceans that gave birth to life -- significantly different from the oceans today (less salty).
Someone recently told me that "water is the currency of nature" --and I think that is a really good way to look at it. And in every interaction with water there is gain in form and complexity. Understanding the water currency economy, may lead us into examining an innovative new economic model: the economy of generosity.
