By Erika Karp, President
Now that Spring is within sight, I’ve been fantasizing about the summer. So naturally, I’ve been dreaming about whales. Specifically it’s been about the Humpbacks that can be seen off the east end of Long Island. Sperm whales, Right whales, Blue whales…my god they’re all stunning. But the Humpback I saw last summer took my breath away. She blew, she breached, and she slapped her tail and fins.
Then and now, it feels incredibly comforting. A feeling that’s much needed these days. In contrast to that, it’s their calm, deliberate and graceful movements. They’re steady and nurturing; powerful but gentle and vulnerable. And their vocalizations and vibrations have low, resonant, soothing sounds so that they can find mates, food, navigation routes, and just play.
As I’m drawn back into the real world, I see the terrible grief associated with death. And in particular, deaths that seem avoidable and with no purpose.
Is there any possible way that we can get comfort in death? Is it a process that can represent, transformation, continuity and renewal?
And once again I turn to the sea for comfort. It’s “The Whale Fall” that brings me there. Everything returns to the ecosystem and then creates new life.
There’s patience, rythem, and a gradual natural cycle. There is meaning in nature. Nothing is wasted. And there is a purpose in death.
For more understanding, a Whale Fall is when a Whale dies and it’s body sinks to the ocean floor. Then the various sharks, and hagfish and other scavengers feed on the tissue. Next come those on the surrounding sea floor. And then the bacteria break down the lipids in the bones. And of course the nutrients support the Bone-Eating Zombie Worms. In fact, they produce a type of slime and eat the whales from the inside out. And all this takes only about a half a centuy. To some this sounds gross. To me this is gorgeous. It’s a beautiful ballet that can turn a tragedy into a triumph.
And for those of you that know me, it is rare that I wouldn’t draw insights into the capital markets from animals and nature. So into my head come thoughts of a meeting I had with William McDonough fifteen years ago. Bill is among the fathers of the “Circular Economy.” Another radically gorgeous process. Another way to potentially and puposely align systems through intelligent design. It’s not just sustainability. It’s way beyond that. Bill undestands disruptive innovation in times like these when we have multiple crises, and also multiple forces for change including technology, productivity, and renewable energy. And it’s all about sustainable design. Bill says that “This principle holds that in nature, nothing is waste — everything feeds something else. Similarly, human design should ensure materials either return safely to ecosystems or circulate indefinitely as technical nutrients.” Bill suggests that “inventories should be stored in carpeting; and chilldren should eat their schools.”
Finally, I wanted to offer an example of a product that’s very much on investor’ minds these days: Lithium. We all know that its essential for lithium-ion batteries, which power EVs, renewables, laptops etc. Why do we mine it, use it, and discarde it. Clearly it needs to be recovered, refined, reused, and re-circulated. Lithium as food. But that’s only if the batteries are designed for deconstruction and standardization. Again, it’s sustainable design. So we get lower environmental impact, lower water intensity, lower emissions.
So, full circle back to my precious “Whale Fall,” whales are food, school houses are food, and lithium is food. In fact, each can be comfort food.
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