The Age of Fire, Revisited: What has gone wrong, and what, remarkably, is going right

In 2015, Arizona State University professor Stephen Pyne coined the term Pyrocene, describing a new Fire Age, the opposite of an Ice Age, resulting from our fossil-fuel based combustion economy.

“By burning fuels from deep time, we are redefining the options available for generations to come,” proclaimed Pyne.

His research shows that human activity has created conditions (extreme heat, superstorms, wildfires, and prolonged drought) that favor fire, turning “the atmosphere into a crock pot and the oceans into acid vats,” sparking a sixth great extinction.

Despite that dire projection, there remain reasons for optimism. More here: (Source)

The S/M Take: 

Let’s face it, cramming 8.3 billion of us on this big blue marble was always going to cause change, especially when we are relentless consumers of every resource we can mine, harvest, or drill.

Barring all of us becoming overnight minimalists, we need to manage our new reality. How can we respond to the tinderbox we’re generating? Hopefully more successfully than the slothlike Los Angeles rebuild.

The good news is that mankind has always been a brilliant adapter, even when the crisis is fully of our own making. As marketers, we have a role in that response. Be truthful about your brands, whether it’s their energy efficiency, their wildfire resiliency, or their carbon responsibility. Craft customer solutions, even if it means a slower sales turn. And as counter-intuitive as it seems, reject overt consumerism that simply fans global warming.

MIT team reverse-engineers 2,000-year-old Roman technology to create self-healing concrete

2,000 years ago, ancient Roman engineers were building structures that have withstood the test of time remarkably well, many of which remain standing today. At the heart of their success lies a mystery: what were the secrets of ancient Roman concrete that made these buildings so durable?

Now, MIT researchers are drawing from this curiously durable technology — one that can self-repair by healing small cracks. More here: (Source)

Inspired by elephant skin, a new tile uses engineered cracks to cool surfaces without electricity

Elephants have a network of cracks in their skin that trap water. When they spray themselves, that water stays put and evaporates slowly, cooling them over time.

A team of researchers have turned that insight into a new kind of cement-based tile that captures, holds, and slowly evaporates water, cooling surfaces without fans, compressors, or complex moving parts. More here: (Source)

The S/M Take: 

Like Jeff Goldblum’s character says in Jurassic Park, life finds a way. Whether it’s the healing effect of intense calcium in concrete or the thermodynamics of elephant skin, there are answers in nature all around us.

Product attributes like these are proven by history; they are the ultimate in “authenticity.” Your target audiences are looking for reasons to believe, and there may be no better messaging than a brand truth that is decades, if not centuries, in the making.

Look harder. Market to what’s deeply “real” in your product. If it’s a byproduct of nature, all the better.

The skinniest house in the U.S. is a historic ‘spite house’ 

In 1830, brickmaker John Hollensbury lived in a handsome two-story home in what’s now the Old Town district of Alexandria, Virginia. He had one small problem, however. There was an alley about 7.5 feet wide running down one side; horse-drawn carriages would try to squeeze through and end up scraping against his wall, and loiterers would mill about in the area.

Hollensbury’s drastic solution? Fill in the alley with a very, very small house to spite the riffraff outside. More here: (Source)

The S/M Take: 

And you thought the 21st century had the market cornered on elitism? Oh no, haughty neighbors have been around forever.

Of course, today we have zoning and codes and HOAs and building officials galore to save us from one another. Too bad… The Drill Down knows a few alleys in Chicago that would be perfect for a sweet little “spite house.”