Synopsis

The way we humans use Nature, and the price we must pay for dispensing with her services, to varying degrees, is reviewed, using as examples our cultivation of a salad vegetable, and the choices we must make when cleaning up after destructive industrial activities. I link the two themes, via the fate of agriculture and industry in the former German Democratic Republic, starting with a scene from the recent lm, Good bye, Lenin. The Spreewald region, south of Berlin, has an ideal climate for growing cucumbers, but the surrounding countryside was also exploited for its brown coal reserves. The abandoned open-cast mines are now being restored, partly into uneconomic elds and forests, using huge sums from the central authorities, and partly by natural processes, requiring far less funding. Our discussion leads us, through human efforts to create articial, sustainable environments, such as the International Space Station and Biosphere 2, to the consideration of wide vistas of space and time: from the early history of life on Earth, to the prospect of life in the imminent future; from our planet's surface, to the outer reaches of the solar system. Some conclusions: With enough resources, cucumbers may be grown anywhere in the Solar System