Planet Management believes that with science and technology we can control nature and restore Eden. Eisenberg navigates between the two schools and criticizes both extremes of eco-mysticism and exploitation. He celebrates nature's richness and laments the mindless ways we squander it. A square meter may harbor 2,000 earthworms and 12 million nematodes and many other soil-enriching creatures. Earthworms may deposit 500 metric tons of castings in one year on a single hectacre of ground.
Nature is the source of genetic diversity and resources necessary to our survival.
It's also an infinite source of information about adaptive strategies. Eisenberg offers jazz as a metaphorical answer. It's a witty, imaginative idea. But it seems a little naive applied to the arena where greed, hunger for power and the love of bigness play. At the same time Eisenberg's plea that we learn from nature ought to be a no-brainer.