What was the New Alchemy Institute and is Ocean Arks?

The New Alchemy Institute – scientific experiments for models of sustainability based on creative assembly of life forms, not dissection and reduction; ecological worldview…relying on nature as a partner and powered by sunlight.” Develop an ecologically based way of living.

The New Alchemy Institute (NAI) was founded in 1969 by John Todd, Nancy Jack Todd and Bill McLarney to do scientific research on ecological sustainability. Both John and Nancy are Canadian, from Ontario. John was deeply disturbed, as a child, with the “development” of woods, marshes, etc. near his home in Ontario. This was the motivation for his life’s work. He and Nancy went to the US to study for John’s doctorate.

Summarized and quoted from Nancy Jack Todd, A Safe and Sustainable World, the promise of ecological design.