Designing the technosphere for life

Peregrine falcons are back in New York. They were inhabitants of Big Apple for many decades until DDT closed their fate. After DDT was prohibited, there were intensive efforts at restoring natural populations, and so citizens can again enjoy living together with the animals in what was originally designed as a purely human habitat, part of the technosphere. Urban habitats are rich in wildlife, and there are forms of wildlife that coevolved even genetically, such as feral pigeons. These observations motivate the question, can we design the technosphere for life? This idea has been ventilated for long, such as in the concept of biophilic cities. In a previous post, I have suggested the term ‘technosystem services’ complementing ecosystem services referring to this reverse flow of benefits from technosphere to biosphere.