While I was away, Paul Martin of Original Faith noted that some blogs make us think. I think perception is the driving force behind life. We have senses, emotions, and intuitions for a reason. We interpret them to maintain our own stability, our continuity in fact. We also know what we like and try to manifest a world around us to our liking.
The very pattern of absorbing and assimilating changes, or more obtusely disturbances, is the essence of our very growth. What would life be without novelty? The fascinating emergence of new arrangements and new forms of behavior are integrally entwined with self-organizing systems in response mode.
There is great fluidity and flexibility in autopoietic systems comprised of many networked components. Their distributive makeup allows them to be resilient. Individual components selectively respond to disturbances and pattern their activity accordingly. The system as a whole develops its own ability for reaching homeostasis. Diversity in the components is viewed as a strength.
For instance, a diverse ecosystem will be resilient because it contains many species with overlapping ecological functions that can partially replace one another. Even when a particular species is destroyed by a catastrophe so that a link in the network is broken, a diverse community will be able to survive and reorganize itself, because other links in the network can at least partially fulfill the function of the destroyed species.
Yet the overall balance is key. Every species has a runaway tendency and therefore the potential of undergoing an exponential population growth when not kept in check by various balancing interactions within the system. Exponential runaways will appear only when the ecosystem is severely disturbed. What ensues we label "weeds" or "pests". In the human body we label it "cancer". The whole system becomes threatened.
On a planetary basis, there has been a striking pattern in the repeated occurrence of catastrophes followed by intense periods of growth and innovation. Plants may owe photosynthesis to atmospheric hydrogen depletion. Animals may owe breathing to to an oxygen crisis and resulting bacterial response.
The configuration of relationships within a system is also important.
As humans we know little about ecosystems. Anthropocentric, we have a great propensity to disrupt them. Scarily, we have little understanding towards restoring their balance. Our eyes may be cast on the growth and innovation that will follow. Yet lacking true foresight, the diversified niche that has our back may be on the casualty list.
I think Aldo Leopold put it well...
"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it does otherwise."
So, I'll be the one you'll find planting trees this weekend.
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2 comments:
I'm not so sure that we even need to understand ecology. If we discard the perversions of society and get in touch with our deeper natures, we find ourselves attracted to a way of life which is self-sustaining, rather than adopting that way of life from guilt and altruism.
YVES: I can appreciate that. The book I was reading on ecology was infiltrated throughout with agenda. I had to set it down.
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