Category: RSF-3 Coupling Natural and Human Systems
As with any journey, it must begin from where we are. Present day science has achieved a great deal in global system studies, against both scientific and political obstacles. But we have to be realistic in saying that what we now know fairly well are some very important physical boundaries of the global socio-ecological system. We know very little about the complex systems within those boundaries, the systems that are actually pushing well past the limits where the Earth’s physical and ecological systems can continue to support healthy existence. Indeed we need to shift from studying the boundary problem to studying the complexities where the major problems have originated and where, certainly, solutions also lie. Knowing certain calculable limits to existence of life on Earth, in which human influence has now risen to be equal to the effect of nature in many critical factors (land area, fixed nitrogen, biodiversity, carbon, water, etc.) is absolutely essential. But once we know these limits well enough we must move on to comprehending the complexities inside the “anthroposphere”. Vested interests keep global science in a box, defending the most basic facts that are now known well enough to be actionable. While the scientists who have established those facts are often accused of being too narrow in their view, it is true also that many would like to expand well beyond 19th Century methods, but for social, political, and economic forces that prevent it. As a result of this pressure, the gap between science and policy has grown creating a need for professional marriage councilors — policy analysts — so they can talk to each other. Is that the best organization of science and policy that we can have? Or can science expand into more complex thinking and models so that it can legitimately integrate natural and human processes and complex entailments?
is actually the coupling of extremely diverse models of physical and human systems.