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Disturbance and Ecosystems pp 2–10Cite as

The Blue Planet: of Wholes and Parts and Man

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Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 44))

Abstract

It is axiomatic in ecology that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The axiom is almost an article of faith, not merely among ecologists, but also among the scientific community and held with only slightly less intensity among the public. The topic would be trifling in the larger scheme of things except that a useful axiom has been advanced beyond reality to engender an almost blind faith that the whole earth can continue to work as we have known it without its parts. Jim Lovelock has fed this dream recently with a fascinating small book, Gaia, in which he has advanced an hypothesis of homeostasis for the earth as a whole. The hypothesis may be sustained in evolutionary time; it holds little hope for our own time.

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Authors
  1. G. M. Woodwell
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305-2493, USA

    Harold A. Mooney

  2. Laboratoire de Systématique et d’Ecologie Méditerranéennes, Institut de Botanique, Université des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Rue Auguste-Broussonnet, F-34000, Montpellier, France

    M. Godron

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© 1983 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Woodwell, G.M. (1983). The Blue Planet: of Wholes and Parts and Man. In: Mooney, H.A., Godron, M. (eds) Disturbance and Ecosystems. Ecological Studies, vol 44. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69137-9_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69137-9_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-69139-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-69137-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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