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The Early Loss of Ecological Stability in an Agrarian Region

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The Silent COUNTDOWN

Abstract

The environment of a society is both natural and social; exchange of energy, materials, and information takes place within the sociosphere which is made up of other societies and their infrastructure, and also through processes of production and reproduction within the biosphere and its various ecologies which are all submitted to natural laws of evolution. In its broadest sense, human ecology provides the conceptual framework for the most realistic description of the complex links between people and nature. Ecology and ecosystems stress connectivity and mutual causality among the natural and human components. This approach emphasizes the two-way character of causality, although the relative influence in reciprocally causal relationships is never equal and may be very unequal (Kaplan and Manners 1972, quoted in Ellen 1982). One of the most important and elemental is the flow of energy. A web of energy and material relations allows the ecosystems approach to draw together the natural and human processes. This focus on common components in an interconnected system provides an important means of specifying how nature and society are in fact interrelated (Sack 1990).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Historisches Institut, Universität Bern, Engehaldenstrasse 4, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    C. Pfister

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  1. C. Pfister
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    Peter Brimblecombe

  2. Historisches Institut, Universität Bern, Engehaldenstrasse 4, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Christian Pfister

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Pfister, C. (1990). The Early Loss of Ecological Stability in an Agrarian Region. In: Brimblecombe, P., Pfister, C. (eds) The Silent COUNTDOWN. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75159-2_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75159-2_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-75161-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-75159-2

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