Synthesis

Abstract

Several important issues arise from the discourse of the foregoing chapters. The chief among them are the dynamicity and interrelatedness of systems comprising the biosphere, the problem of scale, and the origin of cyclicity. To conclude this survey of climate, Earth processes, and Earth history we shall discuss these pivotal issues with a view to possible future lines of research by developing from existing mathematical frameworks a tentative, general model of the biosphere.

Nature considered rationally, that is to say, submitted to the process of thought, is a unity in diversity of phenomena; a harmony, blending together all created things, however dissimilar in form and attributes; one great whole (τὸ πα̂ν) animated by the breath of life.

Alexander von Humboldt (1849, vol. i, pp. 2–3)