New Blog Series—The Drama of Earth Systems

Arguably the most pressing issue facing humankind has to be global warming. Climate scientists are now convinced that global warmning is contributing to changes in weather patterns leading to increased levels of storms, flooding, ocean temperatures, and wild fires. Increasingly younger generations are concerned not only for themselves but for their children. With good reason, younger generations are putting pressure on governmental and educational institutions to do something about global warming. Their cries are being recognized. As an example, the geoscience department at UT Dallas (the alma mater of the Foundation's president, Rick Leonhardt) recently changed their name to the department of sustainable earth system science (SESS). As another example, the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently released a booklet entitled Next Generation Earth Systems Science at the National Science Foundation (2022). You can access a copy of this booklet at this link. This booklet talks about how the NSF makes grants in areas such as:

• Biological Sciences
• Computer & Information Sciences
• Education & Human Resources
• Engineering
• Geosciences
• Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences
• Mathematics & Physical Sciences

The booklet makes it clear that the NSF is going to bring all of these various groups together in a concerted effort to better understand global warming, and to develop possible interventions and policies.

Rick has been monitoring these developments and noticed that although there is a big emphasis on systems, there is little emphasis on systems theory, especially organic systems theory. As an example, the NSF report does, in passing, mention the work of Ludwig von Bertalanffy, arguably the father of General Systems Theory, however, that is the only mention of systems theory proper. Rick decided to write a blog series entitled The Drama of Earth Systems as a way of bringing attention to the various approaches to systems theory—information systems, organic systems, sociological systems, and emancipatory systems—that have arisen since the close of WWII. Interestingly, the Macy and Geneva conferences that took place in the aftermath of WWII brought together a similar group of researchers and academics (including John Bowlby and the aforementioned Ludwig von Bertalanffy). Rick's blog series (found over at the Bowlby Less Traveled blog site) takes a look at this earlier effort and traces the various paths it took ultimately leading to such present day developments as AI (artificial intelligence) and even the DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) movement, which is prominently profiled in the NSF report. Here's the link to Part 1 of the blog series The Drama of Earth Systems.