An Evolutionary View of the Environment

Abstract

This chapter presents a perspective to view the global ecosystem as a complex system that is undergoing continuous changes and sometimes abrupt transitions, subject to the law of thermodynamics and the law of evolution. The global ecological system is a complex system created through interactions between a constantly changing climate and biodiversity. By the ways in which they regulate themselves to these changes, other changes occur at the genetic level, by which the special characteristics of life forms either develop or disappear, with the result being evolution. There is neither good nor bad in evolution caused by the forces of the natural world, but human activities are having enormous impacts on the processes of evolution. We must be reminded, however, of the metaphor of the lions, which may seem to be dominant but will die out if they eat all the deer they prey upon. Nobody knows if we humans will end up as a fleeting presence on a page in the history of evolution in the global ecological system, but we are a dangerous presence that is risking a destructive knockout blow to the other species sharing Spaceship Earth with us which make us biological diversity.