Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 10
Earth-System Science
John Wainwright
The Origin of Earth-System Science
With over 283 academic references on the ISI database and about 185,000 hits on
Google by early 2008, the topic of Earth-System Science has clearly had a major
impact. This impact has been signifi cant across a range of disciplines, principally
environmental science, ecology, meteorology and atmospheric science and geology
(fi gure 10.1). It has had impacts on disciplines as diverse as psychology, neurosci-
ence and education and a notable feature of these references is the range and inte-
gration of different subject areas. Some authors have even used the concept to bridge
ideas of science and religion (Primavesi, 2000). By its very (problematic) defi nition,
Earth-System Science brings in a broad range of disciplines and allows them to
interact. However, the fact that the term exists outside or across current disciplinary
boundaries has often been the source of controversy, uncertainty and suspicion
(e.g., Turner, 2002). In this context, is it possible to defi ne how the term came about
and to evaluate whether it is - as some have claimed - a new science, or rather the
repackaging of some older ideas?
The fi rst specifi c use of the term 'Earth-System Science' in the literature was by
Francis Bretherton (1985) in the
Proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Elec-
tronics Engineers
. At fi rst glance this may appear to be an unusual source for anyone
interested in environmental geography, but it must be remembered that the
Proceed-
ings
carries a number of papers on remote sensing - indeed, the title of Bretherton's
paper is 'Earth System Science and Remote Sensing'. The underlying rationale for
developing Earth-System Science (henceforth ESS) was two-fold. On the one hand,
there is an altruistic desire to integrate and mobilise scientifi c endeavour to tackle
pressing problems of anthropic environmental and climate change (note that this
paper pre-dates the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
by three years). While challenging the tendency of scientists to pursue various, typi-
cally reductionist, disciplinary research approaches, Bretherton does not make a
proscriptive statement of what ESS should be:
