Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Hole, Wyoming, was the system model that was subsequently published in Breth-
erton (1985) and is reproduced here as fi gure 10.2. It was subsequently the centre-
fold of the Overview report of the Committee, published by NASA in May 1986
(Earth System Sciences Committee, 1986). The Overview report was the result of a
further full committee meeting at Orcas Island, Washington in June 1985. It presents
the overall scientifi c background to the question of ESS and makes both general and
specifi c recommendations for how progress should be made. A press conference to
launch the report was organised with major consequences; the opening statement
of the report being 'We, the peoples of the World' as an echo of the opening of the
UN Charter. As a result - perhaps combined with a little environmental serendipity
- the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was introduced by President
Reagan as a Presidential Initiative starting from fi nancial year 1989 (see below).
The Earth System Science Committee is now the Earth System Science and Applica-
tions Advisory Committee and meets biannually to discuss NASA strategy (ESSAAC,
2008).
The idea of ESS thus had a strong institutional focus within the governmental
and non-governmental research organisations in the USA, and a strong disciplinary
focus within various approaches to applied mathematics in the environment. To
what extent can the science within ESS be considered to be novel? Von Humboldt's
1845 work
Kosmos
states 'the word climate, however, refers to a specifi c nature
of the atmosphere; but this nature depends on the continuous interplay...with
the heat radiating dry earth which is covered by forest and herbs'
2
(cited in Scheffer
et al., 2005). At its simplest level, this statement refl ects the representation of climate
and biogeochemical cycles inherent in the formation of ESS. Other work in the
1890s by Arrhenius and Hogböm also demonstrated an understanding of similar
interactions (Heimann, 1997). Clifford and Richards (2005) suggest that as well
as von Humboldt, Huxley's work in physiography also refl ects an early forerunner
to the holistic approach of ESS. As well as Lovelock's Gaia theory (of which, more
will be discussed later), they point to the importance of the development of systems
approaches in geography - especially the work of Chorley and Kennedy (1971)
and Bennett and Chorley (1980) - grounded in the work of von Bertalanffy and
followers in general systems theory, and of parallel (and much earlier) developments
in ecology and agronomy and forestry (v. Chorley and Kennedy, 1971, pp.
88-90).
For some, ESS has simply taken (or borrowed or stolen, depending on the
perspective) the mantle of systems-based physical geography. Interestingly, this
perception may have spread more widely, as noted by the following author, who
is based in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, at Stanford
University:
Earth systems science is actually twenty-fi rst century geography: it encompasses
the study of the environmental physical and life sciences and engineering, coupled
with an analysis of human constructs and political and economic policies. It employs
space-age technologies to identify, measure, and manage diverse global databases
that serve as a framework and foundation for a coherent discipline. (Ernst, 2000,
p. 520)
Another author, this time from the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford
makes similar points:
