At 11:28 PM 8/26/00 +0100, Maria Stella wrote:
>Jim,
>
>I think you are still far out. From what you wrote about Leopold, i did not get
>the impression that you understand the 'organism' metaphor in the same way. The
>way Leopold seems to suggest the organism metaphor does not imply anything
about
>loss, but rather a harmonious coordination. 

Good points that you make Maria-Stella,

the metaphor is really an interesting term. Aristotle was one of the
earliests to comment on the metaphor. He says that a good metaphor requires
genius in his Poetics & Rhetoric. 

"...the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one
thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius,
since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in
dissimilars." (Poetics 1458b;cf. Rhetoric 1405a).

One example of the metaphor related by Aristotle is the proportional metaphor:

"The sun sheds it's rays." 

I would like to add my favorite term that can be used to describe the
ecosystem from the perspective of landscape ecology. My term is 'synholon'
which means a synthesis of wholes. 

The organism concept is included in the term 'synholon' because an organism
is a whole with parts. As well most organisms are not independent but
dependent on other organisms so the term 'syn' is applicable to wholes.
There is adequacy in the term to extend or expand depending on the feature
and the whole that is referred to. 

The sun is part of the 'synholon' of organisms on earth. This dependency is
derived from an accepted fact which is that all life (with one exception)
obtains energy from the sun's rays (Short wave radiation) via photosynthesis. 

The one exception is 'autochemotrophes' which live near hot vents in the
bottom of the sea. That is the one exception. Even the chemoautotrophes are
dependent on the sun by reason of the fact that the ocean would be ice if
there were not sun. And the chemoautotrophes could not survive long under
ice moving that is thousands of meters thick. 

A good metaphor for the earth's ecosystem is still organism (or plum) for
that matter since all life is connected to the sun's light energy and
shortwave radiation. The second reason is that life is dependent on other
life because of the carbon cycle. Without organisms using carbon taken from
the atmospher, there would be no global carbon cycle and probably a much
reduced nitrogen cycle. 

But most importantly it is the hydrosphere that connects all life in the
synholon. Each living thing depends on water which is completely
interconnected chemically in the atmosphere, the soil, and the oceans and
freshwater systems. Life begets life. Without living plants on earth the
ocean would uptake all the carbon eventually and this carbon would
eventually precipitate out as carbonates on the ocean floor. When the carbon
in the atmosphere becomes limiting to plant life (if it ever did), then the
cycle would be broken, temperatures would plunge to minus 16 celsius on
average, a permanent ice age would occur and life would cease. 

On the other hand too much carbon will result in a massive extinction,
desertification, and a melting of the ice caps. This in turn will dilute the
salt content of the oceans, and because of that there would be a massive ice
age that would exceed all others in duration. The breaking of the carbon
cycle would result because of the raising of the freezing temperature of the
oceans. Since the oceans ultimately precipitate out most of the C02 as
carbonates when the atmospheric level is greater than that in the oceans, it
is unlikely that life could last on earth after. There would be a massive
deep freeze after a period of global warming brought about by increased
greenhouse gases. 

Currently life creates a relatively 'homeostatic' set of chemical and
thermic conditions on earth. For instance when the atmospheric carbon is
less concentrated than the ocean (not in equilibria with the oceans) the
ocean will give off carbon dioxide. This is explained by concentration
differences which means that under certain conditions the ocean will
dissolve carbonates and give off C02 to the atmosphere. 

Anyway....

john foster



"You never know where fish will go."




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