The Web of Life Article 1
It is difficult to imagine that a single teaspoon of healthy soil can contain more bacteria and fungi than there are people on the planet.

The web of life consists of all the materials that are physical and biological and the interrelated processes occurring to these materials that constitute the natural world and provide the physical basis for life. These systems exist and do not depend on human kind. However, human activity can harm and alter these systems critical to the continuous existence of human life on Earth

The Living Earth consists of many natural systems with numerous interactions within and between all elements of existence. Because of this, one small change, or transformation, can lead to larger changes that could significantly have negative impacts on the Living Earth.

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A factor such as global warming can lead to multiple impacts on these cycles. As temperatures increase, they produce changes in the global climate system, which in turn produce numerous changes in other cycles and systems on the Earth. Since the natural systems of Earth are complex and interconnected, the impact of changing one aspect of one system can redound through all of the living systems on planet Earth. For instance, the impact of global warming on the water cycle is seen in the melting of glaciers across the world. It can be seen in the evaporation of rivers and lakes, etc. Additionally, if we look at ecosystems, the changes in temperatures and precipitation affect life on the planet in so many various and destructive ways.

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Thinking of the web of life, soil perfectly shows the interconnectedness of nature. Organic matter in soil, such as decomposing plant and animal residues, stores more carbon than do plants and the atmosphere combined.

In his book The Web of Life published some 30 years ago the physicist Fritjof Capra wrote about the breakdown of mechanistic science and the emergence of new ways of thinking concerning our understanding of the physical universe. Capra looks at the shift from linear thinking to systems thinking in science, showing how recent advances in an number of fields, from evolutionary biology and chaos theory to quantum physics and computer science, signal an emergent paradigm that differs radically from the clock model of classical science. 

He compares this shift to the Copernican revolution suggesting that the new perception of reality has profound implications not only for science and philosophy but also for business, politics, health care, education, and everyday life. "The new paradigm may be called a holistic world. He writes: "We must see the world as an integrated totality rather than as a dissociated collection of parts.” It may also be called an ecological view, if the term ‘ecological' is used in a much broader and deeper sense than usual. Deep ecological awareness recognizes the fundamental interdependence of all phenomena and the fact that, as individuals and societies, we are all part of (and ultimately dependent on) the cyclical processes of nature. 

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Capra begins his book with a discussion of the cultural context in which this scientific revolution is unfolding. As a culture, he says, we are discovering that we cannot understand the major problems of our time in isolation. They are systemic problems; they are by nature interconnected and interdependent. "Ultimately these problems must be seen as just different facets of one single crisis, which is largely a crisis of perception. It derives from the fact that most of us, and especially our large social institutions, subscribe to the concepts of an outdated world view, a perception of reality inadequate for dealing with our troubled, globally interconnected world.” 

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Again Capra traces the rise of ‘systems thinking’ — the sort of thinking that emphasizes the totality of things rather than the parts. While classical science insists that the behaviour of a complex system can be best analysed in terms of the properties of the parts, systems thinking reverses the equation by showing that the properties of the parts are not intrinsic but can be understood only within the context of the larger world. In this sense, systems thinking means thinking in context. "Ultimately — as quantum physics has shown so dramatically — there are no parts at all. What we call a part is merely a pattern in an inseparable web of interconnections." 

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It could be said that the rise of this new scientific paradigm owes much to the pioneering work of the early systems theorists, but two recent developments have been decisive in this transition: the discovery of the new mathematics of complexity and the formulation of the ‘concept of self-organisation’.

For Capra the key to a comprehensive understanding of living systems is reflected in the synthesis of two approaches relating to scientific thought: the study of pattern (or form, order, quality) and the study of structure (or substance, matter, quantity). The structure approach attempts to understand the properties that make up the object of study, while the pattern approach seeks to understand the connections between its constituent parts. When these two approaches are combined with the central insight of ‘living systems’ theory — that of the ceaseless flux of matter — it offers a radically new way of conceiving reality. Pattern, structure, and now process are three different but inseparable perspectives of the phenomenon of life. In effect, this means that to understand any living system, one must answer three questions: what is its structure? What is its pattern of organisation? And what is the process of life?

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This new approach addresses two conceptual problems that have plagued science for centuries. First, the interdependence of pattern and structure addresses the traditional division between the organic and the inorganic, between the living and the non-living. And second, the interdependence of process and structure addresses the Cartesian division between mind and matter.

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The main characteristics of systems thinking emerged simultaneously in several disciplines during the first half of the 20th century. It was pioneered by biologists who stressed that living things are best understood as integrated totalities. It was further enriched by Gestalt psychology and the new science of ecology. And it had perhaps the most dramatic effects in quantum physics which showed that at the subatomic level there are (as has been stated above) no parts at all, that what we call a part is merely a pattern in an inseparable web of interconnections that created a certain way of thinking, a new language, new concepts, and an intellectual climate that set the stage for what was to follow.

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Again, for Capra the new emerging paradigm in science has profound ecological consequences. An understanding of reality based on the essential interdependence and interconnectedness at the heart of things restores our human connection to the entire web of life. "The theory of living systems provides a conceptual framework for the link between ecological communities and human communities. Both are living systems that exhibit the same basic principles of organisation.” Thus, we must somehow revitalize our communities — including our educational, organisational, and political communities — so that the principles of ecology become manifest in them as principles of well-being and sustainability.

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