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Nature and Society, April 2006 Book review (Last year the author approached NSF to let us know about this book and has now offered us a copy for review.) Nature and Society’s “inter-linked cameo descriptions of patterns we can recognise in our daily lives” provide insights into the natural world and human society, emphasising their interdependencies and, at root, their oneness as climate change and other perils begin to bite. The cameos give the book a filmic quality and provide a number of gems – simple and clear descriptions of natural phenomena, many drawn from the author’s own marine research career: the origin of petroleum, coral bleaching, pearl formation, the Adele penguin and positive feedback. In one of his cameos the author draws the analogy between cooperation between cells and cooperation between people. Tranter progresses in the book through a number of ways of looking at nature and society, taking an ecological process or phenomenon and then applying the lessons to human society and, thence, to current problems such as the conflict in Iraq and globalisation. For example, he wonders at the many applications of Newtonian physics to “astronomy, oceanography, meteorology, tectonics and space exploration. However, complex as it is, the complexity of the physical [non-living] world pales into insignificance compared with the complexity of life” After describing the infinite complexity of life, Tranter condemns the theoretical models of much economics as simplistic applications of physics to social phenomena and the way economists take for granted the perpetual resilience of the living planet. He deplores the way the Newtonian basis of economics cannot comprehend the flow and the dynamic nature of the living world, with its positive and negative feedback loops. One of the threads weaving through Nature and Society is the story of human evolution and what we can learn from our past to help us deal with our pressing problems. He describes how the adoption of agriculture led to aspects of cultural growth favoured by a settled life and the artefacts that could be accumulated readily if people were not nomadic. Among those areas were written records which led to the rapid spread of knowledge and our species’ cultural evolution far out-pacing our biological evolution. We can see the results of this apparently unfortunate disjuncture continuing today as the gap between our culture and our nature continues to widen. In the ways described, the author returns many times to caution us, firmly but gently, each time from a new perspective, about our threatened biosphere. Early on the author introduces the concept of entropy and contrasts the disorder accompanying it with the order of complexity. He explains how entropy on Earth has been held at bay by the input of energy from the sun. He likens the processes of increasing complexity to increasing information, but the meaning of this important metaphor eluded this reader. The book challenges the reader to think carefully; although it is easy to read, it inspires a flood of thoughts, new connections, new possibilities. Although it would be easy to read it at a single sitting, to do so would be to miss the opportunities the author’s generosity gives us. The book is available from the author for $25 (cheque or credit card) sent to him at PO Box 208 Robertson NSW 2577. The book is also available free on the internet at www.natureandsociety.net.au. April-May 2006 edition accessible here Back to top Back to Nature and Society archives
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