With co-authors I just submitted the attached paper to The Quarterly Review of Biology. I am very excited that this work – science synthesis for the purpose of helping to solve the global ecological crisis – can contribute and be beneficial in many ways. The main cases made in the paper are 1) this holistic paradigm of life is better objectively (better fit and explanation of existing observations), and 2) it can be applied to systemic problem solving and has potential to help solve many of the sub-problems of our systemic crisis all at once by addressing the shared root cause.
In addition to these benefits, when talking this over with a friend, we realized the holistic and synthesis approach may also serve to facilitate and catalyze great coalition building efforts among many people and organizations working for environmental sustainability on each of the major problem fronts. To better illustrate this, I just created this rough new sketch showing both the Figure 1 of the paper (the way that the mental model of life is the shared systemic cause of the problems) but now adding the opponents that each major group is battling. I hope this provides an incentive to see ways to join forces and make even better progress. Any comments appreciated.
Fiscus et al life-environs paradigm in revision
