CHAPTER I 



A GLOBAL VIEW 



Before we launch into the details of man's successes and failures 

 in living on the world landscape, let us pause a moment and consider 

 what we are getting into. 



Educational experts study such things as the learning process and 

 its handmaid, memory. They have done a great deal of experiment- 

 ing. They conclude that the best way to begin absorbing, under- 

 standing, or memorizing a body of knowledge is first to take an over- 

 view of the entire passage to be learned. First, get a general idea of 

 what it is all about. Get an airplane view of the field. Study a map 

 of the whole territory. 



In such a general overview, the details are invisible or blurred. 

 But, with such a view fixed in mind, when we later burrow into the 

 details we shall know how they fit into the entire scene. We can see 

 the parts in relation to the whole. 



In the field of natural sciences, we are only beginning to fit tke 

 parts together so as to make possible a look at the whole. What we 

 see is both discouraging and encouraging. In too many landscapes 

 we find that our past blind misshaping, mishandling of parts and 

 components has produced weird, abnormal scenes. These under- 

 nourished, sickly, unbalanced, puny, abnormal landscapes are largely 

 inhabited by abnormal people people so uniformly abnormal that 

 they think they are normal, and believe that the environment in 

 which they live is normal. It is only recently that these abnormalities 

 have begun to come into the light of general understanding. Science 

 is slowly discovering what is normal for civilized man and the modern 

 landscape. The core of that normality is a robust, timeless, cyclical 

 flow of energy and elements. 



This endless flow may be likened to a hydro-power plant on a 

 stream. The stream supplies energy perpetually through the opera- 

 tion of the climatic water cycle. Water is sidetracked over the blades 

 of turbine or waterwheel, then returns to the stream. The energy 

 drawn off is replaced by nature from the immense powerhouse of the 

 sun. The used water is vaporized by sun-born heat and carried by 

 sun-created air currents and winds back to the headwaters of the 

 stream. The compounded mineral elements of the water are the 

 carriers of energy. They must be returned, not dispersed nor de- 

 stroyed, if the flow of energy is to be maintained. Fortunately, man 

 has been unable to lay violent hands on this phase of the water cycle. 

 It remains as an example of normally. (Fig. 1.) 



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