Systems connect humans with diverse populations of non-human organisms and the vast worlds they occupy.

People also contrive systems. In addition to systems of governance, health, economics, ethics, and education, humans have developed systems to explain the dynamics of life on Earth.  Over the course of history, these systems have reflected two contrasting approaches. ‘Closed’ systems are self-sustaining and self-governing ; they function without inputs or outputs.. ‘Open’ systems are functionally dependent upon elements or processes that enter the system from outside; they rely upon inputs and outputs in order to perpetuate themselves. 

If a house were a closed system, there would be no pipes connecting to a water supply, no wires feeding electricity from a grid, and no need for a driveway. But houses are open systems. Sunlight streams through the windows, air seeps through the cracks, baking ingredients enter and the contribution to the church bake sale exits.

The word ‘ecology’ is derived from the Greek word ‘ecos.’ meaning home. For much of history, cultures conceived of their earthly home as a closed system  comprised of four primary elements: stone and  air, water and fire. This hallowed image of a closed system reflects the belief the Earth-centeredness of phenomena. Those phenomena that could not be accounted for through direct observation are relegated to the magical involvement of the spirit world. Unobservable events like evaporation and condensation were explained by the creation of water spirits and attended to by rain dances and sacrificial ceremonies.    

In these closed-system cultures, such spirits resided far beyond Earth-bound perceivable realms. They occurred, for example, within the molten core of the earth and the blazing mass of the sun. Throughout the grand course of civilization,human spirits have been stirred by the inscrutability of the underworld and the untouchable brilliance of the sun: goddesses of volcanoes and gods of the sun, Satans ruling the underworld and angelic hosts occupying ethereal realms. 

 Scientific investigation has provided evidence that our earthly home is very much an open system. For example, sunlight enters the system in a non-material form called energy affecting the elements within the system by warming them, causing chemical changes, and producing photosynthesis in plants.  Magma spews from volcanic eruptions creating new land forms and devastating existing eco systems. Shooting stars pierce the atmosphere from deep space causing craters and depositing new rock materials.  Snow balls from space may contribute to our water supply.

Open systems envision the earth as four interactive spheres of activity. They biosphere is 'life. The other three  provide abiotic building blocks and habitat for ‘life’. They include the geosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere.

Closed systems cannot support life.   As a result, open systems pose an alternative to mythic closed-system tales. Ecology awakens consciousness of all the materials and processes that are used to create and maintain living organisms.

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