Nature's Holism

About the Book

In the association of the bee and the flower is a very advanced reflection of the process of evolution through natural selection. Nature's Holism explores the coevolution of long associated species arriving at a holistic view of nature where the compatibility between species is significant. In nature there are two interacting forces. There is the numerical increase in numbers of a species, termed a force of "perpetuity". Increasing numbers of a single species have an inevitable impact on the environment. However, as each species survives within an ecological context, there is a feedback from the ecosystem as numbers increase, requiring a necessary compatibility with the ecosystem. "Fitness" is therefore defined, not only by quantitative representation of genes in the next generation (perpetuity), but also the qualitative condition of compatibility with the habitat or ecosystem that provided the conditions and resources for this success.

About the Author

Laurence Evans is a shrimp farmer in South Africa. Born in Zambia in 1960, he moved with his parents to South Africa in 1970. He studied marine biology at the University of Cape Town and then started a career in aquaculture. As a keen ecologist and as aspiring science writer, "Nature's Holism is his first effort. In 1982 and 1983, he spent six months in the wilderness of northen Zambia, riding on horseback and studying bird life and ecology. While here, he "found" the expression of "compatibilty and perpetuity" in nature. He then set out to explain the compatibilty that he saw in nature. This book is the result.