A sequel to Boulding"s Ecodynamics (SAGE 1978), this new book looks at the extent to which the earth is a total system of interacting parts and the degree to which it is a pattern of isolated systems which have little or no impact on one another. Descriptions of systems are based as much as possible on their relevance to the real world. Boulding"s methodology depends on the nature of the particular system being investigated and he does not attempt to to impose methodologies from systems where parameters do not change (celestial mechanics) on those where they do (biological and social sciences).