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Goat-legged, enthusiastic, lover of ecstasy, dancing among stars, Weaving the harmony of the cosmos into playful song.-Description of Pan from The Orphic Hymns

'n the late 1960s the first photographs of Earth from space provided an I evocative perspective of the planet. The planet appeared as an integrated. entity made up of a membrane of life intermixed with atmosphere, oceans, and land. To many, the image suggested that humans were part of that entity, nurtured and challenged by it and responsible for its protection. To others, it suggested the possibility that humans could control planetary development for human opportunity. An advertisement of the development arm of a bank, for example, published the photograph with the caption:" Businessmen, Devour This Planet!" What seemed to be a delicate jewel to some was a digestible morsel to others. But it was the image itself that suggested the integrated nature of the planet. The photograph showed that scale of observation shapes both explanations of patterns in nature and actions conceived.

What is the appropriate scale of observation in our search for theories and actions for sustainable futures? Our focus here is local, regional, and global; so there can scarcely be any single appropriate scale. Moreover, we are concerned with interactions across scales from the very small and fast to the very big and slow. A sense of the patterns and processes across those scales is provided by a marvelous set of images in the book Powers of Ten (Morrison and Morrison 1982). These images range in scale from microscopic to the universe, each photograph covering a size that is one order of magnitude …