One Earth + One Health – An Agile, Evolutionary, Convergence Paradigm

Join us for the final ESG Seminar of the 2025/26 academic year, joined with CAER (Climate Adaptation & Environment Research) Centre

Abstract

Evolutionary mechanisms enabled humans to irreversibly transform Earth systems, culminating in the present-day, globally connected, system of Anthropocene systems. Because Anthropocene systems are highly interdependent and dynamically evolving, often with accelerating rates of cultural and technological evolution, the ensuing family of societal challenges (e.g., climate change and impacts, food insecurity, renewable energy, adaptive infrastructure, disasters and pandemics) must be holistically framed and addressed. To catalyze the required societal transformations, an evolutionary, system-of-systems convergence paradigm is needed to coordinate strategic interventions across multiple systems and scales. The paradigm requires a major transformation in our approach to science and engineering and includes a causally coherent evolutionary framework, with cross-scale, modular and hierarchical conceptual models, agile, extensible and scalable computational frameworks, an associated decision-support system and an educational pedagogy. A new generation of Anthropocene systems integrators is needed to create a meta-discipline that spans all the disciplines associated with One Earth and One Health.

John Little received a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town and an MS and PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He is Charles E. Via, Jr. Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. His earlier research focused on process dynamics in environmental systems but has now broadened to Anthropocene systems. John has been a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, China; University of Sydney, Australia; Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Switzerland; National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan; University of Granada, Spain; Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment, France; University of La Rochelle, France; and University of Helsinki, Finland.