I recently started referring to Robert Bailey’s Ecosystem Geography and Eco Regions Design for Sustainability again. A long time ago, I was struck by these books because they changed the way we think about borders and boundaries.  Regional needs assessments and advice should consider ecosystem geography at all scales.     With this method, we can prioritize prescriptions across the landscape and ensure everyone contributes.   For example, we can prioritize planting trees in areas where planting is needed.  I have also long considered the possibility of using some of our best agricultural lands to grow corn for food again. What immediately comes to mind is the issue of growing corn for ethanol.   Ethanol land should be transitioned back to providing for human nutrition on Earth.  Furthermore, this work is important because it demonstrates that nationalism can be violent.  Over time, there have been a considerable number of wars and terrorism associated with national boundaries. We also see the issue of cross-border migration, particularly in the United States.   If we consider everyone, everything, and everywhere within their Ecosystem geography, we can care for people in their homelands, regardless of the problems they face.   Therefore, it’s really about prioritization and consideration by prescription.   With geographic information systems, geographic information science, and all other sciences, we should be able to prioritize what needs to occur on the landscapes.   From cities to prairies and from towns to forests, we should be able to make helpful contributions to ecosystem geography.   With the Earth Unidiversity Research Explorer Cycle, we can involve everyone and everything on Earth to contribute.

The profound insights presented in Robert Bailey’s seminal works, “Ecosystem Geography” and “Eco-Regions: Design for Sustainability,” allow us to consider everything everywhere. These texts, which first captivated me years ago, fundamentally reshape our understanding of political borders and human-defined transitional boundaries by advocating for an ecological perspective. They underscore the critical necessity of integrating ecosystem geography, from the microscale to the macroregional, into any comprehensive assessment or prescriptive planning for human societies and natural environments worldwide. By adopting this holistic methodology, we can strategically prioritize interventions and resource allocation across the landscape, fostering widespread engagement and collective contributions toward sustainable and favorable cumulative totality environmental outcomes. For instance, this framework enables precise identification of optimal locations for ecological restoration, such as targeted tree-planting initiatives that maximize environmental benefits.

Furthermore, this ecological lens compels a re-evaluation of current land-use and ocean-use practices. I have long advocated reconsidering the allocation of our most fertile agricultural lands to food production. Given the escalating global demand for food and the pressures on food security, these invaluable agricultural resources must be returned to their primary purpose: sustaining human life on Earth.  In many situations, land may be transitioned back to prairie ecosystems.

The implications of this ecological paradigm extend beyond environmental management to the very fabric of human/creation coexistence. This work powerfully illustrates how arbitrary nationalistic boundaries can, at times, become sources of conflict and division. History bears witness to countless wars and acts of terrorism born from geopolitical demarcations that disregard ecological realities. We also observe contemporary challenges such as cross-border migration, particularly evident in regions such as the United States, which are often exacerbated by a disconnect between political borders and ecological carrying capacities. By adopting a perspective that considers the ecological geography that supports all life, we can develop solutions that prioritize the well-being of people in their homelands considering all of the complexities they face. This approach demonstrates that genuine stability and peace arise from understanding and respecting ecological connections.

Ultimately, progress hinges on informed prioritization and scientifically guided prescriptions. Leveraging advanced tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing, and Geographic Information Science, alongside a comprehensive suite of scientific disciplines, empowers us to make evidence-based decisions about what actions are most critical across diverse landscapes – from bustling urban centers to vast prairies, and from quaint towns to ancient forests. This scientific foundation allows us to prescribe thoughtful, beneficial contributions to ecosystem health and human well-being. By combining scientific developments with organized collaborative frameworks—such as a “University Research and Explorer Cycle”—it is possible to efficiently engage individuals and institutions globally to make significant contributions to the responsible management of the planet (the cumulative totality of everyone, everything, everywhere).