People and microorganisms have more impact than any other species, in terms of ecological forces. We have to put people in the equation. The big picture Odum advocates a holistic or ecosystem approach to ecology. Many scientists argue against this. But the more you learn about ecology, the more you feel you have to work down from the top to the details.
Science tends too much toward reductionism.
That's why science and society are having trouble. Odum's holistic approach is a powerful intellectual tool to organize one's thoughts about nature, said Betty Jean Craige, Odum's friend, colleague and biographer, who teaches comparative literature and directs the UGA Center for Humanities and Arts. It is applicable, for example, to politics. To see the whole picture, we must get outside the frame, Odum said, giving a nod to the poster on his office wall of the Earth as seen by an Apollo lunar landing crew. Long before space flight, Odum was making his holistic imprint on academic circles with his book Fundamentals of Ecology, the first textbook on general ecology.