This is why linear approaches, over the short run, appear to work. But, sometimes, if the threat to self-organization is severe enough, if a tipping point is reached, the system responds as a whole by significantly altering its functional state in a short period of time. A phase change occurs. This is what James Lovelock and others are afraid of with the current problems of human/Earth interactions. The Earth can shift its state from one where our life-form can survive to one where we cannot in a very short period of time. It’s done it before.
