In the 2009 New Ecology issue of Alternatives Journal, Thomas Homer Dixon, professor of Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo, wrote that Ecology would replace Physics as the master science of the 21st Century.
In that same issue Stephen Bocking of Trent University argued that Politics, not Ecology, was the real master science.
To sort things out Alternatives Journal asked them to square off mano-a-mano in a panel discussion format.
To provide balance, they invited former Alternatives editor, current Alternatives editorial board member and UW Environment and Resource Studies faculty member Robert Gibson to join the fray.
They all came together on January 12, 2010 before a sold out house at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo.
