The Earth is a silicate planet that has been orbiting the Sun for 4.56 billion years. The Sun is a quite ordinary star but the Earth is a most unusual planet. Its uniqueness is manifested in many ways, for example its convective mode of plate tectonics and its oxygen-rich atmosphere but most spectacularly in its hosting life. The emerging field of biogeodynamics aims to understand interactions between various components and subsystems of the overall Earth system. These components include 1) the geosphere (the convecting solid Earth); 2) hydrosphere (oceans, lakes, rivers); 3) cryosphere (glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice); 4) atmosphere (troposphere, stratosphere, ozone shield, ionosphere); 5) magnetosphere (Earth’s magnetic field and shield) 6) critical zone (soils) and 7) biosphere (life). The Earth system is also affected by the exosystem (Sun, tides, asteroid impacts, cosmic radiation). Earth System Emergence and Biogeodynamics share many of the same concerns as Earth System Science, which grew out of NASA Earth-observing satellite investigations.