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Mar 1, 2021 · Beyond the ‘Balance of Nature’: Pastoralists’ Alternative Perspectives on Sustainability. Published on 1 March 2021. David Attenborough’s mission to restore the balance of nature in the documentary, A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement, is at once inspiring and concerning. What if the balance of nature doesn’t exist?
Title: Beyond the Balance of Nature Author: Jonathan Baert Wiener Keywords: Ecology, Analysis Created Date: Thursday, September 17, 1998 3:08:45 PM
- Jonathan Baert Wiener
- Thursday, September 17, 1998 3:08:45 PM
- 1996
- Ecology, Analysis
Jan 25, 2018 · Restoring the natural cycle and ecological functions of soil, water and nutrients are key, as well as new ways to measure development beyond GDP, capturing the value of nature. How does this link to the world’s cities?
- Overview
- From Herodotus to Disney
- Stunning photos of the Earth
- Constant change
- The flux of nature?
From the ancient Greeks to the Lion King, people have sought balance in nature—but the real world isn’t like that.
Strolling across his animated kingdom—Pride Rock in the distance—Mufasa explains to his young son Simba: “Everything you see exists together, in a delicate balance.”
The line is a hallmark of the Disney movie the Lion King, which debuted in 1994. A visually rich update of the classic, also by Disney (the Walt Disney Company is majority owner of National Geographic Partners), hit theaters this July. In the quarter-century gap, the film saw a few significant changes—hand-drawn animation gave way to life-like computer-generated graphics and Beyonce’s character Nala got a whole new song. But other aspects of the movie remained unchanged, including Mufasa’s original lesson about nature being in balance.
John Kricher just rewatched the scene from 1994. While the Wheaton College professor and author of The Balance of Nature: Ecology's Enduring Myth is a fan of James Earl Jones’ deep baritone delivery, he says “it’s not sound science.”
Scientists have long abandoned the idea of there being a “balance of nature,” in favor of more dynamic ecological frameworks. But, having been ingrained in popular culture over millennia, it’s proven much harder for the public to shake. The metaphor is alive and well today, appearing everywhere from newspapers, Legos, and a health food brand name to social media, and, of course, the Lion King reboot.
The misconception impacts everything from conservation management to climate change policy; and it’s a concept that scientists would like to see plucked from the public’s vocabulary. “It's a satisfying term,” says Kricher. “But it's not useful.”
The notion that nature exists in some sort of balance, or harmony, dates back to at least the ancient Greeks. The Greek writer Herodotus, for instance, was fascinated by the apparently balanced relationship between predator and prey. Cicero, a Roman politician and philosopher, imbued the idea with religious significance, presenting it as evidence of the wisdom of a Creator.
“It’s so old,” said Kim Cuddington, a professor at the University of Waterloo, in Canada, that “it's very much embedded, at least in Western culture.”
Even among scientists, the balance of nature concept persisted for centuries. Charles Darwin, the famous naturalist, alluded to it in his work on natural selection, as did his contemporaries, such as Herbert Spencer. The approach bled into the twentieth century, with, for example, the belief that leaving the wilderness wild was the best method of conservation or that pollution was a disruptor of the natural order.
But it was around that same time that people also began to challenge balance of nature thinking. In 1949, environmentalist Aldo Leopold wrote, “The image commonly employed in conservation education is 'the balance of nature.' For reasons too lengthy to detail here, this figure of speech fails to describe accurately what little we know about the land mechanism.”
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A California sea lion hunts for fish on a kelp paddy at Cortes Bank, a seamount off the coast of San Diego. It's a trove of marine life that deserves protection, conservationists say. ( See 50 dramatic photos from Earth )
A California sea lion hunts for fish on a kelp paddy at Cortes Bank, a seamount off the coast of San Diego. It's a trove of marine life that deserves protection, conservationists say. (See 50 dramatic photos from Earth)
Photograph by Brian Skerry, Nat Geo Image Collection
Also at that time, science was becoming more data driven, and ecology a more established discipline. “When the data don't support it, then you have to revise your idea,” said Kricher, explaining that that’s exactly what happened with the balance of nature.
In the 1950s, Robert MacArthur went into the remote woods of coastal Maine to observe warbler populations. He found that five different species coexisted by utilizing different parts of the same tree. The phenomenon, known as niche partitioning, implied an equilibrium. A balance.
The study became a foundation of ecology—one that most students read in class. That included Bik Wheeler, who first came across the work while pursuing his master’s degree. Realizing that he lived near MacArthur’s field site, he proposed re-creating the seminal research.
That was 2014. In the more than half-century that had passed since MacArthur’s original research, the forest he had worked in had largely gone untouched. So, aside from a few technological improvements—such as using lasers instead of stopwatches—Wheeler was able to retrace MacArthur’s steps. His results, however, were different.
Wheeler’s paper is still pending publication and peer review, so he was unable to talk about specifics. But he says he observed only two of the same species as MacArthur, as well as a few new ones.
In other words, “it's a dynamic system,” he said. “It's not static.”
The changes that Wheeler saw are emblematic of the broader shift that’s happened across ecology, and has had real-life implications. Both the delicate and stalwart interpretations of “balance” imply that nature should be left to its own devices; that human interference ought to be minimal.
Dislodging the balance of nature from the popular psyche won’t be easy. Back in the 1980s, ecologist Steward Pickett tried to aid that process by proposing a replacement: the “flux of nature.”
“I thought that there needed to be some short-hand alternative,” he said.
Although the flux alternative hasn’t yet caught on, Pickett still thinks it’s a more useful framing. The balance of nature, he says, has left the scientific discourse because it’s “vague and loaded” and the public ought to follow suit.
“We have to accept responsibility for what we're doing,” he said, “and not just say that nature will take care of it.”
- 3 min
- Tik Root
PDF | On Mar 1, 2021, Ian Scoones published Beyond the 'Balance of Nature': Pastoralists' Alternative Perspectives on Sustainability | Find, read and cite all the research you need on...
- Ian Scoones
The idea of a balance of nature emerged, but only implicity, in antiquity. During the 17th century, with an increased knowledge of natural history, the idea became a functional assumption, but within a theological rather than ecological context.
People also ask
Is there a balance of nature?
Is 'balance of nature' an enduring concept?
Is there a perfect balance in nature?
When did the idea of a balance of nature emerge?
Feb 10, 2024 · At its core, the balance of nature reflects the interdependence and interconnectedness of all life forms on Earth. It encompasses the myriad of ecosystems, each with its own unique set of species, habitats, and environmental conditions.
