- Email: [email protected]
Ecological intelligence
POSTSCRIPT conservation science, with Avise’s passion for nature coming through strongly. This chapter is important in that it extends the domain of conservation genetics beyond the measurement of genetic diversity for its own sake to analysis of processes and structure of threatened populations and regional faunas. The greatest strengths of Avise’s book are its breadth, balance and accessibility. The coverage of historical and recent literature is awesome and I find myself referring to it constantly- when 1can get it back from
students whom f have pestered to read it! A shortcoming is that, for me, it was more retrospective than predictive. f did not come away with a vision of where the field of molecular systematics is headed. Perhaps that is asking too much, but if so, one wonders whether molecular systematics is really a discipline in its own right. 1believe it is: a field emergent from a combination of population genetics and phylogenetic systematics, mediated by an understanding of molecular evolution. In this context, the future may lie
Ecological intelligence he founders of the modern world were mostly reductionists, who succeeded by understanding parts not wholes; virtually all of its critics have regarded themselves as holists. Nevertheless, reductionism is powerful, easier to do and more quickly translated into profits, weapons and careers, and so has fared better. Reductionism allowed us to build a remarkably complicated and expansive social/ economic system. But spreading ecological disorder reveals how poorly that system calibrates with the complex biophysical system of which it is only a part. Because it requires understanding context, holism is slower. For a hyperactive immature species with a big brain, it also appears to be less fun because to think and act holistically requires the sense to ask about the consequences of our actions and the good sense not to do some things we might otherwise want to do. Holists tend to recognize, in Robert Sinsheimer’s words’, that ‘nature may set booby traps for unwary species’. Despite all of our elaborate scientific knowledge of how various parts of the world work, we do not, and I think cannot, have an entirely adequate understanding of how the biophysical world works as a system. Holism begins, then, with the ironic acknowledgement of our inability to fully comprehend wholes (i.e. with our inescapable human ignorance), but it should not end there. It must proceed towards the mastery of ecological principles, including caution, that will, some day, inform the design of farms, buildings, cities, technologies, economies and all public policies that govern the flow of energy, materials, water, food and waste*. The principles of ecological design are grounded in the laws of thermodynamics which tell us, first, that energy and matter cannot be destroyed. The ‘consumption’ of energy creates an equivalent amount of
T
500
smoke, heat, work and ashes. Second, the laws of thermodynamics tell us that the process of degradation proceeds from order (low entropy) to greater disorder (high entropy). Against this entropic tide, the evolution of life suggests principles for ecological design3. And what are these principles? First, natural systems operate on current solar income. Modern civilization, by contrast, depends on the extravagant use of ancient sunlight stored in fossil fuels. Second, by trial and error, nature has evolved over long periods of time towards ever greater diversity. It does not place all of Its bets on any one experiment, unless the evolution of Homo sapiens is such a wager. Modem civilization, by contrast, is becoming more homogenized and uniform, and less biologically and culturally diverse. Third, natural systems tend to develop redundancy and resilience that enable them to recover from disturbance. Modern systems in contrast, are becoming more brittle and vulnerable to disturbances ranging from climate change to panic selling on global financial markets. Fourth, natural systems create no waste, instead all organisms are rendered into nutrients and recycled into new life. Modem civilization, in contrast, generates vast amounts of unused and unusable waste, much of it highly toxic. Good ecological design requires the ability to think clearly about systems with complex patterns of stocks and flows, and long leads and lags. It requires being smarter about what we do and how efficiently we do it. It requires ‘prices that tell the truth’, that is, prices that equal the true costs of what we consume. ECOlogical design requires sensitivity to the limits of scale that affects everything from technologies to entire economies. Finally, good ecological design means substituting information for mass and energy and
in increased interaction between population genetics, molecular evolution, developmental biology and systematic biology providing the link between molecular and phenotypic variation. In any case, this book is a landmark for the field and should be read by practitioners, whether experienced or new. Craig Moritz
Deptof Zoology. Brisbane,
Unwersity of Queensland. Qld 4072,
Australia
elegance for brute force (W. McDonough and P. Hawken, unpublished). The great challenge of the 21st century is to design a global civilization that fits sustainably on a planet with a biosphere. This is a challenge to schools, colleges and universities to foster ecological intelligence from the earliest years through to PhD4. The same kind of education that equipped us to industrialize the earth will not do. The development of ecological intelligence will require a transformation of institutional priorities and goals, methods of teaching and, not the least, the organization of knowledge by discipline and subdiscipline. David W. Orr Oberlin Co&w, Rice Ha/(, Oberlin, OH 44074-1095, USA
References
1 Sinsheimer,
R. (1Y 78) 77~ Presumptions
of
Scrence,
Daedalus 2 Warn, D. (1990)Biologrc~ Enummmental Protection by&sign, Johnson Publishing 3 Todd, N.J. and Todd,T. (1994)Fmm EcoCihes
to Lwing
Machmes Frinciples ofEcological
Design.
North Atlantic Books 4 Lyle,J. (1994)Rqenerotive Des@! for Sustarnoble Dewlopment,
Wiley
students whom f have pestered to read it! A shortcoming is that, for me, it was more retrospective than predictive. f did not come away with a vision of where the field of molecular systematics is headed. Perhaps that is asking too much, but if so, one wonders whether molecular systematics is really a discipline in its own right. 1believe it is: a field emergent from a combination of population genetics and phylogenetic systematics, mediated by an understanding of molecular evolution. In this context, the future may lie
Ecological intelligence he founders of the modern world were mostly reductionists, who succeeded by understanding parts not wholes; virtually all of its critics have regarded themselves as holists. Nevertheless, reductionism is powerful, easier to do and more quickly translated into profits, weapons and careers, and so has fared better. Reductionism allowed us to build a remarkably complicated and expansive social/ economic system. But spreading ecological disorder reveals how poorly that system calibrates with the complex biophysical system of which it is only a part. Because it requires understanding context, holism is slower. For a hyperactive immature species with a big brain, it also appears to be less fun because to think and act holistically requires the sense to ask about the consequences of our actions and the good sense not to do some things we might otherwise want to do. Holists tend to recognize, in Robert Sinsheimer’s words’, that ‘nature may set booby traps for unwary species’. Despite all of our elaborate scientific knowledge of how various parts of the world work, we do not, and I think cannot, have an entirely adequate understanding of how the biophysical world works as a system. Holism begins, then, with the ironic acknowledgement of our inability to fully comprehend wholes (i.e. with our inescapable human ignorance), but it should not end there. It must proceed towards the mastery of ecological principles, including caution, that will, some day, inform the design of farms, buildings, cities, technologies, economies and all public policies that govern the flow of energy, materials, water, food and waste*. The principles of ecological design are grounded in the laws of thermodynamics which tell us, first, that energy and matter cannot be destroyed. The ‘consumption’ of energy creates an equivalent amount of
T
500
smoke, heat, work and ashes. Second, the laws of thermodynamics tell us that the process of degradation proceeds from order (low entropy) to greater disorder (high entropy). Against this entropic tide, the evolution of life suggests principles for ecological design3. And what are these principles? First, natural systems operate on current solar income. Modern civilization, by contrast, depends on the extravagant use of ancient sunlight stored in fossil fuels. Second, by trial and error, nature has evolved over long periods of time towards ever greater diversity. It does not place all of Its bets on any one experiment, unless the evolution of Homo sapiens is such a wager. Modem civilization, by contrast, is becoming more homogenized and uniform, and less biologically and culturally diverse. Third, natural systems tend to develop redundancy and resilience that enable them to recover from disturbance. Modern systems in contrast, are becoming more brittle and vulnerable to disturbances ranging from climate change to panic selling on global financial markets. Fourth, natural systems create no waste, instead all organisms are rendered into nutrients and recycled into new life. Modem civilization, in contrast, generates vast amounts of unused and unusable waste, much of it highly toxic. Good ecological design requires the ability to think clearly about systems with complex patterns of stocks and flows, and long leads and lags. It requires being smarter about what we do and how efficiently we do it. It requires ‘prices that tell the truth’, that is, prices that equal the true costs of what we consume. ECOlogical design requires sensitivity to the limits of scale that affects everything from technologies to entire economies. Finally, good ecological design means substituting information for mass and energy and
in increased interaction between population genetics, molecular evolution, developmental biology and systematic biology providing the link between molecular and phenotypic variation. In any case, this book is a landmark for the field and should be read by practitioners, whether experienced or new. Craig Moritz
Deptof Zoology. Brisbane,
Unwersity of Queensland. Qld 4072,
Australia
elegance for brute force (W. McDonough and P. Hawken, unpublished). The great challenge of the 21st century is to design a global civilization that fits sustainably on a planet with a biosphere. This is a challenge to schools, colleges and universities to foster ecological intelligence from the earliest years through to PhD4. The same kind of education that equipped us to industrialize the earth will not do. The development of ecological intelligence will require a transformation of institutional priorities and goals, methods of teaching and, not the least, the organization of knowledge by discipline and subdiscipline. David W. Orr Oberlin Co&w, Rice Ha/(, Oberlin, OH 44074-1095, USA
References
1 Sinsheimer,
R. (1Y 78) 77~ Presumptions
of
Scrence,
Daedalus 2 Warn, D. (1990)Biologrc~ Enummmental Protection by&sign, Johnson Publishing 3 Todd, N.J. and Todd,T. (1994)Fmm EcoCihes
to Lwing
Machmes Frinciples ofEcological
Design.
North Atlantic Books 4 Lyle,J. (1994)Rqenerotive Des@! for Sustarnoble Dewlopment,
Wiley