In Systems out of Balance I often point out the similarities between economics and ecology. Both disciplines look at resource distribution; ecology focuses on natural systems of resource distribution, economics on cultural systems. In particular I draw parallels between the survival strategies of organisms and the survival strategies of economic systems.
Our own economic system is caught up in an r-species survival strategy, metaphorically speaking. R-species get their label from the “r” growth curve on a population graph. For r-species this growth curve is exponential. They colonize rapidly, reproduce rapidly and use up resources rapidly. Bacteria are the prototypical r-species.
Their is a contrasting survival strategy in the natural world whose practitioners are referred to as k-species. K-species get their label from the “k” line on a population graph that represents the carrying capacity of the environment. No environment has infinite resources; at least one set of those resources, food for example, will start to limit how large a population can grow. K-species are known for adapting their growth rate in response to environmental conditions, so that their population never shoots up above the carrying capacity.
For species to adapt their behaviors in response to their environment they need to be flexible in what they can do physically; the flexibility afforded by an opposable thumb, for example. They need to be able to think of new ways of doing things; powerful brains provide an edge there. Finally, changing behaviors “on the fly” requires a little intra-species cooperation. It would not bode well for just one individual to survive by hunting woolly mammoths. Humans are, in fact, as committed by evolution to surviving as a k-species as bacteria are to surviving as an r-species.
One notable contrast between k-species and r-species survival strategies is what happens to them when they near the carrying capacities of their environments. R-species go through periods of boom and bust. Organisms like bacteria only “know” how to grow exponentially. Since they cannot adapt their behaviors the environment has to do it for them. As they use up the available resources they then die off rapidly, from some combination of famine, disease and/or aggression. Sometimes they continue along with this boom and bust survival strategy in the same environment, but r-species can irrevocably reduce the future carrying capacity of environments, such as a virulent bacteria killing its host, and they must move on to colonize new environments.
K-species, by virtue of adapting their own behavior to environmental conditions, can sustain themselves indefinitely until something external drives them out. In the twentieth century early foraging cultures were discovered that had been sustaining themselves in the same environment for many thousands of years. The Roman and even Chinese Empires were dismal failures at longevity in comparison. Of course, these early cultures may not exist much longer now, due precisely to external pressures. That leads me back to my economic metaphor.
Western colonialism was a cultural commitment to impose an r-species survival strategy on our economic system, metaphorically speaking. Nation states, capitalism, and business corporations all culturally evolved in accordance with this commitment. These adaptations call for colonizing markets rapidly, expanding markets rapidly and using up resources rapidly. We have been able to compartmentalize, so that the environments and populations of periphery/developing countries become impoverished for the benefit of the core/developed countries. Since the global economy is driven by the core countries we become blissfully immune to the full consequences of our decisions. Widespread famine among the human species is a consequence of this colonial r-species survival strategy, even as core countries acquire paternalistic pride for just how much good we do for the rest of the world.
There is a way to halt widespread famine, virulent disease and World War style aggressions, but it won’t be through paternalistic intervention with foreign aid and multinational corporations. At the heart of choosing to become a better world is choosing how we evolved to survive in the first place. Otherwise, our boom and bust cycles may eventually have the same impact as virulent bacteria.
