Transformation andBalance in Nature

Nature is in a constant state of transformation. Some transformations are small and slow. Think about the �owers which transform water, earth and sun energy into their own form. Or the bees which transform pollen into honey. Some transformations are faster. Think about a bear eating honey. Very quickly that sugar can be converted to energy and the bear can climb a tree.

Humans transform nature in many big ways. We turn meadows into pasture for cows, and we turn forests into cities. Everything we have including our clothes, our computers, our houses and our furniture all are made from nature.

Since everything in nature is always transforming, the earth has to work very hard to rebuild itself. How does it do that? Every day, the earth gets free energy from the sun, so that the plants can continue to grow and the animals and humans can continue to transform the plants. Sustainability means that we do not transform the earth faster than it can rebuild using the sun.

But how can we �nd the right balance; the right amount of transformation? Everything in nature eventually �nds balance. Nature is always searching up and down, left and right for balance. Then sometimes it �nds a pattern. A pattern is like our heart beat, which pumps oxygen into our muscles at the same rate over time.

What are some other patterns?

Our lungs open and close as we breathe. We are awake and we sleep. Nature is active in the spring and quiet in the winter. The waters �ow and freeze. Even the wind speeds go up and down, up and down as our weather patterns stabilize. Only once in a while there are big storms. Think about the balance of the human temperature which stays at 98.7 degrees all the time. Even though there is so much transformation in the human body and in nature, these transformations �nd balance.

We are lucky because for the last 10,000 years nature has been in a very special and unique balance. The temperatures have only gone up and down slightly. Because of this, the plants know when to �ower, the birds know when to migrate, the forests have grown, and the �elds have become full of life. With all of this balance, humans could live in one place and grow lots of food.

This balance made everything else possible. Humans grew more and more food. They then began to trade food, and later began to trade with money. Since then, human populations have been growing and human transformation of nature has been increasing.

It has been a period of increase and growth like a forest in the springtime, like energy from eating a handful of honey, or the speed of running faster and faster down a hill.

Now every couple of weeks over 10 million new humans are born on earth. This is more than the total number of humans that lived on earth 10,000 years ago, and more than the entire population of virgin-ia. 10,000 years ago humans may have shared a tiny hut and had a couple of tools. Today people live in large homes and the average American home has over 3,000 items. The average 10 year old owns hundreds of toys even if they only use a few. The average american family throws away 65 pounds of clothing per year. The average woman will spend more than eight years of their lives shopping. There are more shopping malls than high schools in the United States and we spend more money on jewelry, watches and shoes than we do on higher education.

As human populations grow we use forests and lakes and rivers, and large pieces of the earth for our economic activity. With all of this increase in consumption we are transforming the earth much, much faster than the sun can regenerate it. In fact, other species are losing their homes faster than any time since the dinosaurs went extinct 86 million years ago. We have become so used to transforming so much, so fast, that we have forgotten how important it is to �nd balance.

Right now, we are stuck in a cycle of growth and expansion, but in the future humans will have to �nd balance again. We will need to �nd the right amount of people and the right amount of economic activity, so that we balance our economic transformations with the earth’s ability to rebuild itself. If we choose to, we can also leave some land and air and water for other species as well.

7

3.5

1

Human Population in Billions

1750 1875 2018

6,000

4,000

2,000

Annual Water Use in Km3

1750 1875 2018

20,000

10,000

Annual Species Extinctions

1750 1875 20000

GrowthBalance

Exponential growth

Exponential growth is di�cult to conceive of. Imagine that you folded a piece of paper in half 25 times. How thick do you imagine this paper would be? Think about it. The answer is very surprising. It would be a quarter mile thick! Imagine you folded the paper �ve more times. Now the paper would be 6.67 miles thick. After 45 folds, the paper could reach to the moon.

Take 2 to the N. 2*2=4, 4*2 =8, 8*2=16. That’s 2 to the 4th. 2^20th is over 1 million. 2^30th is over 1 billion.

Why do system’s grow exponentially? First, let’s discuss the normal mode of nature. Nature is full of what we call ‘negative feedback’. We can think of this simply as ‘balance’. For instance, a population grows and then there is less food for the population so the population decreases. Then there is more food available for a population. The population increases. Eventually the population might �nd the right size.

However, for short periods, patterns can operate, in the opposite manner. They can increase imbal-ance and exhibit ‘positive feedbacks’. (Watch this video called: “Feedback loops: How nature gets it’s Rhythms.”) For instance, imagine if a population had in�nite amounts of food, and every generation had twice as many o�spring. Very soon the population would go from 100 to 200 to 400, and after 10 generations the population would be over 100,000. Well we know this is impossible, because nature does not have in�nite amounts of food, or land, or habitat. But we do see these patterns exist for short periods of time.

This was the case when Reindeer were introduced to St. Mat-thews (as can be seen in the graph to the right.) Being on a new Island, the ecosystem had not yet created a system of negative feedbacks. Food was plentiful and there were no predators, like humans. Each generation had more o�spring than the replacement rate and the population grew exponen-tially. However, after a period of exponential and seemingly limitless growth, we saw the negative feedback emerge with force, as the Reindeer population ran out of food, and went suddenly extinct.

In nature, all positive feedbacks eventually �nd a limit and become a part of a larger pattern of dynamic balance. When humans transitioned out of the ice age, this allowed for rapid growth. Eventually nature will �nd a negative feedback loop to balance our exponential growth, if we do not manage growth ourselves.

6,000

3,000

St. Matthews Island Reindeer Population

1945 1950 1955 1960

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Conclusion:

Since 10,000 years ago, human society has been in a pattern of expansion. We have used more land, extracted more minerals, put more earth into the sky and the water, cut down more forests and built more infrastructure, continually. We have developed laws and social institutions which have operated at higher and higher levels for larger and larger popula-tions.

It is now clear that our soil, our food, our energy resources, our water, and our forests are in sharp decline.

Rather than grow forever the goal of a sustainable, just and e�cient economy is to operate at the right size. Determining the right size for the economy will be an immense task for citizens in the 21st century and the topic of future lesson plans.

Name:

Date:

Lesson One Questions: The History of Growth

(For the following questions, use reading or online information to give accurate responses.)

1. Describe a fast transformation of nature, and a slow transformation of nature.

2. How do humans transform nature?

3. Why is exponential growth a problem for humans?

4. What is an important task for humans in the 21st century?

5. Describe your optimal balance between economic activity and natural activity. How much economic activity would there be? How would you know it is the right ammount?