I gazed into space for a while. “I’d have to think that a community like that would be ecologically fragile. It would be highly vulnerable. Any change at all in existing conditions, and the whole thing would collapse.”
Ishmael nodded. “Diversity is a survival factor for the community itself A community of a hundred million species can survive almost anything short of total global catastrophe. Within that hundred million will be thousands that could survive a global temperature drop of twenty degrees—which would be a lot more devastating than it sounds. Within that hundred million will be thousands that could survive a global temperature rise of twenty degrees. But a community of a hundred species or a thousand species has almost no survival value at all.”
“True. And diversity is exactly what’s under attack here. Every day dozens of species disappear as a direct result of the way the Takers compete outside the law.”
“Now that you know there’s a law involved, does it make a difference in the way you view what’s going on?”
“Yes. I no longer think of what we’re doing as a blunder. We’re not destroying the world because we’re clumsy. We’re destroying the world because we are, in a very literal and deliberate way, at war with it.”
3
“As you’ve explained, the community of life would be destroyed if all species exempted themselves from the rules of competition laid down by this law. But what would happen if only one species exempted itself?”
“You mean other than man?”
“Yes. Of course it would have to possess an almost human cunning and determination. Suppose that you’re a hyena. Why should you share the game with those lazy, domineering lions? It happens again and again: You kill a zebra, and a lion comes along, drives you off, and helps himself while you sit around waiting for the leavings. Is that fair?”
“I thought it was the other way around—the lions make the kill and the hyenas do the harassing.”
“Lions make their own kills, of course, but they’re perfectly content to appropriate someone else’s if they can.”
“Okay.”
“So you’re fed up. What are you going to do about it?”
“Exterminate the lions.”
“And what’s the effect of this?”
“Well … no more hassles.”
“What were the lions living on?”
“The gazelles. The zebras. The game.”
“Now the lions are gone. How does this affect you?”
“I see what you’re getting at. There’s more game for us.”
“And when there’s more game for you?”
I looked at him blankly.
“All right. I was assuming you knew the ABC’s of ecology. In the natural community, whenever a population’s food supply increases, that population increases. As that population increases, its food supply decreases, and as its food supply decreases, that population decreases. This interaction between food populations and feeder populations is what keeps everything in balance.”
“I did know it. I just wasn’t thinking.”
“Well,” Ishmael said with a baffled frown, “think.”
I laughed. “Okay. So, with the lions gone, there’s more food for hyenas, and our population grows. It grows to the point where game becomes scarce, then it begins to shrink.”
“It would in ordinary circumstances, but you’ve changed those circumstances. You’ve decided the law of limited competition doesn’t apply to hyenas.”
“Right. So we kill off our other competitors.”
“Don’t make me drag it out of you one word at a time. I want you to work it out.”
“Okay. Let’s see. After we kill off our competitors for the game … our population grows until the game begins to get scarce. There are no more competitors to kill off, so we have to increase the game population…. I can’t see hyenas going in for animal husbandry.”