Ecological Orbits: How Planets Move and Populations Grow

Lev Ginzburg, Mark Colyvan019516816X, 9780195168167, 9781423720317

Ginzburg (ecology and evolution, Stony Brook U.) and Colyvan (philosophy, U. of Queensland) suggest that ecological theory is fundamentally flawed because it fails to take into account the inertial character of population growth-the fact that biological populations increase exponentially unless something restrains them. The flaw may be the cause of repeated and dramatic failures of biological management around the world, leading to the collapse of fisheries, ineffectiveness of game management, and inability to control pest outbreaks. The remedy, they argue, is to repair the underlying theory.