Living in shimmering disequilibrium

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author calls for spiritualizing the environmental movement as Earth endures the greatest mass extinction in 65 million years.

By Fred Branfman

Apr 22, 2000 | Edward O. Wilson, born in 1929, began his career as a scientist and while still young became a tenured professor at Harvard specializing in myrmecology, the study of ants and their social systems. He was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Jimmy Carter in 1977, and he has won the Pulitzer Prize twice -- for his books "On Human Nature" and "The Ants." Over the years, Wilson has achieved the unusual status of unofficial societal wise man, an elder consulted on a wide variety of human affairs.

Wilson's belief that the hope of humanity lies in traditional religionists adopting more science and environmentalists appealing more to humankind's spiritual impulses comes at a crucial moment for the environmental movement. The hard truth is that the condition of the environment is far worse on Earth Day 2000 than it was on the first Earth Day in 1970.

But it is Wilson's willingness to venture into public policy and to apply the insights of science to a wide variety of human affairs that has brought him the most public attention. He has played a seminal role in alerting policymakers and the public to the crisis of declining biodiversity. Arguing that humanity is living through the greatest mass extinction of plant and animal species in 65 million years, he has done perhaps more than any other single person to spur action to preserve biodiversity around the planet.

Wilson is also unusual among scientists for his emphasis on the importance of the spiritual impulse, both as an evolutionary advantage central to human nature and as a key to hope for the future. Yet his career has not been without controversy. His 1975 book "Sociobiology," which argued that human behavior was profoundly affected by our genetics, spurred left-wing critics to accuse him of thinking linked to genetic determinism and racism. In a famous incident described in his memoir, "The Naturalist," critics poured a pitcher of water on his head at a Washington conference.

Time heals most wounds, however. The rise of evolutionary psychology in the 1990s, and Wilson's softening of some of the hard edges in later editions of "Sociobiology's" final chapter, have largely vindicated his approach. The sum total of his life's accomplishments has made him one of America's most respected thinkers.

Despite the work done by the environmental movement over the past 30 years, the condition of the environment seems to be getting worse.

That's true. You could say that the rate at which it's being degraded has maybe been slowed a little bit as a result of the environmental awareness that we have. But it's continuing downhill.

You've said that if the environmental movement is to succeed it must go beyond its present focus on simply making the environmental argument and somehow join the environmental case to the spiritual impulse which you've described as central to human behavior and one of our most powerful drives.

I also agree with a lot of other environmentalists that to put the price tag on future products that may come from the wild environment and the ecological services that the wild environment gives us -- as impressive as these figures may be -- is potentially disastrous. Because they leave the impression that the wild environment, the place we live and to which we're so very well adapted, can be bought and sold on the market. And obviously there's vastly more to environmental consciousness than that.

To what extent is increased suffering or even the disappearance of the human species threatened as you look out over the next century?

I'm pretty sure the human species will survive, but in what condition is very uncertain. The key problem is that while a certain percentage of the Earth's population will be able to cocoon itself and maintain a very high standard of living, the rest of the population will have a serious problem due to overconsumption.

What's giving way most rapidly in the attempt to raise quality of life in the developing world are the natural environments. The experts on natural resources around the world are in pretty much complete agreement that the world population as a whole is running down arable land, and the trend shows no sign of being reversible. Also, fresh water is declining around the world, with many of the aquifers scheduled to give out in the next several decades. The forests, estuaries, coral reefs, river systems and, increasingly, even the oceans are being either destroyed or seriously degraded.

So there appears to be no solution to what may be the final Malthusian limit for 8 billion people, which is about where we'll be in two decades, almost all of them striving for the greater consumption that everybody greatly desires for themselves and their families. It's obvious that the key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life -- for 8 billion or more people -- without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt.

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