Too Big to Fail: Ecological Ignorance and Economic Collapse

“Too big to fail.” It’s been the mantra of our economic meltdown. Although meant to emphasize the overwhelming importance of this bank or that corporation, the phrase also unwittingly expresses a shared delusion that may be at the root of our current crises — both economic and ecological.

In nature, nothing is too big to fail. In fact, big is bound to fail. To understand why that’s so means stepping away from a prevailing set of beliefs that holds us in its sway, especially the deep conviction that we operate apart from nature’s limits and rules.

…Bigness is a warning signal that tells us to take a second look and consider whether the seemingly solid thing in front of us is far closer to collapse than it looks and, if so, to ask what can be done about it. If we were ecologically savvy, the conventional wisdom would be: If it ain’t broke but it sure is big, then fix it. We do that by breaking it up and creating space for new niches and for the more dynamic diversity that naturally flows into such a system.

…Thresholds are like the doors between the phases in the adaptive cycle, except that they are often one-way — once you stumble through them, you can’t get back to the other side — so it is crucially important to understand where they are. Although we recognize that there are such things as “tipping points” and we recognize, belatedly, that we have already crossed too many of them, we’re lousy at seeing, let alone avoiding, thresholds before we reach them.

Understanding exactly where a threshold is located may be difficult, but we can at least look for such boundaries, and deliberately try not to cross them when the unintended consequences of doing so can be dire. There are, after all, usually warnings: the reservoir level is lower every year; the colors in the coral reef are fading away; mercury levels in the lake increase; you are more dependent than ever on imported oil…

Once you have driven off a cliff, it does you little good to realize that you are falling. The time to practice water conservation is before your well runs dry. Our culture’s ability to deal with thresholds has proven only slightly better than my dog’s ability to solve algebra problems.

Tom Dispatch