In an exactly analogous way, the science of ecology has an enduring fallacy that in the natural world there is some perfect state of balance to which an ecosystem will return after disturbance. This obsession with ‘the balance of nature’ runs right through Western science, since even before Aristotle, and sees its recent expression in concepts like ecological climax, the natural vegetation that will clothe an area if it is left for long enough. But it is bunk.
