We hear the word balance used in many ways. We balance our checkbook, eat a balanced diet (at least some of us), balance work with family life and seek to balance our future against what we do in the present.

Balance has a very different meaning when we look at how the other animals on the planet interact with their environment.

Every species on the planet has evolved a balance with the environment that it lives in — except for humans. When other species experience an increase in their food supply or living space they expand into it like we do but reach a natural limitation (balance), which is a form of negative feedback. There are also predators and diseases, which provide additional negative feedback.

These environmental feedback mechanisms also provide triggers that cue internal biological responses.

An example of these responses at work can be seen in the whitetail deer. When food is in short supply the females will give birth to only one fawn and not the usual twins because she is unable to produce enough milk for two. Due to the lower birth rate, the one fawn has a better chance of survival than if there were two.

With salmon, if there are too many fish spawning, then when a salmon clears out a place in the gravel streambed to lay her eggs she will dig up the eggs from another female, which will be carried downstream and are lost to predators.

Apparently, only humans have enjoyed virtually unchecked growth as they have evolved. Natural resource limitations were a strong form of negative feedback in the beginning but once agriculture was developed growth began to increase exponentially.

Humans have viruses, bacteria and parasites around that helped to keep their numbers in check (the “Black Plague” killed off 1/3 of the people in Europe during the early middle ages). Up until the advances of modern medicine came on the scene they were doing a reasonable job of slowing human population growth but not controlling it. Some books on this topic include: “Plagues and Peoples” and “Guns, Germs and Steel”.

The most recent population statistics indicate that the United States has 307 million people and has the third largest population on the planet with India second (1.15 billion) and China (1.33 billion) third.

The entire planet contains approximately 6,770,628,550 humans. If you are interested in more exact figures there are population clocks for the U.S. and the world at the following Web address census.gov/main/www/popclock.html.

In the United States there is one birth every seven seconds, one death every 13 and one migrant enters the U.S. every 35, resulting in a net gain of one individual every 11 seconds.

Not even considering consumption driven western society it would appear that we are “digging up our streambed” at a rate that will soon have negative effects on our species.

The recent news stories about the ‘outsourcing’ of U.S. jobs are a form of negative cultural feedback to our population.

Think Global — Act Local!

Dr. Lazauski can be seen on his television show “Eco-Bites”, which airs on Mediacom’s channel 14 and Smartel’s channel 4. To reach Dr. Lazauski for questions and comments, send e-mails to IchiOrca@yahoo.com. For more information, see his Web site, drskiponline.com.