Relativity of Environmental Sustainability Illustrated by the Red Queen Hypothesis

Kamila Musiał

kamila.musial@iz.edu.pl
National Research Institute of Animal Production, Department of Production Systems and En-vironment, 1 Krakowska St., 32-083 Balice, Poland (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6713-341X

Abstract

The worrying phenomenon of our times is a rapid decline in the biodiversity, that is directly related to the disorder in environmental sustainability. However, the question is whether before the appearance of the Homo sapiens there was a greater eco-sustainability? Or maybe even without the presence of the man such state would be rather correlated with some natural processes, that happen independently of our interference? The paper attempts to explain the relativity of environmental sustainability described by the Red Queen Hypothesis (RQH). That model presents competition in nature, which may be extrapolated to all interactions in the world of living organisms. The RQH shows that in the evolutionary terms not keeping pace on the run threatens not only progress but also poses an increasing risk of elimination of a given individual. So in that way environmental sustainability is relative and the model explains the probability of a constant extinction, so in fact a fall.


Keywords:

nature, Red Queen hypothesis, progress and fall, environmental sustainability and unsustainability, the man

BAŃKA A., 2002, Społeczna psychologia środowiskowa, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, Warszawa.
  Google Scholar

BIŃCZYK E., 2018, Epoka człowieka. Retoryka i marazm antropocenu, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa.
  Google Scholar

BOŁDYREW A., 2009, Recepcja teorii ludności T.R. Malthusa w polskiej myśli społecznej na przełomie XIX i XX w., Studia z Historii Społeczno-Gospodarczej XIX i XX Wieku, 6, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/2080-8313.06.02   Google Scholar

BRIGGS J.C., 2017, Emergence of a sixth mass extinction?, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 122 (2): 243-248.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blx063   Google Scholar

BUKRAJEWSKI P., LATAWIEC A., MATUSZEWSKA A., 2019, Sustainable Development – Utopia or Implementa-tion Possibilities, Problemy Ekorozwoju/ Problems of Sustainable Development, 14(2): 111-116.
  Google Scholar

CARROLL L., 1999, Through the Looking-Glass, Dover Publications Inc.
  Google Scholar

CEBALLOS G., EHRLICH P.R., RAVEN P.H., 2020, Vertebrates on the brink as indicators of biological annihilation and the sixth mass extinction, PNAS, 117 (24): 13596- 13602.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1922686117   Google Scholar

CHMARA R., 2019, Posthumanistyczny wymiar ekologii, Sztuka i Dokumentacja, 20: 105-112.
  Google Scholar

CISZEK M., 2020, The Philosophy of Perceiving the Human Environment from the Perspective of Environmental Social Psychology and Environmental Sociology (Implications for Sustainable Environmental and Health Security), Problemy Ekorozwoju/ Problems of Sustainable Development, 15(2): 211-222.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35784/pe.2020.2.21   Google Scholar

COWIE R.H., BOUCHET P., FONTAINE B., 2022, The Sixth Mass Extinction: fact, fiction or speculation?, Biological Reviews, 97: 640-663.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12816   Google Scholar

CRUTZEN P.J., STOERMER E.F., 2000, The Anthropocene, IGBP Global Change Newsletter 41: 17-18.
  Google Scholar

DECAESTECKER E., GABA S., RAEYMAEKERS J.A., STOKS R., Van KERCKHOVEN L., EBERT D., DE MEESTER L., 2007, Host-parasite ‘Red Queen’ dynamics archived in pond sediment, Nature, 450: 870-873.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06291   Google Scholar

DONALD P.F., PISANO G., RAYMENT M.D., PAIN D.J., 2002, The Common Agricultural Policy, EU enlargement and the conservation of Europe’s farmland birds, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 89: 167-182.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-8809(01)00244-4   Google Scholar

DUELLI P., OBRIST M.K., 2003, Regional biodiversity in an agricultural landscape: the contribution of seminatural habitat islands, Basic and Applied Ecology, 4: 129-138.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1078/1439-1791-00140   Google Scholar

EDWARDS P.J., KOLLMANN J., WOOD D., 1999, The agroecosystem in the landscape: implications for biodiversity and ecosystem function, Agrobiodiversity: Characterization, Utilization and Management, eds. Wood D., Lenné J.M., CAB International,Wallingford, UK.
  Google Scholar

GECOW A., 2014, Znaczenie perspektywy opisu i wyjaśniania w Biological Turn. Perspektywa informacji celowej w biologii i humanistyce jako podstawa memetyki, Teksty z Ulicy, Zeszyt memetyczny, 15: 27-40.
  Google Scholar

KOLBERT E., 2014, The Sixth Extinction. An Unnatural History, Henry Holt and Company, New York.
  Google Scholar

KREBS J.R., WILSON J.D., BRADBURY R.B., SIRIWARDENA G.M., 1999, The second silent spring?, Nature, 400: 611-612.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/23127   Google Scholar

KROKOS J., 1997, Leksykon filozofii klasycznej, Studia Philosophiae Christianae, ed. Herbut J., 34 (1): 1-146.
  Google Scholar

KWAŚNICKI W., 2021, The role of diversity and tolerance in economic development, Journal of Evolutionary Econom-ics, 31: 821-851.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-020-00715-2   Google Scholar

KRZANOWSKA H., ŁOMNICKI A., RAFIŃSKI J., SZARSKI H., SZYMURA J., 1997, Zarys mechanizmów ewolu-cji, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa.
  Google Scholar

MCKIBBEN B., 2006, The End of Nature, Penguin Random House Inc.
  Google Scholar

MESCHEDE C., 2020, The Sustainable Development Goals in Scientific Literature: A Bibliometric Overview at the Meta-Level, Sustainability, 12(4461): 1-14.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114461   Google Scholar

MITRA S., SAMEER A., 2022, Storytelling for Behavior Change: Use of Folktales for Promoting Sustainable Behaviors, Problemy ekorozwoju/ Problems of Sustainable Development, 17(2): 243-247.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35784/pe.2022.2.26   Google Scholar

MORTON T., 2016, Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence, Columbia University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/mort17752   Google Scholar

MUSIAŁ W., MUSIAŁ K., 2021, Zastosowanie metody analogii dla poszukiwania wspólnych obszarów poznania w biologii i ekonomii (Using the analogy method to search for common areas of learning in biology and economy), Wy-dawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rolniczego, Kraków.
  Google Scholar

OLEJARZ J., IWASA Y., KNOLL A.H., NOWAK M.A., 2021, The Great Oxygenation Event as a consequence of ecological dynamics modulated by planetary change, Nature Communications, 12 (3985): 1-9.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23286-7   Google Scholar

POLAK G., KRUPIŃSKI J., MARTYNIUK E., CALIK J., KAWĘCKA A., KRAWCZYK J., MAJEWSKA A., SI-KORA J., SOSIN-BZUCHA E., SZYNDLER-NĘDZA M., TOMCZYK-WRONA I., 2021, The risk status of polish local breeds under conservation programs – new approach, Annals of Animal Science, 21(1): 125-140.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aoas-2020-0071   Google Scholar

RIDLEY M., 1993, The Red Queen. Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, Viking Books.
  Google Scholar

ROBINSON R., SUTHERLAND W.J., 2002, Postwar changes in arable farming and biodiversity in Great Britain, Jour-nal of Applied Ecology, 39: 157-176.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2664.2002.00695.x   Google Scholar

SAMPAIO E., SECO M.C., ROSA R., GINGINS S., 2020. Octopuses punch fishes during collaborative interspecific hunting events, Ecology, 102 (3): 1-4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3266   Google Scholar

SOLE R., 2022, Revisiting Leigh Van Valen᾽s 'A New Evolutionary Law' (1973), Biological Theory, 17: 120-125.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-021-00391-w   Google Scholar

STEFFEN W., CRUTZEN P.J., MCNEILL J.R., 2007. The Anthropocene: Are humans now overwhelming the great forces of Nature?, AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 36 (8): 614-621.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[614:TAAHNO]2.0.CO;2   Google Scholar

STROTZ L.C., SIMOES M., GIRARD M.G., BREITKREUZ L., KIMMIG J., LIEBERMAN B.S., 2018, Getting somewhere with the Red Queen: chasing a biologically modern definition of the hypothesis, Biology Letters, 14 (20170734): 1- 7.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0734   Google Scholar

SZAFER W., 1959, Narodziny myśli o ewolucji organizmów w stulecie dzieła Karola Darwina ‘O powstawaniu gatun-ków’, Kosmos, 8 (3): 213-233.
  Google Scholar

SZTUMSKI W., 2021, Reflection on the Human Living Environment in Connection with Sustainable Development, Prob-lemy Ekorozwoju/ Problems of Sustainable Development, 16(1): 39-44.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35784/pe.2021.1.04   Google Scholar

SZYNDLER J., 2022, Towards Co-existence. Responsibility in the Anthropocene Debate, Problemy Ekorozwoju/ Prob-lems of Sustainable Development, 17(2): 24-30.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35784/pe.2022.2.03   Google Scholar

THOMAS C.D., 2017, Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction, Public Affairs, New York
  Google Scholar

WEINER J., 1999, Życie i ewolucja biosfery, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa.
  Google Scholar

WEINER J., 2001, Czy niszczenie różnorodności ekologicznej stanowi zagrożenie cywilizacyjne?, Prace Komisji Zagro-żeń Cywilizacyjnych, PAU: 7-20.
  Google Scholar

VAN VALEN L., 1973, A new evolutionary law, Evol. Theory, 1: 1-30.
  Google Scholar

ZALEGA T., 2015, Ekonomia ewolucyjna jako jeden z nurtów współczesnej ekonomii – zarys problematyki. Studia i Materiały, Wydział Zarządzania Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2: 157-177.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7172/1733-9758.2015.19.12   Google Scholar

Download


Published
2023-07-10

Cited by

Musiał, K. (2023). Relativity of Environmental Sustainability Illustrated by the Red Queen Hypothesis. Problemy Ekorozwoju, 18(1), 170–176. https://doi.org/10.35784/pe.2023.1.17

Authors

Kamila Musiał 
kamila.musial@iz.edu.pl
National Research Institute of Animal Production, Department of Production Systems and En-vironment, 1 Krakowska St., 32-083 Balice, Poland Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6713-341X

Statistics

Abstract views: 91
PDF downloads: 57