EDITORIAL The Interdisciplinary Hardcore

Biological and physical scientists, demographers, anthropologists, and economists do not regularly exchange ideas. Some individuals do cross disciplinary boundaries, but institutional structures that facilitate inter- disciplinary work are few, poorly funded, and notoriously fickle for build- ing academic careers.

A pioneering model of interdisciplinary collaboration, the Social Rela- tions Department at Harvard University, ended a luminously productive run within 40 years of its founding, shortly after Talcott Parsons, the sur- vivor of a triumvirate with Gordon AIIport and Clyde Kluckholn, withdrew. The prophetic "All interdisciplinary work is done within a single skull," had been told years earlier.

While cognizant of the obstacles, many see that the need for inter- disciplinary collaboration has seldom been greater. As never before, biol- ogy and physical science should inform the social sciences including eco- nomics, while history has a lesson for all. "Carrying capacity," the keystone concept for ecology, conjoins the environment with the popula- tion whose life-support system the environment is. Natural systems' re- sources as well as their capacities to cope with wastes pertain to the envi- ronment. Carrying capacity refers to the size and distribution of the human population which utilizes these environmental services.

The carrying capacity is exceeded if the environment's resources or quality degrade. The future carrying capacity shrinks to the extent that the natural systems which humans use are impoverished or polluted; that is, when the carrying capacity has been exceeded, the number of persons who can be sustainably supported thereafter is likely to decline.

Plenty of almost everything most of the time does not sustain a biolog- ical system over the long run. Living populations are limited by whatever essential factor is in shortest supply under the least favorable conditions. For example, having sufficient fresh, clean water in most years is not

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POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT

enough. One season of drought can disperse a population that depends on this supply.

A single bad season does not usually break down human societies, however, because technology is used to devise backup systems. Expe- dients such as drilling for groundwater, aqueducts to transport water from distant places, reservoirs, or water processing let human populations sur- vive even under desert conditions. Ultimately, though, limits show up in the substitute systems, because all are costly in terms of other elements, and limits are eventually encountered in one of these.

History including archeology and simple logic show that society and stable government are critically dependent upon maintaining a comfort- able balance between population and its life support systems. Yet, U.S. and global environmental reports and programs often proceed without the discipline of stating key assumptions about the population which the envi- ronment is intended to serve.

A dearth of interdisciplinary research is also found in economics. Economists rarely use or are used by demographers and natural scientists. Illustrious exceptions, of course, stand out: Economists who argue for "in- ternalizing" environmental costs, ending growth in the "throughput" of re- sources, and applying economic models and incentives to family size tar- gets.

Trained interdisciplinary talent is scarce, but never has the need been greater. Now is the time for scientists, writers, and entrepreneurs with a penchant for working across disciplinary borders to step forward. Inter- disciplinary enterprises should become their priority, to make best use of time in which industrialized and third world countries can still implement measured change.

Not everyone c a n do it. Can you?

Virginia Abernethy