The pioneer growth strategy succeeds only when resources appear infinite

Evidence

The key to success is to get more of everything than your neighbor, and to get it faster. That life strategy works when resources seem to be infinite. But pioneer species, not unlike pioneer humans, require cleared land, hard work, individual initiative, and numerous children. In other words, the window of opportunity for opportunistic species is short. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1047

Categorization

• XREF: Direct analogy between ecological pioneer species and settler-colonist pioneer humans is exactly the economics-vs-ecology hinge: works for Eco-Justice (colonial extraction), Reading the Landscape (succession), and Legal Systems (allotment/settler expansion). — connects to: Unlimited economic growth necessarily consumes nonrenewable resources, making sustainable growth an oxymoron; Even renewable resources face depletion when consumption outpaces replenishment — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2925
• SEED: The parallel ‘pioneer species, not unlike pioneer humans’ could anchor an essay on why extraction economies collapse — ecologically and institutionally — when the frontier runs out.

Broader Connections

• Unlimited economic growth necessarily consumes nonrenewable resources, making sustainable growth an oxymoron #corroborates (0.85)
• Even renewable resources face depletion when consumption outpaces replenishment #complicates (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2925