When Nature Declines, Knowledge Struggles: Global Asymmetries Between Human and Natural Capital

Philippine Falconet

23-10-2025

Kingfisher flutters his wings. “Conservation without Dao is like a river without fish. The fish are not numbers. They are rhythms. I do not disturb the rhythm. I join it.”

In Kingfisherish Wandering [1]

© Wix

How much can human knowledge and innovation compensate for the loss of nature? This question sits at the heart of a recent global study by Eleftheriou, Nijkamp, and Polemis [2], which analyzed data from 124 countries between 1995 and 2018 to explore whether human capital (education, skills, and health) can substitute for—or must instead complement—natural capital (renewable and non-renewable resources).

Using advanced econometric models that capture both spatial interdependence and time asymmetry, the authors found that the relationship between human and natural capital is fundamentally unbalanced. When natural capital increases—such as through forest restoration, cleaner air, or sustainable resource use—human capital tends to rise as well, indicating a complementary relationship. Yet when natural capital declines, human capital often becomes a substitute, temporarily sustaining economic activity but at the cost of ecological degradation and long-term well-being.

This asymmetry reveals that the so-called weak sustainability assumption—that technology and education can replace nature—is flawed [3,4]. The study’s spatial analysis further shows that sustainability is contagious. Countries are affected by their neighbors’ policies and resource management through spillover effects, such as labor migration, trade, or pollution. In other words, environmental decline in one region can erode human capital development in others, while investments in education and conservation can yield shared benefits.

From the perspective of the Nature Quotient (NQ), these findings underscore that genuine progress depends not on substituting for natural systems but on co-evolving with them [5]. High-NQ societies foster individual and social peace by aligning human knowledge with ecological resilience rather than exploiting it [6,7]. Strengthening education, health, and environmental stewardship together enhances both inner well-being and collective sustainability, bridging what the study calls the “asymmetric” gap between human ambition and natural limits.

References

[1] Nguyen MH. (2025). Kingfisherish Wandering. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FVLLLXNW/

[2] Eleftheriou K, Nijkamp P, Polemis ML. (2025). A global analysis of asymmetric sustainability effects of human and natural capital resources. Resources Policy, 110, 105744. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105744

[3] Gutés MC. (1996). The concept of weak sustainability. Ecological Economics, 17(3), 147-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(96)80003-6

[4] Wilson MC, Wu J. (2017). The problems of weak sustainability and associated indicators. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 24(1), 44-51. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2015.1136360

[5] Vuong QH, Nguyen MH. (2025). On Nature Quotient. Pacific Conservation Biology, 31, PC25028. https://doi.org/10.1071/PC25028

[6] Tran TT. (2025). Flying beyond didacticism: The creative environmental vision of ‘Wild Wise Weird’. Young Voices of Science. https://youngvoicesofscience.org/?p=1963

[7] Nguyen MH, Ho MT, La VP. (2025). On “An” (安): Inner peace through uncertainty, nature quotient, and harmony with Dao. http://books.google.com/books/about?id=NIKMEQAAQBAJ