The "balance of nature" idea, with its implication that the natural world would revert to a peaceful, idyllic state of man simply kept his hands off, does not lend itself to a serious exploration of that question.

This is an idea that my (seasonal environmental job) coworkers and I have discussed a lot. We can't talk about the natural world as something that is separate from the man-made environment. We have to understand that humans are a part of the ecosystem, and that the positive and negative influences of our built environment are also part of the ecosystem, whether we like it or not. "Untouched" nature isn't really a thing, even though our favorite nature writers like to paint us that picture.

The first step in solving this problem, the authors of the study contend, is educating the educators—specifically, middle school and high school teachers, many of whom are currently spreading misinformation.

THIS! I learned ecology/evolution through an "equilibrium" lens. Yes, that explanation is valid for some things, but it can't be the backbone of our viewpoint. I can't pretend to have a solution to the way we teach it, but I was reading the article and waiting for this to come up.