Leverage Points

Biological Parallel

Donella Meadows identified leverage points where small interventions create large system changes. In ecosystems, keystone species are leverage points: remove sea otters from kelp forests and the entire system collapses—urchins explode, kelp vanishes, hundreds of species disappear. Reintroduce otters and the cascade reverses. The highest leverage points change system structure or purpose, not just parameters—like evolution shifting from asexual to sexual reproduction, fundamentally altering how life innovates.