Unfortunately, I haven't read the
The Selfish Gene. Too much time buried in
biophysics journals ;). However if I may comment on this interesting topic, it sounds to me much like an aspect of
Lovelock's Gaia Theory.
Just as on the species level, individuals that are overtly evil eventually overtax the system, on an ecosystem level, species that are irresponsibly consuming resources will eventually eat themselves out of a niche.
Although this may be pseudoscience - something that I despise - I've often thought of man as the evil player in just such as scenario. We're deforesting Nova Scotia and the Amazon Basin at an alarming rate. Biodiversity is steadily declining as we homogenize every environment we move into. Greenhouse gases and environmental pollutions are not only affecting nature, but having deleterious effects on our health levels. So, what's the point?
Well ... maybe we're evilling ourselves off the planet. As per Gaia Theory, the ecosystem will eventually become unlivable for us. The same ecological feedback loops that go haywire when we interfere will eventually find ways to eliminate us to maintain stability - not in a teleological sense, of course.
Of course, this didn't bear out in Survivor, right? The meanest, most conniving man was the one who survived.