Collapse and Systems

1. Collapse and Systems Chapters 1 & 3

11. Sustainability • Meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

16. Natural Resources = Environmental Goods • Environmental services – natural processes that regulate conditions in the environmental that makes the planet suitable for life. • Waste assimilation – way environment can absorb, detoxify, and disperse wastes to make it less harmful. • Forests – regulate water movement -> climate & soil regulation

17. Principles of Sustainability • Sustainable use of natural resources and environmental services - A sustainable society does not use natural resources or produce wastes faster than they are regenerated or assimilated by the environment.

18. 2. Systems perspective – society and environment are an interconnected system and connections can amplify or dampen the effects on human actions. - system: collection of parts that generates a regular or predictable pattern (social – people, tools, customs; env – soils, streams, topo, plants, animals, climate, etc) Ex. Rats – ate seeds – dec trees – inc humans (ate rats)

19. 3. Equity & Fairness – first 2 principles must be meshed with the ethical and moral principles that govern fairness among nations, between genders, and among current & future generations.

20. 4. Incentives for sustainable behavior – social incentives must reward those who act in a sustainable way and punish those who act in an unsustainable way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUVBKTxUzE0&feature=fvst

25. Violations to Principles • Depletion and degradation of natural resources and environmental services - Best First Principle – humans use highest-quality sources of natural resources and env. services first. As they decrease they are replaced by lower-quality sources (require more effort to obtain). Ex. Fisheries (resource), pollution (env. service)

26. 2. Policies that lack a systems perspective - Self-interest! Ex. Smokestacks <1970 (2 >150m) – >1970 (178 >150m) – helped air pollution but not acid rain…..

27. 3. Unequal opportunities for human development - human development = process of enlarging the range of people’s choices by increasing their opportunities for education, health care, clean environment, income, employment, political freedom GDP – gross domestic product – all goods and services produced

28. 4. Actions must be both environmentally and economically sustainable - Externality: cost associated with the production or consumption of a good that is not accounted for in the price of that good and that is borne by others in society. - Subsidy: government-provided goods or services that would otherwise have to be purchased in the market, or special exemptions from standard required payments or regulations (direct cash or tax breaks) – timber, energy, agriculture Environment performance bond!

29. SYSTEMS • Collection of parts, which are known as STORAGES and FLOWS, that interact with each other to generate regular or predictable patterns or behaviors. • STORAGE- energy or materials stay for a period of time • FLOW –movements of energy or materials between storages

30. STABILITY • System’s ability to return to a set point

31. RESISTANCE • Ability of a system to withstand a disturbance

32. RESILIENCE • Ability of a system to return to its set point

33. Why are systems so hard to manage? • Unpredictability (Stochastic or uncertainty) • Variance = degree of scatter • Risk management

34. Complexity • Number of storage and flows and feedback loops

35. FEEDBACK LOOPS • Positive Negative

37. Hierarchy • Systems part of others

38. Time Lags • Period between cause and effect

40. Others • Distance effects • Linear vs. nonlinear relationships • Scientific method

41. Reductionist vs. Systems Perspective • Simulation Models