Added several versions of the model. Added a flow to make C increase. Added a factor to be able to change the value 0.5. Older version cloned at IM-46280
Circularity in Economic models including Exports and Imports
Simple model of the global economy, the global carbon cycle, and planetary energy balance.
The planetary energy balance model is a two-box model, with shallow and deep ocean heat reservoirs. The carbon cycle model is a 4-box model, with the atmosphere, shallow ocean, deep ocean, and terrestrial carbon.
The economic model is based on the Kaya identity, which decomposes CO2 emissions into population, GDP/capita, energy intensity of GDP, and carbon intensity of energy. It allows for temperature-related climate damages to both GDP and the growth rate of GDP.
This model was originally created by Bob Kopp (Rutgers University) in support of the SESYNC Climate Learning Project.
In a recent report, the World Economic Forum
considered that the use of robots in economic activity will cause far more job
losses in the near future than there will be new ones created. Every economic
sector will be affected. The CLD tries to illustrate the dynamic effects of
replacing human workers with robots. This dynamic indicates that if there is no replacement of
the income forgone by the laid off
workers, then the economy will soon grind to a halt. To avoid disaster, there
must be enough money in circulation, not parked in off-shore investments, to
permit the purchase of all the goods and services produced by robots. The
challenge for the government is to make sure that this is case.
This page provides a structural analysis of POTUS Candidate Rand Paul's
economic policy based on the information at: https://www.randpaul.com/issue/spending-and-debt and also https://www.randpaul.com/issue/taxes The method used is Integrative
Propositional Analysis (IPA)
available:
http://scipolicy.org/uploads/3/4/6/9/3469675/wallis_white_paper_-_the_ipa_answer_2014.12.11.pdf
Simple model of the global economy, the global carbon cycle, and planetary energy balance.
The planetary energy balance model is a two-box model, with shallow and deep ocean heat reservoirs. The carbon cycle model is a 4-box model, with the atmosphere, shallow ocean, deep ocean, and terrestrial carbon.
The economic model is based on the Kaya identity, which decomposes CO2 emissions into population, GDP/capita, energy intensity of GDP, and carbon intensity of energy. It allows for temperature-related climate damages to both GDP and the growth rate of GDP.
This model was originally created by Bob Kopp - https://insightmaker.com/user/16029 (Rutgers University) in support of the SESYNC Climate Learning Project.
Steve Conrad (Simon Fraser University) modified the model to include emission/development/and carbon targets for the use by ENV 221.
REM 221 Simple Climate-Carbon-Economic Model with Targets
This model is an attempt to simulate what is commonly
referred to as the “pesticide treadmill” in agriculture and how it played out
in the cotton industry in Central America after the Second World War until
around the 1990s.
The cotton industry expanded dramatically in Central America
after WW2, increasing from 20,000 hectares to 463,000 in the late 1970s. This
expansion was accompanied by a huge increase in industrial pesticide
application which would eventually become the downfall of the industry.
The primary pest for cotton production, bol weevil, became increasingly
resistant to chemical pesticides as they were applied each year. The
application of pesticides also caused new pests to appear, such as leafworms,
cotton aphids and whitefly, which in turn further fuelled increased application
of pesticides.
The treadmill resulted in massive increases in pesticide
applications: in the early years they were only applied a few times per season,
but this application rose to up to 40 applications per season by the 1970s;
accounting for over 50% of the costs of production in some regions.
The skyrocketing costs associated with increasing pesticide
use were one of the key factors that led to the dramatic decline of the cotton
industry in Central America: decreasing from its peak in the 1970s to less than
100,000 hectares in the 1990s. “In its wake, economic ruin and environmental
devastation were left” as once thriving towns became ghost towns, and once
fertile soils were wasted, eroded and abandoned (Lappe, 1998).
Sources: Douglas L. Murray (1994), Cultivating Crisis: The Human Cost of Pesticides in Latin America, pp35-41;
Francis Moore Lappe et al (1998), World
Hunger: 12 Myths, 2nd Edition, pp54-55.
ECONOMIC GROWTH feeds on itself, provided the growth engine is fed with materials and
finance. In this highly simplified representation some of the factors that influence economic growth
are show in the incircled green fields. Governments can influence economic growth positively
via investments and payouts. The most
obvious tool which governments can use to slow an overheated economy is
taxation.
Wealth can be seen as the factories,
infrastructure, goods and services the population of a nation dispose of. According
to Tim Garrett, a scientist who looks at
the economy from the perspective of physics, it is existing wealth that generates
economic activity and growth. This growth demands the use of energy as no
activity can take place without its use. He also points out that the use of this
energy unavoidably leads to concentrations of CO2 in the
atmosphere. All this, Tim Garrett says, follows from the second law of thermodynamics.
If wealth decreases then so does economic activity and growth. The CLD tries to illustrate how wealth,
ironically, now generates the conditions and feedback loops that may cause it to decline. The consequences are inevitably economic stagnation (or secular recession?).
You can
read about the connection Tim Garrett makes between 'Wealth, Economic Growth,
Energy and CO2 Emissions' simply by
Googling 'Tim Garrett and Economy'.
Farmers use intensive pesticides to harvest cotton, which is harmful to not only the health of the farmers using them, but also our environment as it pollutes rivers and groundwater that negatively interfere with the ecosystem. Even though these farmers know of the health and environmental risks, they still use harmful pesticides to produce cotton, but why is this so. This stock and flow map should explain what impacts farmers to use pesticides to grow cotton despite the risks and explain the cause and effect relationship their use has on the cotton industry and the environment.
According to Clevo Wilson and Clem Tisdell article, "Why farmer continue to use pesticides despite environmental, health and sustainable costs,"
Pesticide use by farmers:
"used to reduce yield losses to pests"
"avoid economic losses to ensure economical survival"
"increase supply market and reduce market prices"
"ignorance of sustainable use"
"integral part of commercially grow high yielding varieties so without use, high yields may not be sustained"
"damage to agriculture land from the use occurs over long period of time so costs may not look serious short term, but reduces economic welfare in long term"
"environmental damage: pollutes rivers and groundwater, destroys beneficial predators and interferes with ecosystem overall"
"health risks underestimated"
"chemical companies selling it have incentive to push their use by advertising and promotion" (1,9).
From Bill Mitchell and Warren Mosler December2018 billy blog entry and mosler's MMT white paper (google docs) 2019. Some highly aggregated stocks and flows and boundaries introduced.See also Feb 2026 updated insight
A Tragedy of the Commons situation exists whenever two or more activities, each, which in order to produce results, rely on a shared limited resource. Results for these activities continue to develop as long as their use of the limited resource doesn't exceed the resource limit. Once this limit is reached the results produced by each activity are limited to the level at which the resource is replenished. As an example, consider multiple departments with an organization using IT resources, until they've exhausted IT capacity.
Environmental economics Niger Delta oil polluted case study
• This model examines how sustainable consumerism is from social, economic, and environmental aspects. The question in focus is "How will our second-hand clothing donations affect communities in developing countries, specifically Kenya?"
5 Stock Variables:
• U.S. Consumers
• Multinational Corporations
• Overseas Factories
• Kenya
Highlight Findings:
To sum up, there are 4 major problems associated to donations:
• 1. Source of problem is the consumer: Cheap deals attract hundreds of millions in revenue for fast fashion, and contribute to 100,000 tonnes of clothing to Kenya annually.
• 2. Rapid consumerism leads to over-utilization of slowly-renewable resources, such as water.
• 3. Nearly 96% of textiles jobs are eradicated by the massive inflow of clothing donations to Kenya.
• 4. The offshoring of textiles jobs enrages U.S. blue-collar workers, leading to the rise of protectionism.
Environmental, social, and economic sustainability aspects of textiles donations
