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ESI6550 Group 6
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​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).
Farmer Pesticide Use On Cotton
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System Thinking and Modelling of Brgy. Irawan, PPC (Biophysical, Cultural and Economic Component)
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WIP Ideas from Science Special Issue May 2014
The Science of Inequality
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In this Insight I focus on the demand site of the Market and Price model, leaving the supply side out.
Demand factors
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A sample model for class discussion modeling COVID-19 outbreaks and responses from government with the effect on the local economy.  Govt policy is dependent on reported COVID-19 cases, which in turn depend on testing rates less those who recover

Assumptions
Govt policy reduces infection and economic growth in the same way.

Govt policy is trigger when reported COVID-19 case are 10 or less.

A greater number of COVID-19 cases has a negative effect on the economy.  This is due to economic signalling that all is not well.

Interesting insights

Higher testing rates seem to trigger more rapid government intervention, which reduces infectious cases.  The impact on the economy though of higher detected cases though is negative. 




Clone of Burnie COVID-19 outbreak demo model version 2
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Book summary of Albert O Hirschman's 1982 book, explaining cycles of collective public action.
Shifting involvements
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Commercial aviation economic activity in the EU
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This is a toy model of tax policies.

The findings were presented at the 6th International Dijon Conference (2012) in a paper called 'Extended Circuit Theory: Modelling the Impact of Government Interventions'.
Tax Policies
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Grad Project Exhibition
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Economic Model - Final Project
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Economics Fast Fashion
13 6 months ago
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Based on the Market and Price simulation model in System Zoo 3, Z504. I made some more intrusive changes that make the model more realistic, or more 'economic', in another version 'simplified and improved'. 
Simplified Z504 Market and Price - System Zoo 3
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This insight includes a Limits to Success archetype. (Bubbles colored with a darker blue)
Economical Factor
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This is to support a discussion on money flows and growth. Money as a lubricant for the flow of embodied energy in human systems.
See also A Prosperous Way Down website
Odum Money and Energy Flows
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Policy Memo - Coywolf - v1HG
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WIP SD REpresentation of Steve Keen's BOMD Minsky model (described in Fig.5 of his patreon Jan2021 Draft New Economics Manifesto) to hope to make the causal structure clearer
Keen Bank Originated Money and Private Debt
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Overview
The model explores the interactions between mountain biking industry and logging industry in Derby, Tasmania. Although both industries promote the economy, they generate income at a different rate and at each other's expense. Given such competing relationship, this model focuses on demonstrating to what extent can these two industries co-exist through runing simulation. Further, the model explores the conditions under which one may adversely impact the other. 
How does the model work?
We build two models for forestry and mountain biking respectively. Each model demonstrates how the industry imposes influences and benefits the economy as a whole. 
  • With mountain bike visits, forestry enhances the scenary and increases excitement and adventure, that will lead to better tourist experiences and recommendation. As such, more visitors come to the park, that boosts the economy through higher tourism income. 
  • From the perspective of logging, logging creates employment opportunities and generates income from timber. On the other hand, it also degrades the scenary and the experience of mountain bikers looking for adventure. The immediate effect is the decreasing amount of visitors. However, fewer visitors improve experience and may pull up amount of park visits. 
Interesting Insights
  • As shown from the simulation results, logging does not deter the development of mountain biking in Derby. Over the long term, adventure tourism is expected to continuously generate increasing income. This is attributable to the direct income from park charges, as well as accompanying spending in restaurants and accommodation. As a result, the total economic benefits for the local area is positive and tends to increase over time. 
  • In addition, past experience fluctuates as the amount of visitors changes. These two variables interact and impose impacts on each other. More visitors will degrade the experience and decrease park visits, which will in turn improve the experience and increase park visits. 
  • Moreover, demand for timber actually promotes adventure tourism through creating more job opportunities, which would increase park visits.
Simulation of Derby Mountain Biking versus Logging
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Adam Smith's The Invisible Hand: The Feedback Structure of Markets. From Sterman JD Business Dynamics p170 Fig 5-26. A price-mediated resource allocation system..

Price control mechanism
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This Insight is used for simulating growth of a company with specified parameters.
CompanyGrowth
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Any activity  requires the use of energy. Economic activity is not possible without energy,  especially fossil fuels. An increase in economic activity necessarily leads to an increase in the use  fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition there will   be a commensurate increase in waste products, pollution and heat. This is dictated by the laws of physics and unavoidable.  A problem arise when the cost of this degeneration caused by continual economic growth surpasses the benefit society derives from it. The ecological economist Professor Herman Daly (2014) explained that when the impact on the ecosystem is correctly measured, global growth has reached a point where the total private and social costs of economic growth outweigh the private and social benefits. In other words, more economic growth is making global society worse off overall - growth has become uneconomic! The model shows that eventually pressures will build up that counteract the perennial belief that all social ills can be solved with economic growth. 

The dynamic of UNECONOMIC growth
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To compete with cheap price and convenience,
Community Economy must provide the distinct merits; human connection, belief in person, unique quality enable citizens willing to pay for fair price.
Community Values Change the Spending Choice of Citizens for Economic Equity
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• 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
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Economic model