ENP-65000 assignment

This Insight is a model of Daisyworld created by James Lovelock in 1982 to demonstrate the central idea behind the Gaia hypotheses that life and the environment may be considered two parts of a coupled system.

Capitalism is in crisis and climate change disruption is now beginning to hit the bottom line. Insurance companies know this well. According to a report by the Bank of England, insured losses have risen from $10 000 million in 1985 to $50 000 million in 2015. Climate change cannot be reversed, and extreme weather events  will undoubtedly get worse in the future strengthening the disruptive effects shown in the CLD.  Another dynamic is that companies will continue to automate and, as The Economic Policy Institute has shown, fail to reflect  productivity gains in workers' salaries. The result, stagnating salaries is disastrous for demand, given that capitalism needs endlessly rising demand and consumption. A further serious problem is that as climate change gets worse there will be increasing demands for companies to assume their responsibility and bear the costs of negative externalities.  The CLD shows these factors which are likely to lead to the collapse of the system: when capitalism can no longer generate 'capital' it has stopped to serves any useful purpose. 

The purpose of this deer management model is to explore the capacity of wildlife management actions to help us adapt to the effects of climate change.

A very simple thermodynamic model of a planet, which includes first order approximations of its radiation balance (black bodies), including two radiations modulating effects i.e. albedo and green house and uses two heat storages (ocean and atmosphere). It is a lumped model which does not consider spatial variations thus e.g. no heat exchange between equatorial and polar regions (lateral).

Social movements have a major role to play in forcing politicians to act on climate change. This opinion has been clearly expressed by Pope Francis in his encyclical on climate change and, amongst others, also by Naomi Klein in her book 'This changes Everything'. The CLD suggests the need to strengthen the reinforcing loops R1 and R2 representing the activities of  environmental movements and also to disrupt the reinforcing loop R3 representing climate change  deniers. The most effective way in my opinion  to strengthen R1 and R2 is to weaken R3. This could be done by countering false arguments by pointing out on all occasions that the debate on climate change is over: climate scientists, by an overwhelming consensus, have established that anthropogenic global warming is a scientific fact. It could also be done by educating the public. The urgency of the situation suggests that the most effective way of doing this could be by closing negative feedback loops, for example, by linking extreme weather events, supported by graphic images, to global warming. Global warming can also be linked to inequality, poverty, larger forest fires,  coral reef bleaching, etc. The Pope has started the work by establishing these links in his encyclical. Of course, these are merely suggestions. Looking at the CLD carefully might well reveal other effective points of intervention

A model of the potential impact on the elderly population (75+ years) from heat stress, which is increased by climate change in the UK.

This stock and flow model takes into account the ice albedo feedback and wave breakup feedback loops, and shows how even tiny changes in the ocean's temperature can cause sea ice collapse. Data is fitted to begin with the sea ice volume level in 1979, when PIOMAS data begins; BOE generally occurs mid-2020s to 2030s. Most recently updated to improve albedo impact loop and model GHG emission impacts directly

People, generally, do not seem to be conscious of, or care about, the enormous dangers of climate change and even the possibility of a devastating war in the Korean peninsula that could turn nuclear. They carry on with their routine and banal conversations as if that was all that mattered. In the 60s there were peace demonstration, there was more awareness and public engagement in the face of the thread of nuclear war. Could the pressures and demands of modern capitalism, now no longer tamed by a competing communist system that could potentially appear to be more attractive, be a causal factor? People caught up in the turmoil of a positive feedback loop rarely perceive reality beyond it. This simple CLD tries to illustrate the dynamic and feedback loops that could be responsible for this strange apathy and how our present day economic system could be blinding us to imminent danger.

People, generally, do not seem to be conscious of, or care about, the enormous dangers of climate change and even the possibility of a devastating war in the Korean peninsula that could turn nuclear. They carry on with their routine and banal conversations as if that was all that mattered. In the 60s there were peace demonstration, there was more awareness and public engagement in the face of the thread of nuclear war. Could the pressures and demands of modern capitalism, now no longer tamed by a competing communist system that could potentially appear to be more attractive, be a causal factor? People caught up in the turmoil of a positive feedback loop rarely perceive reality beyond it. This simple CLD tries to illustrate the dynamic and feedback loops that could be responsible for this strange apathy and how our present day economic system could be blinding us to imminent danger.

A model of the potential impact on the elderly population (75+ years) from heat stress, which is increased by climate change in the UK.

Feedbacks and Flows in an Energy-CO2-Economy System​

A model of the potential impact on the elderly population (75+ years) from heat stress, which is increased by climate change in the UK.

Market-led Sustainability is  a 'Fix-that-Fails' as is illustraited in this graph in a very simplified manner. Likely market-led initiatives would be investment in renewables, electric cars and the development of long-term battery storage as a back-up to renewable energy adn other initiatives. However, all of these make demands on the environmemt, requiring  resources, fossil fuels (solar cannot beused to built  solar) and will be accompanied by greenhouse gas emission. In the medium and long term  they will undermine the market-driven goal,  increasing  environmental and economic costs.  The whole enterprise will eventually fail.

The fact that we all strive to reduce psychologically inconsistent thoughts  is a well-researched phenomenon. When we hold two conflicting thoughts in our heads we feel an overwhelming desire to reduce this conflict. This desire can be a powerful driver in the way we behave. Most of us are aware at some level that if we took the threat of climate change seriously we would need to completely change our routines and the way we behave. Flying off on holiday would be out of the question. Swimming pools would be a past luxury. Most of us would need to give up our cars and become vegetarians. The list can be extended almost endlessly. Very often, subconsciously, we try to reduce troubling and inconvenient facts by minimizing, ignoring or even by denying them. Could this be why we hardly talk about climate change even in the face of increasingly frequent extreme weather events and obvious signs that it is occurring now?

This subject needs to be openly talked about between us and in the press. The seriousness of global warming makes it a necessity.  Only when this happens will politicians have the space and incentive to act on our behalf. But before this can happen we need to be aware of the reason why we avoid talking about this subject – this graph tries to illustrate the harmful dynamic that could be responsible for it.

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The concept of 'CLOSING A FEEDBACK LOOP'  means that a loop is closed to affect the person or agents that originally are  responsible for an action so that they plainly feel its effects. This almost inevitable leads to corrective action. One of the reasons why climate change does not  arouse passion and action is that it is largely invisible and most people are not aware of it, although extreme weather events are beginning to change this somewhat. The schematic representation shows how systems thinking might help to draw attention to such situations by graphically connecting the dots to promote understand and hopefully action when people realize that there is a price to be paid for inaction.  Please note, however, that the loop does not describe dynamic behaviour in the normal system dynamics sense. 

WIP Cloned from WIP Africa Just Transition insight including (Fig 3.1 from Jorgen Randers book 2052 a Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years) with Fadhel Kaboub MMT Perspective to continue top down work on my slides of clds and macroeconomics

The 3-machines energy transition model is a global system dynamics model based on energy balances,  and used to explore the energy frontiers for stabilizing the Earth's climate. The model comprises a hypothetical fossil engine, a solar engine including energy storage, and a carbon scrubber. These machines interact with Earth's carbon cycle and satisfy humanity’s energy demand. A detailed description can be accessed here: https://osf.io/fcwt8/