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.
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.
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.
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/
This model shows the different aspects in South East QLD that affect both the growth and decline of the koala population in the region and then attempts to simulate the declining trend of the koala population with reference to these different factors. Please note: the values associated with the koala population are in no way 'real' but are a means to get my point across of the ever decreasing population.
The once thriving population of koalas on Queenslands Koala Coast has dwindled since 1996 from approximately 6000 koalas to just under 2000 koalas in 2010 according to the Queensland Government's Department of Environment and Resource Management. However these figures may be even lower than stated in the report and the Australia Koala Foundation believes that these figures have been skewed so as to not have the koala be listed as vulnerable under the federal government's Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act.
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.
