A very simple thermodynamic model of a planet, based on first order approximations of its (black body) radiation balance.

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

Pope Francis, in his recent encyclical on climate change, said that social movements are critical in promoting action on global warming. This simple CLD shows how the influence of climate-change movements could affect both public opinion and the government. An important aspect is that the activism of such movements will have a negative influence on the prestige of the fossil-fuel companies. This in turn will weaken their capacity to influence and to exert pressure on the government.  As the movements act, pressure on the government will increase but simultaneously the capacity of the fossil fuel industry to pressure  the government will decrease. As a result, the government will find it easier to push trough legislation to force fossil fuel companies to keep unburnable reserves in the ground. Climate change moments can contribute decisively to bring about urgently needed action on global warming

Estresse Térmico

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

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.

ENP-65000 assignment

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).

A very simple thermodynamic model of a planet, based on first order approximations of its (black body) radiation balance.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

DRAFT conceptual model of climate change connections in Yamuna river project.