Environment | Insight Maker

This model shows how a persistent pollutant such as mercury or DDT can be bioamplified along a trophic chain to levels that result in reduction of top predator populations.

Bioamplification of mercury in a marine system

Joao G. Ferreira

6

Simple Model of the Food Chain

Clone of Food Chain

Gavrilo Bozovic

9

Rhino poaching in South - Africa

Anneli Ritzell

World4 is a predictive model for world population. Population has grown hyper-exponentially in the last millenium, with the doubling time decreasing from 900 years in 1000 CE to a minimum of ~35 years in 1963 CE. Technology is defined as that which decreases the death rate and/or increases the effective birth rate (i.e. by decreasing infant mortality). Technology grows exponentially, therefore population fits a hyper-exponential (exponent within an exponent). Models for the end of growth are explored using equations that express the ways humans are depleting Earth's biocapacity, the nature of resource depletion, and the relationship between natural resources and human carrying capacity. This simple model, containing just two closed systems, captures the subtle shifts in the population trajectory of the last 50 years. Specifically, hyperexponential growth has given way to subexponential growth. A peak is predicted for the time around 2028. [Bystroff, C. (2021). Footprints to singularity: A global population model explains late 20th century slow-down and predicts peak within ten years. PloS one, 16(5), e0247214.]

World4.5

Christopher Bystroff

21 2 months ago

Glacier - Calving Systems Diagram byMaziar Javadi

Maziar Ali Javadi

Two households with PV systems and Electric Vehicles, sharing a battery and connected to the grid. What are the advantages?

Vehicle to Grid Simulation

Carlos

19

A storytelling of the nitrogen cycle.

Nitrogen Cycle

Henny van Dongen

Australian Desert Ecosystem Foodweb

Victoria Ke

water security la plata river basin

anthony sirna

5

This model adresses the primary production for phytoplankton growth, based on Steele’s light intensity equation and Michaelis-Menten equation for nutrient limitation.

Primary production of phytoplankton (SIMA2018_G1)

Diogo Filipe Prata Gomes

6

sumatran orangutan food web

Sumatran Orangutan food web

Molly Harms

THE 2017 MODEL (BY GUY LAKEMAN) EMPHASIZES THE PEAK IN POLLUTION BEING CREATED BY OVERPOPULATION WITH THE CARRYING CAPACITY OF ARABLE LAND NOW BEING 1.5 TIMES OVER A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE (PASSED IN 1990) AND NOW INCREASING IN LOSS OF HUMAN SUSTAINABILITY DUE TO SEA RISE AND EXTREME GLOBAL WATER RELOCATION IN WEATHER CHANGES IN FLOODS AND DROUGHTS AND EXTENDED TROPICAL AND HORSE LATTITUDE CYCLONE ACTIVITY AROUND HADLEY CELLS

THE MODEL IS ZONE SPECIFIC AS GLOBAL WEATHER IS NOT HOMOGENEOUS BUT A COLLECTION OF HEAT BUMBPS DEPENDENT ON POPULATION SIZE OF URBAN HEAT ISLANDS AND MASSED CONURBATIONS AND AGGLOMERATIONS

The World3 model is a detailed simulation of human population growth from 1900 into the future. It includes many environmental and demographic factors.

THIS MODEL BY GUY LAKEMAN, FROM METRICS OBTAINED USING A MORE COMPREHENSIVE VENSIM SOFTWARE MODEL, SHOWS CURRENT CONDITIONS CREATED BY THE LATEST WEATHER EXTREMES AND LOSS OF ARABLE LAND BY THE ALBEDO EFECT MELTING THE POLAR CAPS TOGETHER WITH NORTHERN JETSTREAM SHIFT NORTHWARDS, AND A NECESSITY TO ACT BEFORE THERE IS HUGE SUFFERING.

BY SETTING THE NEW ECOLOGICAL POLICIES TO 2015 WE CAN SEE THAT SOME POPULATIONS CAN BE SAVED BUT CITIES WILL SUFFER MOST.

CURRENT MARKET SATURATION PLATEAU OF SOLID PRODUCTS AND BEHAVIORAL SINK FACTORS ARE ALSO ADDED

Use the sliders to experiment with the initial amount of non-renewable resources to see how these affect the simulation. Does increasing the amount of non-renewable resources (which could occur through the development of better exploration technologies) improve our future? Also, experiment with the start date of a low birth-rate, environmentally focused policy.

2017 Weather & Climate Extreme Loss of Arable Land and Ocean Fertility by Guy Lakeman - The World3+ Model: Forecaster

Guy Lakeman

25

A system diagram for the Mojave Desert for an assignment at OSU- RNG 341.

Mojave Desert System Diagram

Abi Wells

4

Primitives for Watershed modeling project. Click Clone Insight at the top right to make a copy that you can edit.

The converter in this file contains precipitation for Phoenix only.

Primitives for Rainwater Harvesting -Phoenix ENVS 270 F21

Rivka Fidel

94

Harvested fishery with stepwise changes in fleet size. Ch 9 p337-339 John Morecroft (2007) Strategic Modelling and Business Dynamics

Simple Harvested Fishery

Geoff McDonnell

FORCED GROWTH GROWTH GOES INTO TURBULENT CHAOTIC DESTRUCTION
BEWARE pushing increased growth blows the system!
(governments are trying to push growth on already unstable systems !)

The existing global capitalistic growth paradigm is totally flawed

The chaotic turbulence is the result of the concept and flawed strategy of infinite bigness this has been the destructive influence on all empires and now shown up by Feigenbaum numbers and Dunbar numbers for neural netwoirks

See Guy Lakeman Bubble Theory for more details on keeping systems within finite limited size working capacity containers (villages communities)

FORCED GROWTH INTO TURBULENCE

Guy Lakeman

5

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

Steve Conrad

27

Clone of Pesticide Use in Central America for Lab work

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.

Clone of REM 221 - Causal Loop diagramming

Brett van Poorten

54 2 months ago

This model provides a dynamic simulation of the Sverdrup (1953) paper on the vernal blooming of phytoplankton.

The model simulates the dynamics of the mixed layer over the year, and illustrates how it's depth variation leads to conditions that trigger the spring bloom. In order for the bloom to occur, production of algae in the water column must exceed respiration.

This can only occur if vertical mixing cannot transport algae into deeper, darker water, for long periods, where they are unable to grow.

Sverdrup, H.U., 1953. On conditions for the vernal blooming of phytoplankton. J. Cons. Perm. Int. Exp. Mer, 18: 287-295

Vernal blooming of phytoplankton

Joao G. Ferreira

4

This stock and flow diagram provides a broad description of the key nutrient pathways (N and P) that exist in a dune-lake system subject to external loadings emanating from intensive agriculture.

Stock and flow diagram of a dune lake (Working draft)

Graeme Doole

My model is on global population and its impact on the availability of natural resources. The stocks in my system include food availability, soil resources and water resource availability. One question I believe my model can address is, what are the connections between food availability, soil resources and water resource availability; or in other words, are these stocks influenced equally by variables? I hope to show a direct correlation between all three of these stocks. Food availability as stated in The Impact of Population Growth on Food Supplies and the Environment stated that, “The continued production of an adequate food supply is directly dependent on ample fertile land, fresh water, energy, plus the maintenance of biodiversity.” As population continues to grow so will the inputs to natural resources including water, fertilizer, and the need to have more available land. What is more astonishing is that if these natural resources are never completely tapped dry, on a per capita perspective availability these resources will decline on astronomical levels since it has to be split amongst people (Pimental et al, 1996).

The flows in my system include food production,drought, water pollution, and greenhouse gases. I picked drought as a flow since it directly impacts the level of water available. Take for instance in California, the five year drought has caused scarcity and triggered state-wide executive orders to conserve water (California Department of Water Resources, 2017). Drought and water pollution can be affected by the number of people living in a country, which is why I picked these elements as flows. Furthermore food production, water pollution and greenhouse gases have strong influences on the availability of natural resources.

I picked mortality rates, birth rates, water scarcity, and industrial development as my variables. Since birth rates and mortality rates vary depending on the country I picked these as variables on my system since population growth is influenced by these variables. Impact of Population Growth describes how the U. S. is already being affected by population growth, as stated here, “In populous industrial nations such as the United States, most economies of scale are already being exploited; we are on the diminishing returns part of most of the important curves.”

I have decided to change “developed countries” and undeveloped countries” as stocks to variables since these factors actually act more like variables. One question I hope to address with my model is how developed countries can reduce their impact on resources? Furthermore, Population growth rate does depend on whether a country is developed versus undeveloped, so a country's level of economic development is more of a variable. I have decided to change food production from a stock to a flow, since it seems to be more of a flow that might affect the level of a stock of available food. I have also changed water scarcity from a stock to a variable because it actually affects the flow of water into an overall stock of fresh drinking water

Global Population Affects on Natural Resources

Rose Gutowski

$Collapse of the economy, not just recession, is now very likely. To give just one possible cause, in the U.S. the fracking industry is in deep trouble. It is not only that most fracking companies have never achieved a free cash flow (made a profit) since the fracking boom started in 2008, but th$

Collapse of the economy, not just recession, is now very likely. To give just one possible cause, in the U.S. the fracking industry is in deep trouble. It is not only that most fracking companies have never achieved a free cash flow (made a profit) since the fracking boom started in 2008, but that an already very weak and unprofitable oil industry cannot cope with extremely low oil prices. The result will be the imminent collapse of the industry. However, when the fracking industry collapses in the US, so will the American economy – and by extension, probably, the rest of the world economy. To grasp a second and far more serious threat it is vital to understand the phenomenon of ‘Global Dimming’. Industrial activity not only produces greenhouse gases, but emits also sulphur dioxide which converts to reflective sulphate aerosols in the atmosphere. Sulphate aerosols act like little mirrors that reflect sunlight back into space, cooling the atmosphere. But when economic activity stops, these aerosols (unlike carbon dioxide) drop out of the atmosphere, adding perhaps as much as 1° C to global average temperatures. This can happen in a very short period time, and when it does mankind will be bereft of any means to mitigate the furious onslaught of an out-of-control and merciless climate. The data and the unrelenting dynamic of the viral pandemic paint bleak picture. As events unfold in the next few months, we may discover that it is too late to act, that our reign on this planet has, indeed, come to an abrupt end?

Covid 19 - irreversible and catastrophic consequences