Econosystemics

ECONOSYSTEMICS Reframing Economics for Sustainability Bryan K. Long Editor / Author / Activist ECONOSYSTEMICS.COM

ECONOSYSTEM
A dynamic system of value transformations and transactions encompassing human society and the global ecosystem.
Dynamic: Energy dissipating; changing with time
System: Organized interacting components (sub-systems)
Value: Usefulness to a system’s maintenance, growth, or development

Economics
e-kə- ˈ nä-miks a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services
Alternative framing: The analysis and modeling of value creation, exchange and consumption within human society.
(Miriam Webster Dictionary)

Value
Value depends on context.
Yet we quantify it every time we buy or sell.
Implicitly what we are trying to measure with GDP: how much value did our economy create?
Negative value: An interaction that diminishes the net value in a system

Productivity
The use of time, energy, capital, labor, biological systems and material resources to create value.
Efficiency : Using less time, energy, capital, labor, biological systems and/or material resources to create the same amount of value.

Distribution and Marketing
Distribution : The delivery of value from the time and place of creation to the time and place of value.
Marketing : Effort to create a context in which the perception of value is high.

Money
A measurement scale for the quantification of value
A future “call” on value from any participant in the monetary system.

Ecology
i- ˈ kä-lə-jē 1: a branch of science concerned with the interrelationship of organisms and their environments 2: the totality or pattern of relations between organisms and their environment
Alternative framing: The analysis, decription and modeling of an ecosystem .
[Ecosystem: a system of biological species within a geophysical environment]
(Miriam Webster Dictionary)

The Human “Footprint”
Land : Mostly cities, agriculture and pasturage
Ocean : Fish stocks plummeting
Rainforests : Disappearing
Arctic : Melting
Biodiversity : Greatest extinction event in 65 M years
The Earth at Night

Modern Economics

Modern Economics Natural Resources

Modern Reality

Econosystemics Energy Geophysical Systems Biological Systems Human Systems Value Impact Impact

Econosystemics
i- ˈ kä-nō-sis-təm-iks
Broader discipline encompassing macroeconomics and planetary ecology.
“ Natural world” includes us.
Value flows in both directions.
Sustainable human civilization can only be modeled within this larger context.

Sustainability
Material resource flow must be circular
Value flow must be circular
Waste must be minimized
Energy must be “renewable”
Efficiency knowledge must be shared
“ Negative Value” activities must be eliminated
Pollution
Ecosystem destruction
War
Social oppression

Econosystemics Challenges
Mapping whole-planet energy and resource flows
Modeling multi-species interactions
Characterizing/quantifying non-monetary value and negative-value transactions
Reconciling present-value and future-value
Reconciling human-value and inherent-value perspectives

Social Challenges
Kicking the fossil fuel habit
Letting go of exploitive consumption, and adopting cooperative development.
Transcending tribal conflict
Being able to see the big picture
Developing pervasive social responsibility
Stopping population growth

Sustainable Development
It’s not about going back to the farm.
There is a difference between growth and development.
Quality of life is about food, water, shelter, education, rights and opportunities
Total recycling can give us plenty of resources. Solar, wind, geothermal and advanced nuclear technologies can give us plenty of energy.
But we have to get from here to there.

ECONOSYSTEMICS
Econosystemics is about finding our way to a sustainable future.
For More Information and Links, visit:
http://www. econosystemics .com
Reframing Economics for Sustainability

Econosystemics

by Bryan Long

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

2 Embeds 72

Statistics

Econosystemics Presentation Transcript

http://econosystemics.com	70
http://www.slideshare.net	2

Econosystemics

by Bryan Long

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

2 Embeds 72

Statistics

Econosystemics Presentation Transcript

Let LinkedIn power your SlideShare experience

Let LinkedIn power your SlideShare experience

Customize SlideShare content based on your interests

Keep up to date when your LinkedIn contacts post on SlideShare