Introduction to Econosystemics (Slideshow)
A slideshare presentation introducing Econosystemics as a discipline of study merging economics and ecology in pursuit of sustainability.
Monthly Archive: May 2009
$15 per Gallon Gasoline?
We are used to cheap oil and inefficient consumption, so we have trouble seeing a higher value in that gallon of gasoline.
Defining Sustainability and Sustainable Development
A sustainable economy can include a human society that delivers more good to its members, even while enriching, rather than degrading, the ecosystem we live in.
Lower GDP, but Higher Quality of Life?
It is time to put aside, explicitly and decisively, the objective of higher GDP. GDP measures quantity, not quality of production. GDP presumes that a growth in production is a growth in quality of life, when in fact we have reached a point that the opposite is true. Not even our current level of goods production can be sustained, much less continual increases.
Econosystemics: Why Do We Need a New Word?
Economics is perhaps most simply and comprehensively be defined as: the study of the exchange of value among humans. Why then introduce a new word, EconoSystemics? First, because we can no longer distinguish the...
Are we Human, or are we Tweep?
In classical economics, humans engage in value transactions with an eye towards their own advantage. A plausible and useful hypothesis. Somehow presupposed is a value calculation, even if often based on fuzzy logic. Modern...
Prelude: Knowledge
We learn and invent signs and sounds to refer to patterns, and use them to facilitate and communicate thought and intention.
Human Population through the Ages
From 1700 to 2000 CE, a period of only 300 years, world population increased 10-fold to over 6,000 Million people – a compound annual growth rate of .75 %, ten times higher than in the previous era. More amazing, from 1900 to 2000, the growth rate was over 1.3 %, doubling twice in just 100 years. World population will have increased by almost as many people in the twelve years from 2000 to 2012 as it did in the 6000 years from the invention of the wheel to the invention of the steam engine!
Turtles all the way down…
Every “thing” we can name is a system, containing components which interact. And of course, every component is a thing and thus another system, containing another level of components.
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