Examples of “whole systems accounting”

On the LCA list Simon asked: Are there any tangible examples of where something meaningful was created (not necessarily materially produced) by humans undertaking a “whole systems accounting” approach?  I had offered the obscure example of one of my proud little examples, a whole system account of money exchange in a 1985 paper for SGSR proving that learning lags would be a limit for economic growth, and later the following. P.S.

Simon,

Perhaps better examples of “whole systems accounting” would be the more common ways that the whole systems are accounted for.    One is energy budgets the way the physicists do it, like for the climate models.

They divide up a pie they already know the total of

They don’t just add up the totals.  They divide up a pie they already know the total of, measuring the system from both inside and out.  That forces them into doing what is needed to explain the difference.     Continue reading Examples of “whole systems accounting”

Climate Science & Our Gaps in Learning

On the CCG list RML had posted a good article on how public engagement is critical to solving climate crisis.  It overlooks the special problem we have, that science still tries to describe uncontrolled systems with control theory…

RML,

Well, one of the major barriers to using science to communicate the choices available to people is that scientific models, confusingly, represent the parts of economic systems as having no individual choices…

scientific models, confusingly, represent the parts of economic systems as having no individual choices Continue reading Climate Science & Our Gaps in Learning