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”