EPH 1024 Healthy Environment and Sustainability task summary
Task 1: The era of the Great Acceleration and the Anthropocene. A system view on our times
Learning goals
1. What is systems thinking?
2. What are (Complex Adaptive) Systems, what are their key elements/features, and how do they
function?
3. What is exponential growth?
4. When does a system change/collapse and how does that work? How does system change relate
to exponential growth?
5. What is the Anthropocene?
6. What is the Great Acceleration?
7. (How) is SARS-COV-2 an Earth-systemic crisis. How does it relate to other crises?
8. What is Resilience?
9. Why is knowledge of the complexity of systems important for sustainability and health? (e.g.
what does it mean for public health measures/ strategies/sustainable development?)
10. How can we deal with the uncertainty that is inherent in complex systems?
What is systems thinking?
➔ Donella H. Meadows (2008) Thinking in Systems. London. Earthscan. (Study Introduction and
Chapter 1)
Questions to ask to identify systems
- Tool to understand the bigger picture
A) Can you identify parts?
➔ Solve problems within a bigger concept (more
B) Do the parts affect each other?
effective)
C) Do the parts together produce an
➔ To identify root causes of the problems and see
effect that is different from the effect
new opportunities
of each part on its own?
➔ Simplification of the real world
D) Does the effect, the behaviour over
➔ To understand certain mechanisms and
time, persist in a variety of
phenomena
circumstances?
- Definitions
o System = interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that
achieves something
▪ A diverse system with multiple pathways and redundancies is more stable
and less vulnerable
▪ Can be self-organizing, often self-repairing (over at least some range of
disruptions), resilient and evolutionary
▪ Consist of 3 kind of things: elements, interconnections and a function or
purpose
1) Elements: often visible, tangible things (easiest part to notice)
o Elements can be divided into sub-elements and sub-sub-elements
2) Interconnections: relationships that hold the elements together
o Interconnections operate through the flow of information
o Interconnections can change
1
,EPH 1024 Healthy Environment and Sustainability task summary
3) Function: not necessarily spoken, written or expressed explicitly
o Function: used for nonhuman systems; purpose = human ones
o Changes in function/ purpose also can be drastic
o Stock: foundation of any system
▪ Act as delays or buffers or shock absorbers in systems
▪ You can see, feel, count, or measure them
▪ Stocks change over time through the actions of a flow; usually slowly
Humans focus more on stocks
than on flows; and even more
on inflows than on outflows
o Feedback loops = changes in a stock affect the flows into or out of that same stock
▪ Often when consistent behaviour pattern over a long period of time
▪ Interconnection between the elements
➔ Stabilizing loops/ Balancing loop = purpose to keep
the stock level near or at your desired level
o Can often operate in two directions (can
correct an oversupply as well as an
undersupply)
o Resistance to change
o E.g. your fridge gets empty, you go to
AH to refill it, it becomes empty again,
go to AH again
➔ Reinforcing feedback loop = generates more input to a
stock the more that is already there (and less input the less
that is already there)
o R in the diagrams
o Leading to exponential growth or to runaway
collapses over time
o Doubling time = time it takes for an
exponentially growing stock to double in size
2
,EPH 1024 Healthy Environment and Sustainability task summary
What are (Complex Adaptive) Systems, what are their key elements/features, and how do they
function?
➔ Stockholm Resilience Centre TV (2014) What are complex adaptive systems?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfnY9gn6ktk
➔ Igor Nikolic (2010) Complex adaptive systems, TEDxRotterdam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS0zj_dYeBE&t=413s
- three characteristics
o complex: many working parts all are connected in some
way
o adaptive: constantly changing
o systems: broad; operating over a range of scales
- fundamental properties
o highly unpredictable; highly connected → relationships can be nonlinear
o contagion: things within them can spread very quickly
- modularity + redundancy → resilience (= the ability of the system to withstand damage)
o redundancy = same function is done by different elements, lose one of the elements,
system won’t be damaged so much because of other elements
o modularity = parts of the system are more connected within then between the
system;
3
, EPH 1024 Healthy Environment and Sustainability task summary
What is exponential growth?
- = a process of multiplication that accelerates over
time
- Reinforcing loops
- Direction: infinity
- Fast growth, never ending
- Problem of Anthropocene
When does a system change/collapse and how does that
work? How does system change relate to exponential
growth?
- Exponential growth will cause collapse/change
- If a system is not in a dynamic equilibrium, if more is taken
out than inputting back the system can collapse
- One crucial element is missing → connected to other
elements → these things are dependent on missing
element → snowball within the system until collapse
- Rigid systems (low diversity and high interconnectivity) are
very fragile to external change
What is the Anthropocene?
➔ Will Steffen et al. (2005) Global change and the Earth system. A planet under pressure. IGBP.
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York.
- Term defined by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer
- = extent to which human activities are influencing or even dominating many aspects of
Earth’s environment and functioning
- New Geological era: which is happening right now
- Cause: growth of human population and economic wealth
o Human demands increases
o Industrialization, globalisation
- Cascading impacts = one effect leads to multiple other effects/ changes
What is the Great Acceleration?
- Process that has led to the Anthropocene
- = is the dramatic, continuous and roughly simultaneous surge in growth rate across a large
range of measures of human activity
o First recorded in 1920s and still continuing
- Economy and population are the drivers for the great acceleration
4
Task 1: The era of the Great Acceleration and the Anthropocene. A system view on our times
Learning goals
1. What is systems thinking?
2. What are (Complex Adaptive) Systems, what are their key elements/features, and how do they
function?
3. What is exponential growth?
4. When does a system change/collapse and how does that work? How does system change relate
to exponential growth?
5. What is the Anthropocene?
6. What is the Great Acceleration?
7. (How) is SARS-COV-2 an Earth-systemic crisis. How does it relate to other crises?
8. What is Resilience?
9. Why is knowledge of the complexity of systems important for sustainability and health? (e.g.
what does it mean for public health measures/ strategies/sustainable development?)
10. How can we deal with the uncertainty that is inherent in complex systems?
What is systems thinking?
➔ Donella H. Meadows (2008) Thinking in Systems. London. Earthscan. (Study Introduction and
Chapter 1)
Questions to ask to identify systems
- Tool to understand the bigger picture
A) Can you identify parts?
➔ Solve problems within a bigger concept (more
B) Do the parts affect each other?
effective)
C) Do the parts together produce an
➔ To identify root causes of the problems and see
effect that is different from the effect
new opportunities
of each part on its own?
➔ Simplification of the real world
D) Does the effect, the behaviour over
➔ To understand certain mechanisms and
time, persist in a variety of
phenomena
circumstances?
- Definitions
o System = interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that
achieves something
▪ A diverse system with multiple pathways and redundancies is more stable
and less vulnerable
▪ Can be self-organizing, often self-repairing (over at least some range of
disruptions), resilient and evolutionary
▪ Consist of 3 kind of things: elements, interconnections and a function or
purpose
1) Elements: often visible, tangible things (easiest part to notice)
o Elements can be divided into sub-elements and sub-sub-elements
2) Interconnections: relationships that hold the elements together
o Interconnections operate through the flow of information
o Interconnections can change
1
,EPH 1024 Healthy Environment and Sustainability task summary
3) Function: not necessarily spoken, written or expressed explicitly
o Function: used for nonhuman systems; purpose = human ones
o Changes in function/ purpose also can be drastic
o Stock: foundation of any system
▪ Act as delays or buffers or shock absorbers in systems
▪ You can see, feel, count, or measure them
▪ Stocks change over time through the actions of a flow; usually slowly
Humans focus more on stocks
than on flows; and even more
on inflows than on outflows
o Feedback loops = changes in a stock affect the flows into or out of that same stock
▪ Often when consistent behaviour pattern over a long period of time
▪ Interconnection between the elements
➔ Stabilizing loops/ Balancing loop = purpose to keep
the stock level near or at your desired level
o Can often operate in two directions (can
correct an oversupply as well as an
undersupply)
o Resistance to change
o E.g. your fridge gets empty, you go to
AH to refill it, it becomes empty again,
go to AH again
➔ Reinforcing feedback loop = generates more input to a
stock the more that is already there (and less input the less
that is already there)
o R in the diagrams
o Leading to exponential growth or to runaway
collapses over time
o Doubling time = time it takes for an
exponentially growing stock to double in size
2
,EPH 1024 Healthy Environment and Sustainability task summary
What are (Complex Adaptive) Systems, what are their key elements/features, and how do they
function?
➔ Stockholm Resilience Centre TV (2014) What are complex adaptive systems?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfnY9gn6ktk
➔ Igor Nikolic (2010) Complex adaptive systems, TEDxRotterdam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS0zj_dYeBE&t=413s
- three characteristics
o complex: many working parts all are connected in some
way
o adaptive: constantly changing
o systems: broad; operating over a range of scales
- fundamental properties
o highly unpredictable; highly connected → relationships can be nonlinear
o contagion: things within them can spread very quickly
- modularity + redundancy → resilience (= the ability of the system to withstand damage)
o redundancy = same function is done by different elements, lose one of the elements,
system won’t be damaged so much because of other elements
o modularity = parts of the system are more connected within then between the
system;
3
, EPH 1024 Healthy Environment and Sustainability task summary
What is exponential growth?
- = a process of multiplication that accelerates over
time
- Reinforcing loops
- Direction: infinity
- Fast growth, never ending
- Problem of Anthropocene
When does a system change/collapse and how does that
work? How does system change relate to exponential
growth?
- Exponential growth will cause collapse/change
- If a system is not in a dynamic equilibrium, if more is taken
out than inputting back the system can collapse
- One crucial element is missing → connected to other
elements → these things are dependent on missing
element → snowball within the system until collapse
- Rigid systems (low diversity and high interconnectivity) are
very fragile to external change
What is the Anthropocene?
➔ Will Steffen et al. (2005) Global change and the Earth system. A planet under pressure. IGBP.
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York.
- Term defined by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer
- = extent to which human activities are influencing or even dominating many aspects of
Earth’s environment and functioning
- New Geological era: which is happening right now
- Cause: growth of human population and economic wealth
o Human demands increases
o Industrialization, globalisation
- Cascading impacts = one effect leads to multiple other effects/ changes
What is the Great Acceleration?
- Process that has led to the Anthropocene
- = is the dramatic, continuous and roughly simultaneous surge in growth rate across a large
range of measures of human activity
o First recorded in 1920s and still continuing
- Economy and population are the drivers for the great acceleration
4
