Reply to O’Sullivan: Wicked problems demand sophisticated understandings of complexity and feedbacks, not focus on a single variable
Cumming, Graeme S., and von Cramon-Taubadel, Stephan (2018) Reply to O’Sullivan: Wicked problems demand sophisticated understandings of complexity and feedbacks, not focus on a single variable. National Academy of Sciences. Proceedings, 115 (48). E11202-E11203.
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Abstract
[Extract] O’Sullivan (1) both misunderstands and misrepresents our analysis (2). We tested, and found support for, the hypothesis that national economies tend toward one of two attractors because of complex feedbacks among ecosystem services, economic growth, and population growth. We then explored the possible consequences of alternative feedback loops for global sustainability. O’Sullivan seeks to simplify and reframe our analysis as a debate on population growth, ignoring both the thesis of our article and our empirical analysis. While human population growth is an important component of social–ecological sustainability, our analysis also demonstrates empirically that there are other important forces at play, such as changing consumption patterns. Reducing population growth is not a panacea for everything.
| Item ID: | 56587 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article (Commentary) |
| ISSN: | 0027-8424 |
| Keywords: | in reply, feedback, ecosystem services, planetary boundaries, ecosystem, threshold |
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| Copyright Information: | © 2018. |
| Additional Information: | This record is a comment with reply to the following article, which can be accessed via the link in the Related URLs field: Cumming, Graeme S., and von Cramon-Taubadel, Stephan (2018) Linking economic growth pathways and environmental sustainability by understanding development as alternate social-ecological regimes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115 (38). pp. 9533-9538. |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Dec 2018 07:40 |
| FoR Codes: | 16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY > 1608 Sociology > 160802 Environmental Sociology @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9603 Climate and Climate Change > 960305 Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change @ 100% |
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