Sustainability: We need to focus on overall system outcomes rather than simplistic targets
Abstract Many of the global challenges that confront humanity are interlinked in a dynamic complex network, with multiple feedback loops, nonlinear interactions and interdependencies that make it difficult, if not impossible, to consider individual threats in isolation. These challenges are mainly d...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2024-04-01
|
| Series: | People and Nature |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10589 |
| _version_ | 1797226582108012544 |
|---|---|
| author | Len Fisher Thilo Gross Helmut Hillebrand Anders Sandberg Hiroki Sayama |
| author_facet | Len Fisher Thilo Gross Helmut Hillebrand Anders Sandberg Hiroki Sayama |
| author_sort | Len Fisher |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Many of the global challenges that confront humanity are interlinked in a dynamic complex network, with multiple feedback loops, nonlinear interactions and interdependencies that make it difficult, if not impossible, to consider individual threats in isolation. These challenges are mainly dealt with, however, by considering individual threats in isolation (at least in political terms). The mitigation of dual climate and biodiversity threats, for example, is linked to a univariate 1.5°C global warming boundary and a global area conservation target of 30% by 2030. The situation has been somewhat improved by efforts to account for interactions through multidimensional target setting, adaptive and open management and market‐based decision pathways. But the fundamental problem still remains—that complex systems such as those formed by the network of global threats have emergent properties that are more than the sum of their parts. We must learn how to deal with or live with these properties if we are to find effective ways to cope with the threats, individually and collectively. Here, we argue that recent progresses in complex systems research and related fields have enhanced our ability to analyse and model such entwined systems to the extent that it offers the promise of a new approach to sustainability. We discuss how this may be achieved, both in theory and in practice, and how human cultural factors play an important but neglected role that could prove vital to achieving success. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T14:27:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b90eae44c68240ffa91123462c75baba |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2575-8314 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T14:27:12Z |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | People and Nature |
| spelling | doaj.art-b90eae44c68240ffa91123462c75baba2024-04-03T04:30:39ZengWileyPeople and Nature2575-83142024-04-016239140110.1002/pan3.10589Sustainability: We need to focus on overall system outcomes rather than simplistic targetsLen Fisher0Thilo Gross1Helmut Hillebrand2Anders Sandberg3Hiroki Sayama4School of Physics University of Bristol Bristol UKHelmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity Oldenburg GermanyHelmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity Oldenburg GermanyFuture of Humanity Institute University of Oxford Oxford UKBinghamton Center of Complex Systems Binghamton University, State University of New York Binghamton New York USAAbstract Many of the global challenges that confront humanity are interlinked in a dynamic complex network, with multiple feedback loops, nonlinear interactions and interdependencies that make it difficult, if not impossible, to consider individual threats in isolation. These challenges are mainly dealt with, however, by considering individual threats in isolation (at least in political terms). The mitigation of dual climate and biodiversity threats, for example, is linked to a univariate 1.5°C global warming boundary and a global area conservation target of 30% by 2030. The situation has been somewhat improved by efforts to account for interactions through multidimensional target setting, adaptive and open management and market‐based decision pathways. But the fundamental problem still remains—that complex systems such as those formed by the network of global threats have emergent properties that are more than the sum of their parts. We must learn how to deal with or live with these properties if we are to find effective ways to cope with the threats, individually and collectively. Here, we argue that recent progresses in complex systems research and related fields have enhanced our ability to analyse and model such entwined systems to the extent that it offers the promise of a new approach to sustainability. We discuss how this may be achieved, both in theory and in practice, and how human cultural factors play an important but neglected role that could prove vital to achieving success. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10589complex systemscomplexitymarket mechanisms and insurancesmultidimensionalityopen‐ended adaptationoutcomes |
| spellingShingle | Len Fisher Thilo Gross Helmut Hillebrand Anders Sandberg Hiroki Sayama Sustainability: We need to focus on overall system outcomes rather than simplistic targets People and Nature complex systems complexity market mechanisms and insurances multidimensionality open‐ended adaptation outcomes |
| title | Sustainability: We need to focus on overall system outcomes rather than simplistic targets |
| title_full | Sustainability: We need to focus on overall system outcomes rather than simplistic targets |
| title_fullStr | Sustainability: We need to focus on overall system outcomes rather than simplistic targets |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sustainability: We need to focus on overall system outcomes rather than simplistic targets |
| title_short | Sustainability: We need to focus on overall system outcomes rather than simplistic targets |
| title_sort | sustainability we need to focus on overall system outcomes rather than simplistic targets |
| topic | complex systems complexity market mechanisms and insurances multidimensionality open‐ended adaptation outcomes |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10589 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lenfisher sustainabilityweneedtofocusonoverallsystemoutcomesratherthansimplistictargets AT thilogross sustainabilityweneedtofocusonoverallsystemoutcomesratherthansimplistictargets AT helmuthillebrand sustainabilityweneedtofocusonoverallsystemoutcomesratherthansimplistictargets AT anderssandberg sustainabilityweneedtofocusonoverallsystemoutcomesratherthansimplistictargets AT hirokisayama sustainabilityweneedtofocusonoverallsystemoutcomesratherthansimplistictargets |