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When optimization for governing human-environment tipping elements is neither sustainable nor safe.
- Source :
-
Nature communications [Nat Commun] 2018 Jun 15; Vol. 9 (1), pp. 2354. Date of Electronic Publication: 2018 Jun 15. - Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- Optimizing economic welfare in environmental governance has been criticized for delivering short-term gains at the expense of long-term environmental degradation. Different from economic optimization, the concepts of sustainability and the more recent safe operating space have been used to derive policies in environmental governance. However, a formal comparison between these three policy paradigms is still missing, leaving policy makers uncertain which paradigm to apply. Here, we develop a better understanding of their interrelationships, using a stylized model of human-environment tipping elements. We find that no paradigm guarantees fulfilling requirements imposed by another paradigm and derive simple heuristics for the conditions under which these trade-offs occur. We show that the absence of such a master paradigm is of special relevance for governing real-world tipping systems such as climate, fisheries, and farming, which may reside in a parameter regime where economic optimization is neither sustainable nor safe.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 2041-1723
- Volume :
- 9
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Nature communications
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 29907743
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04738-z