Sustainability, collapse and oscillations of global climate, population and economy in a simple World-Earth model

TL;DR

This paper presents a simple conceptual model of Earth’s natural and human systems, analyzing long-term dynamics like sustainability, collapse, and oscillations, emphasizing the importance of renewable energy for a sustainable future.

Contribution

It introduces a low-dimensional, qualitative Earth system model incorporating socio-economic and ecological interactions, highlighting conditions leading to different long-term outcomes.

Findings

Multiple asymptotic states identified, including sustainability, collapse, and oscillations.

Biomass use and ecosystem services are key determinants of system fate.

Transition to renewable energy is crucial for sustainability.

Abstract

The Anthropocene is characterized by close interdependencies between the natural Earth system and the human society, posing novel challenges to model development. Here we present a conceptual model describing the long-term coevolution of natural and socioeconomic subsystems of Earth. While the climate is represented via a global carbon cycle, we use economic concepts to model socio-metabolic flows of biomass and fossil fuels between nature and society. A wellbeing-dependent parametrization of fertility and mortality governs human population dynamics. Our analysis focuses on assessing possible asymptotic states of the Earth system for a qualitative understanding of its complex dynamics rather than quantitative predictions. Low dimension and simple equations enable a parameter-space analysis allowing us to identify preconditions of several asymptotic states and hence fates of humanity and planet. These include a sustainable co-evolution of nature and society, a global collapse and everlasting oscillations. We consider scenarios corresponding to different socio-cultural stages of human history. The necessity of accounting for the "human factor" in Earth system models is highlighted by the fact that carbon stocks during the past centuries evolved opposing to what would "naturally" be expected on a planet without humans. The intensity of biomass use and the contribution of ecosystem services to human well-being are found to be crucial determinants of the asymptotic state in a biomass-only scenario. The capitalistic, fossil-based scenario reveals that trajectories with fundamentally different asymptotic states might still be almost indistinguishable during a very long transient phase. Given current population levels, our study also supports the claim that besides reducing the global demand for energy, only the extensive use of renewable energies may pave the way into a sustainable future.