Sustainability screw: role of relative production and abatement time scales

Jerzy A Filar, Jacek Krawczyk () and Manju R Agrawal
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Jerzy A Filar: Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
Manju R Agrawal: University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2015, vol. 66, issue 8, 1259-1269

Abstract: We postulate that reasonable notions of sustainability must include a time-scale synchronization of both the processes of human development and those of the natural environment. We perform our analysis within a simple system of five differential equations where non-renewable and renewable resources are coupled with production capacities, abatement and human capital as functions of time. A ‘sustainability screw’ phenomenon is demonstrated describing a spiral like trajectory of three key variables—the non-renewable resources, the renewable resources and the production capital. This spiral may tend to an undesirable steady state, however, by adjusting a ratio of intensity parameters, time scales of production and natural recovery processes can be altered to produce more sustainable trajectories.

Date: 2015
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