3DN Cycles of Productivity
Cycles of Productivity
- Life begins with the conversion of sunlight into living tissue and begins again continuously through the decomposition of dead tissue into nutrients for new living tissue. All other living things operate between those processes.
- An ecosystem operates according to a cycle. In that cycle, diversity -> complex interactions -> increased productivity -> dynamic stability -> increased diversity. For each cycle of birth and death there is an increase in the energy captured in the system. That increase is stored in organic molecules made available for the next generation through the decomposition process. Total life produced by the system increases as a function of the number of species as a result of specialization in utilizing available resources. Although the mix of species and relative number from each species is in constant flux, the ability of the ecosystem to produce life, despite changing circumstances, increases as a function of the number of potential interactions (resilience). A dynamically stable ecosystem, in turn, results in increasing niches for new diversity.
- A human economy is, in the first instance, intimately connected to its ecosystem. Human economic structures added on top of the ecosystem have, in most instances, decreased diversity and thereby decreased complexity, productivity, and stability. Reversing that trend and exploring potential partnerships with natural processes is one of the things I want to do.
- In the second instance, a human economy, operates according to exactly the same cyclical dynamics as an ecosystem. Diversity in product -> complex interactions -> increased productivity -> dynamic stability -> increased diversity. I think one of the problems resulting from the planetary economy is the lack of diversity at the local level and the lack of diversity in the types of productive organization. That is the other issue I want to work on.
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