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Donella Meadows
Donella Hager "Dana" Meadows (March 13, 1941 – February 20, 2001) was an American environmental scientist, educator, and writer. She is best known as lead author of the books ''The Limits to Growth'' and '' Thinking In Systems: A Primer''. Early life and education Born in Elgin, Illinois, Meadows was educated in science, receiving a B.A. in chemistry from Carleton College in 1963 and a PhD in biophysics from Harvard in 1968. After a yearlong trip from England to Sri Lanka and back, she became a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a member of a team in the department created by Jay Forrester, the inventor of system dynamics as well as the principle of magnetic data storage for computers. Career Meadows taught at Dartmouth College for 29 years, beginning in 1972.Meadows, Donella H. 2008, ''Thinking in Systems: A Primer'', Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont, p. 213 (About the Author), . Meadows was honored both as a Pew Scholar in Conservation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elgin, Illinois
Elgin ( ) is a city in Cook and Kane counties in the northern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. Elgin is located northwest of Chicago, along the Fox River. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 114,797, the seventh-largest city in Illinois. History The Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Black Hawk Indian War of 1832 led to the expulsion of the Native Americans who had settlements and burial mounds in the area and set the stage for the founding of Elgin. Thousands of militiamen and soldiers of Gen. Winfield Scott's army marched through the Fox River valley during the war, and accounts of the area's fertile soils and flowing springs soon filtered east. In New York, James T. Gifford and his brother Hezekiah Gifford heard tales of this area ripe for settlement, and they traveled west. Looking for a site on the stagecoach route from Chicago to Galena, Illinois, they eventually settled on a spot where the Fox River could be bridged. In April 1835, they e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
System Dynamics
System dynamics (SD) is an approach to understanding the nonlinear behaviour of complex systems over time using stocks, flows, internal feedback loops, table functions and time delays. Overview System dynamics is a methodology and mathematical modeling technique to frame, understand, and discuss complex issues and problems. Originally developed in the 1950s to help corporate managers improve their understanding of industrial processes, SD is currently being used throughout the public and private sector for policy analysis and design. Convenient graphical user interface (GUI) system dynamics software developed into user friendly versions by the 1990s and have been applied to diverse systems. SD models solve the problem of simultaneity (mutual causation) by updating all variables in small time increments with positive and negative feedbacks and time delays structuring the interactions and control. The best known SD model is probably the 1972 ''The Limits to Growth''. This model f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecovillage
An ecovillage is a traditional or intentional community with the goal of becoming more socially, culturally, economically, and/or ecologically sustainable. An ecovillage strives to produce the least possible negative impact on the natural environment through intentional physical design and resident behavior choices. It is consciously designed through locally owned, participatory processes to regenerate and restore its social and natural environments. Most range from a population of 50 to 250 individuals, although some are smaller, and traditional ecovillages are often much larger. Larger ecovillages often exist as networks of smaller sub-communities. Some ecovillages have grown through like-minded individuals, families, or other small groups—who are not members, at least at the outset—settling on the ecovillage's periphery and participating ''de facto'' in the community. Ecovillagers are united by shared ecological, social-economic and cultural-spiritual values.Van Schynd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cohousing
Cohousing is an intentional community of private homes clustered around shared space. The term originated in Denmark in late 1960s. Each attached or single family home has traditional amenities, including a private kitchen. Shared spaces typically feature a common house, which may include a large kitchen and dining area, laundry, and recreational spaces. Shared outdoor space may include parking, walkways, open space, and gardens. Neighbors also share resources like tools and lawnmowers. Households have independent incomes and private lives, but neighbors collaboratively plan and manage community activities and shared spaces. The legal structure is typically a homeowner association or housing cooperative. Community activities feature regularly scheduled shared meals, meetings, and workdays. Neighbors gather for parties, games, movies, or other events. Cohousing makes it easy to form clubs, organize child and elder care, and carpool. Cohousing facilitates interaction among neig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desired result is a state of society where living conditions and resources are used to continue to meet human needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system. Sustainable development was defined in the 1987 Brundtland Report as "Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".United Nations General Assembly (1987''Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future'' Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 – Development and International Co-operation: Environment. As the concept of sustainable development developed, it has shifted its focus more towards the economic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Balaton Group
The Balaton Group (The International Network of Resource Information Centers) is a global network of researchers and practitioners in fields related to systems and sustainability. The name "Balaton Group" refers to the Lake Balaton region of Hungary, where the Group was first constituted, and where most of the Group's annual meetings have taken place. The Balaton Group aims to accelerate and deepen the world's general understanding of systems, long-term perspective and commitment to achieving positive change. The Group believes that these factors are fundamental to sustainable development. Origins The Balaton Group was founded in 1982 by Dennis Meadows and Donella Meadows, who are most widely known as co-authors with Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III of the 1972 book ''The Limits to Growth'' (commissioned by the Club of Rome). The first meeting of the Balaton Group was held by Lake Balaton in Hungary in 1982. It brought together 30 scientists and managers from int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Balaton
Lake Balaton () is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations. The Zala River provides the largest inflow of water to the lake, and the canalised Sió is the only outflow. The mountainous region of the northern shore is known both for its historic character and as a major wine region, while the flat southern shore is known for its resort towns. Balatonfüred and Hévíz developed early as resorts for the wealthy, but it was not until the late 19th century when landowners, ruined by '' Phylloxera'' attacking their grape vines, began building summer homes to rent out to the burgeoning middle classes. Name In distinction to all other Hungarian endonyms for lakes, which universally bear the suffix ''-tó'' 'lake', Lake Balaton is referred to in Hungarian with a definite article; that is, ''a Balaton'' 'the Balaton'. It was called ''lacus Pelsodis'' or ''Pelso'' by the Rom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jørgen Randers
Jørgen Randers (born 22 May 1945) is a Norwegian academic, professor emeritus of climate strategy at the BI Norwegian Business School, and practitioner in the field of future studies.BI Norwegian Business School - Jørgen Randers Accessed Sept 13, 2015. His professional field encompasses model-based futures studies, scenario analysis, system dynamics, sustainability, climate, energy and ecological economics. He is also a full member of the Club of Rome, a company director, member of various not-for-profit boards, business consultant on global sustainability matters and author. His publications include the seminal work '' |
Dennis Meadows
Dennis Lynn Meadows (born June 7, 1942) is an American scientist and Emeritus Professor of Systems Management, and former director of the Institute for Policy and Social Science Research at the University of New Hampshire. He is President of the Laboratory for Interactive Learning and widely known as a coauthor of ''The Limits to Growth''. Biography Dennis Meadows was born on June 7, 1942. He received a BA from Carleton College, a PhD in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and holds four honorary doctorates. He started working at the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the late 1960s. From 1970 to 1972 at MIT he was director of the "Club of Rome Project on the Predicament of Mankind".Dennis L. Meadows (1977). ''Alternatives to growth-I: a search for sustainable futures : papers adapted''. p.309. Further on Meadows has been a tenured professor in faculties of management, engineering, and social sciences. For many years he was the director ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World3
The World3 model is a system dynamics model for computer simulation of interactions between population, industrial growth, food production and limits in the ecosystems of the earth. It was originally produced and used by a Club of Rome study that produced the model and the book '' The Limits to Growth'' (1972). The creators of the model were Dennis Meadows, project manager, and a team of 16 researchers. The model was documented in the book ''Dynamics of Growth in a Finite World''. It added new features to Jay W. Forrester's World2 model. Since World3 was originally created, it has had minor tweaks to get to the World3/91 model used in the book '' Beyond the Limits'', later improved to get the World3/2000 model distributed by the Institute for Policy and Social Science Research and finally the World3/2004 model used in the book ''Limits to Growth: the 30 year update''. World3 is one of several global models that have been generated throughout the world (Mesarovic/Pestel Model, Bar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer Simulation
Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be determined by comparing their results to the real-world outcomes they aim to predict. Computer simulations have become a useful tool for the mathematical modeling of many natural systems in physics (computational physics), astrophysics, climatology, chemistry, biology and manufacturing, as well as human systems in economics, psychology, social science, health care and engineering. Simulation of a system is represented as the running of the system's model. It can be used to explore and gain new insights into new technology and to estimate the performance of systems too complex for analytical solutions. Computer simulations are realized by running computer programs that can be either small, running almost instantly on small devices, or large ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Club Of Rome
The Club of Rome is a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy. It consists of one hundred full members selected from current and former heads of state and government, UN administrators, high-level politicians and government officials, diplomats, scientists, economists, and business leaders from around the globe. It stimulated considerable public attention in 1972 with the first report to the Club of Rome, ''The Limits to Growth''. Since 1 July 2008, the organization has been based in Winterthur, Switzerland. Formation The Club of Rome was founded in April 1968 by Aurelio Peccei, an Italian industrialist, and Alexander King, Director-General for Scientific Affairs at the OECD. It was formed when a small international group of people from the fields of academia, civil society, diplomacy, and industry met at Vil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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