esd-2017-125 Submitted on 28 Dec 2017 On deeper human dimensions in Earth system analysis and modelling Dieter Gerten, Martin Schönfeld, and Bernhard Schauberger

Abstract. While humanity is altering planet Earth at unprecedented magnitude and speed, representation of the cultural driving factors and their dynamics in models of the Earth system is limited. In this review and perspectives paper, we argue that more or less distinct environmental value sets can be assigned to religion – a deeply embedded feature of human cultures, here defined as collectively shared belief in something sacred. This assertion renders religious theories, practices and actors suitable for studying cultural facets of anthropogenic Earth system change, especially regarding deeper, non-materialistic motivations that ask about humans' self-understanding in the Anthropocene epoch. We sketch a modelling landscape and outline some research primers, encompassing the following elements: (i) extensions of existing Earth system models by quantitative relationships between religious practices and biophysical processes, building on databases that allow for (mathematical) formalisation of such knowledge, (ii) design of new model types that specifically represent religious morals, actors and activities as part of coevolutionary human-environment dynamics, and (iii) identification of research questions of humanitarian relevance that are underrepresented in purely economic-technocratic modelling and scenario paradigms. While this analysis is by necessity heuristic and semi-cohesive, we hope that it will act as a stimulus for further, interdisciplinary and systematic research on the immaterial dimension of humanity's imprint on the Earth system, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

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Process taxonomies and copan:CORE modelling framework for studying human-Earth system interaction dynamics in the Anthropocene

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2337 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan F. Donges ◽

Jobst Heitzig ◽

Wolfgang Lucht ◽

Wolfram Barfuss ◽

Sarah E. Cornell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

System Analysis ◽

System Modeling ◽

Social Systems ◽

Energy System ◽

Macroscopic Model ◽

Earth System ◽

Modeling Framework ◽

Climate Policies ◽

Earth System Analysis ◽

Sociocultural Processes

<div> Analysis of Earth system dynamics in the Anthropocene requires explicitly taking into account the increasing magnitude of processes operating in human societies, their cultures, economies and technosphere and their growing feedback entanglement with those in the physical, chemical and biological systems of the planet. However, current state-of-the-art Earth system models do not represent dynamic human societies and their feedback interactions with the biogeophysical Earth system and macroeconomic integrated assessment models typically do so only with limited scope. This paper (i)&#160;proposes design principles for constructing world&#8211;Earth models&#160;(WEMs) for Earth system analysis of the Anthropocene, i.e., models of social (world)&#8211;ecological (Earth) coevolution on up to planetary scales, and (ii)&#160;presents the copan:CORE open simulation modeling framework for developing, composing and analyzing such WEMs based on the proposed principles. The framework provides a modular structure to flexibly construct and study WEMs. These can contain biophysical (e.g.,&#160;carbon cycle dynamics), socio-metabolic or economic (e.g.,&#160;economic growth or energy system changes), and sociocultural processes (e.g.,&#160;voting on climate policies or changing social norms) and their feedback interactions, and they are based on elementary entity types, e.g., grid cells and social systems. Thereby, copan:CORE enables the epistemic flexibility needed for contributions towards Earth system analysis of the Anthropocene given the large diversity of competing theories and methodologies used for describing socio-metabolic or economic and sociocultural processes in the Earth system by various fields and schools of thought. To illustrate the capabilities of the framework, we present an exemplary and highly stylized WEM implemented in copan:CORE that illustrates how endogenizing sociocultural processes and feedbacks such as voting on climate policies based on socially learned environmental awareness could fundamentally change macroscopic model outcomes. References Donges, J.F. et al.:&#160;Taxonomies for structuring models for World-Earth system analysis of the Anthropocene: subsystems, their interactions and social-ecological feedback loops, Earth Syst. Dynam. Disc., in review (2021), DOI: 10.5194/esd-2018-27. Donges, J. F. and Heitzig,et al..: Earth system modeling with endogenous and dynamic human societies: the copan:CORE open World&#8211;Earth modeling framework, Earth Syst. Dynam., 11, 395&#8211;413, 2020. </div>

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