[1] The leverage points, first published in 1997, were inspired by Meadows' attendance at a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) meeting in the early 1990s, where she realized a very large new system was being proposed but the mechanisms to manage it were ineffective.
Meadows started with the observation that there are levers, or places within a complex system (such as a firm, a city, an economy, a living being, an ecosystem, an ecoregion) where a "small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything" (compare: constraint in the sense of the theory of constraints).
A greater understanding would help solve global problems such as unemployment, hunger, economic stagnation, pollution, resources depletion, and conservation issues.
This is the difference between the perceived state (pollution or low water level) and the goal (a non-polluted lake).The following are in increasing order of effectiveness.
Provided the release is done at low enough depth, under the thermocline, and the lake volume is big enough, the buffering capacity of the water might prevent any extinction from excess temperature.Buffers can improve a system, but they are often physical entities whose size is critical and can't be changed easily.
The loop will keep the stock near the goal, thanks to parameters, accuracy and speed of information feedback, and size of correcting flows.
For example, one way to avoid the lake getting more and more polluted might be through setting up an additional levy on the industrial plant based on measured concentrations of its effluent.
If cutting emissions, even to zero, is insufficient to allow the lake to naturally purge the waste, then they will still be on the hook for cleanup.
This is similar to the US "Superfund" system, and follows the widely accepted "polluter pays" principle.A positive feedback loop speeds up a process.
As plankton organisms die, they fall to the bottom of the lake, where their matter is degraded by decomposers.
For example, a monthly public report of water pollution level, especially nearby the industrial release, could have a lot of effect on people's opinions regarding the industry, and lead to changes in the waste water level of pollution.
For example, a strengthening of the law related to chemicals release limits, or an increase of the tax amount for any water containing a given pollutant, will have a very strong effect on the lake water quality.Self-organization describes a system's ability to change itself by creating new structures, adding new negative and positive feedback loops, promoting new information flows, or making new rules.
That goal change will affect several of the above leverage points: information on water quality will become mandatory and legal punishment will be set for any illegal effluent.A societal paradigm is an idea, a shared unstated assumption, or a system of thought that is the foundation of complex social structures.