We May Fixate on Part of the System, and Miss the Whole sbpes lead” ASK. Examples of Fixating on the Parts We create laws to preserve trees and set up the conditions for massive forest fires. + We design improved fishing boats, but then over harvest the fishery and destroy the fish population. ¢ We take allopathic medicine for one symptom that destroys the general health of our whole body. 2 eee ee aie lead GS 45We May Act to Produce Short-term Benefits and Long-term Costs - Better before Worse Examples of Better Before Worse « Using your credit card raises your consumption over the short run, but it makes you poorer in the long run. ¢ Bribing an official to get your paperwork processed may be more efficient in the present but in the long term, it creates difficulties for everyone working in that system. Building more coal fired stations supports rapid industrialisation in rural China but contributes to increased global warming in the long term. @ epi 205 EAD nshoal an Susana an lead” KAS 46 oO5 5 We See Only What We Expect to See atist: GaryLarson “Say... What's a mountain goat doing way up here in a cloud bank?” 2005 ~ LEAD intematiors ans lead” AES&% copriont 2 We see what we expect to see The Ozone story The monitoring range of NASA's instrument was pre- set to a range which excluded the recording of unusual data. This resulted in the failure of noticing dangerously decreasing stratospheric ozone concentrations over the Antarctic. Source: Meadows, D et al 2005. Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update, Chelsea Green Publishing, VT. @ chins lead SZ cab 47