Global balance and the environment - Development feedback loop

¹ Coordinator for the Environment and Head of the Science-Policy Interface, Italian Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
² Professor of Environmental and Social Sustainability, LUMSA Pontifical University, Rome – and Tor Vergata Rome University

^* Corresponding author: grammenos.mastrojeni@esteri.it

Abstract

Since developers have become more aware of the environment, policy-makers have noted a link between environmental and societal instability hinting at a human-nature planetary balance that hosts both stabilising retroactions and disruptive feedback loops: within the ecosystem, within society, and alsoconnecting both dimensions. The commonly feared scenario is a “business as usual” neglect of natural balance, but the severe impairment ofthe ecosystem favours conditions worse than “business as usual”. It would trigger human fragility, instability, and conflict which can paralyze society’s ability to manage the ecosystem itself. This, in turn, could worsen environmental degradation, creating even greater instability and conflict in a dangerous self-feeding cycle. If verified, this understanding has deep operational implications and would ultimately require a revision ofour economies. Policies are already being launched based on this perception, although it has not been investigated in rigorous quantitative terms: a call is out for science to fill the gap.