Papers by Marina Fischer-kowalski
Page 1. Marina Fischer-Kowalski Fridolin Krausmann Julia K. Steinberger Robert U. Ayres Tow... more Page 1. Marina Fischer-Kowalski Fridolin Krausmann Julia K. Steinberger Robert U. Ayres Towards a low carbon society: Setting targets for a reduction of global resource use. SOCIALECOLOGYWORKINGP APER 1 1 5 April 2010 ISSN 1726-3816 Page 2. ...
Concerns about global environmental change challenge long term ecological research (LTER) to go b... more Concerns about global environmental change challenge long term ecological research (LTER) to go beyond traditional disciplinary scientific research to produce knowledge that can guide society toward more sustainable development. Reporting the outcomes of a 2 d interdisciplinary workshop, this article proposes novel concepts to substantially expand LTER by including the human dimension. We feel that such an integration warrants the insertion of a new letter in the acronym, changing it from LTER to LTSER, “Long-Term Socioecological Research,” with a focus on coupled socioecological systems. We discuss scientific challenges such as the necessity to link biophysical processes to governance and communication, the need to consider patterns and processes across several spatial and temporal scales, and the difficulties of combining data from in-situ measurements with statistical data, cadastral surveys, and soft knowledge from the humanities. We stress the importance of including prefossil fuel system baseline data as well as maintaining the often delicate balance between monitoring and predictive or explanatory modeling. Moreover, it is challenging to organize a continuous process of cross-fertilization between rich descriptive and causal-analytic local case studies and theory/modeling-oriented generalizations. Conceptual insights are used to derive conclusions for the design of infrastructures needed for long-term socioecological research.
Population and Environment, 2001
The Anthropocene Review, 2014
We search for a valid and quantifiable description of how and when humans acquired the ability to... more We search for a valid and quantifiable description of how and when humans acquired the ability to dominate major features of the Earth System. While common approaches seek to quantify the human impact upon the carbon cycle by identifying the area of land cleared by humans, our point of departure is different human modes of subsistence, and we base our analysis on their social metabolism, in particular their energy metabolism. As a starting point, we use Ehrlich's classical IPAT formula, and give it a specific interpretation: human impact on Earth = population size × affluence (interpreted as energy available per person) × technology -for each mode of subsistence. The overall impact (or rather human pressure) then equals the composite sum of these. We qualitatively describe the functional characteristics of hunter gatherers, agrarian and industrial modes of subsistence such as population dynamics, energy regime and the technologies by which they interact with their environment. In a 'toy' model, we translate these considerations into global numbers for the past millennia: we estimate the respective population sizes and affluence (energy), and finally also technology concerning its impact on the carbon cycle. We see a major historical dividing line around ad 1500: until then, human population growth and metabolic rates carry about equal weight in increasing human pressure on the environment approximately fivefold from the year ad 1 onwards. From then on, the overall pressure of humanity upon the Earth increases by one order of magnitude; energy intensity contributes to this rise by roughly tripling the impact of population growth. Technology, because it is based upon a shift from biomass to fossil fuels (and other 'modern' energy carriers), does not moderate this impact, but enhances it by a factor of 1.5.
Zum Formwandel des Produktiven, 2008
Für den gegenwärtig zu beobachtenden Verlust an Biodiversität gibt es bislang keine befriedigende... more Für den gegenwärtig zu beobachtenden Verlust an Biodiversität gibt es bislang keine befriedigenden Pressure-Indikatoren. Dieser Umstand erschwert die Entwicklung von politischen Strategien zur Erhaltung der Biodiversität erheblich, weil nur Pressure-Indikatoren jene Informationen liefern können, auf deren Basis vorsorgende Maßnahmen zur Erhaltung der Biodiversität auf der strategischen, hoch aggregierten Ebene entwickelt werden können. Ein wesentliches Problem für die Entwicklung von Pressure-Indikatoren für Biodiversität ist in der Biodiversitätsforschung zu sehen. Bislang ist es nicht gelungen, allgemein gültige Zusammenhänge zwischen gesellschaftlichen Eingriffen in Ökosysteme und Biodiversitätsverlusten herauszufiltern, die sich für die Entwicklung von Pressure-Indikatoren eignen würden.
Socioecological Transitions and Global Change, 2007
... What the conceptual framework of material and energy flow accounting (MEFA) can offer&amp... more ... What the conceptual framework of material and energy flow accounting (MEFA) can offer', with permisison from Elsevier. Figure 11 Socioecological systems as the overlap of a natural and a cultural sphere of causation technology. ...
Socioecological Transitions and Global Change, 2007
Page 243. 8. Conclusions: likely and unlikely pasts, possible and impossible futures Marina Fisch... more Page 243. 8. Conclusions: likely and unlikely pasts, possible and impossible futures Marina Fischer-Kowalski, Helmut Haberl and Fridolin Krausmann 8.1 WHAT DO WE NEED TO LEARN? This book aims to present an innovative ...
Long Term Socio-Ecological Research, 2012
This chapter investigates the constraints for urban growth in pre-industrial societies and focuse... more This chapter investigates the constraints for urban growth in pre-industrial societies and focuses on transport as an important component in the functioning of socio-ecological systems. It presents a simple formal model based on sociometabolic relations to investigate the relation between the size of an urban centre, its resource needs and the resulting transport requirements. This model allows, in a very stylised way, light to be shed on some of the physical constraints for urban growth in agrarian societies and a better understanding of how transport shapes the relation between cities and their resource-providing hinterland. The model demonstrates that the growth of urban centres depends upon an extension of the territory and rural population to work the land and generate the supplies cities require. The labour force engaged in urban rural transport rises with the size of urban centre and corresponds to 8-15% of the urban labour force. We find clear indications for a scale limit to agrarian empires, and agrarian centres, due to factors associated with the cost of transport (in terms of human labour time and land). Where this scale limit occurs strongly depends upon agricultural productivity.
Long Term Socio-Ecological Research, 2012
Contributions to Economics, 1993
Soziologie und Natur, 1998
Akteure beim Bodenschutz, 2001
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Papers by Marina Fischer-kowalski