Humans are consuming more and more resources in the world. According to the article (Mosses, 2009), humans consume resources more than half the production achieved by all the plants and other primary producers on Earth. In order to reduce the demand of energy in increasing complex, energy-dependent societies, it is crucial to understand the structure of the networks, how networks change as they grow and how networks constrain individual behaviour.
This essay is divided into three sub sections. The first is a question of size. This section involves The Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE), offers understanding the dynamics of flow through networks. According to research, biologists found that the life history of an animal is determined by the geometric and dynamic properties of the cardiovascular network that controls its metabolism. This means that the larger the animal, the longer the cardiovascular syatem takes to deliver the resources to the cells. This is shown through an example with an elephant that grows systematically more slowly than a mouse, having a slower heart rate, a lower productive rate and a longer lifespan. From here, we can see that the rate at which the system processes energy drives much of its broad-scale behaviour, whether that the system ia an organism, society or technology.
The next section is on common trend. This is the decline of fertility rate that occurs with economic development. In this essay, the writer mention that as societies consume more energy, people become wealthier but they also have fewer children. However, the MTE states that the decline in fertility rate with increased energy consumption is identical to the decline in fertility rate with increased metabolism in others mammals. This means that people still consumed as much energy even though the fertility rate is decreasing. This is further illustrated in mammals. In mammals, the proportion of energy available for reproduction declines as animals get bigger. In the near future, there might be no more energy left for the next generation. It is therefore important to invest proportionally so that there will be enough in the next generation.
The final section is efficiently drive. In this section, the writer is trying to say that energy consumption cannot be lessened by reducing individual demand. Any one person's consumption is affected by structures at higher levels. The writer explains that energy is used to fertilize, harvest and transport food. This means that more energy is used for other purposes than we obtain from eating it. Therefore, better network designs are important to ensure that transportation networks, technologies and economics of the future ives far better returns. Some solutions are mentioned in this article such as traffic and oil consumption can be reduced as cities expand, as long as multiple recreational and commercial centres are places near residential areas.
In order to plan for the future, we need to understand how social and infrastructure networks constrain individual behaviour, and structure cities and societies in ways that increase innovation inducing interactions but reducing transport and travel distances. In this way, chances of increasing population without decimating resourses available to future generations.
Retrieved from: Moses, M. (2009, February 5). Engineering: Worldwide ebb. Nature, 457, 660-661. doi:10.1038/457660a
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Comment by Alwin
More people are getting aware of the demand of resources consumption by themselves. Base on the article mentioned by Mei Yun, she had provided brief information on the structure of the networks and how networks affected us.
She divided into three sub sections for the explanation, mainly Metabolic Theory of Ecology, common trend and efficiently drive. In each section, she gave a good comparison example besides giving fundamental knowledge. For the sake of the next generation and future, we also require educating more people and indeed requiring having more understanding on how social and infrastructure networks constrain individual behavior etc.
Her essay is packed with necessary information with good defining for each section. The layout of the essay is straight forward, easy to understand and not much of the unnecessary description for the written topic.
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