Running head: negative and positive loops in a system

Negative and Positive Feedback Loops in a system

Mario Valencia
Alliant International University

Running head: NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE LOOPS IN A SYSTEM

Abstract
For most of us when we talk about a negative feedback is something that should never happened
and we will try our best to get a positive one. But we never think that sometimes the negative
feedbacks will help us better than the positive ones or they may also help but just as a
reinforcement. The twelve leverage points to intervene in a system who were proposed by
Donella Meadows, give us two points which they explained the different point of view about; the
strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the effect they are trying to correct against and
the gain around driving positive feedback loops. On the other hand Wikipedia will help with
other points of view of the situation. And also we will explain you some examples to better
understand what effects they can have on a system.

Running head: NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE LOOPS IN A SYSTEM

Introduction
For a system analysis there are few point who Donella Meadows gives us on her twelve
leverage points. There are two which are really interesting and by showing and giving some
examples of them; and different prospectives, we can understand better how they work and
interact each other. Negative feedback loop slows down a process tending to promote stability;
the loop will keep the stock near the goal, thanks to parameters, accuracy and speed of
information feedback, and size of correcting flows. On the other side a positive feedback loop
speeds up a process. As Meadows indicates that in most cases, it is preferable to slow down a
positive loop, rather than speed up a negative one.
Research Background and Context
The twelve leverage points to intervene in a system were proposed by Donella Meadows,
were published in 1997 and were inspired by her attendance at a North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) meeting in the early 1990s where she realized that a very large new system
was being proposed but the mechanisms to manage it were ineffective.
By her experienced she started working Meadows, who worked in the field of systems
analysis, proposed a scale of places to intervene in a system. Awareness and manipulation of
these levers is an aspect of self-organization and can lead to collective intelligence. Her
observations are often cited in energy economics, green economics and human development
theory.(Wikipedia, 2015) She claimed we need to know about the shifts, where they are and
how to use them.
She also started making a list describing examples and explanation that at the end were
twelve Meadows started with a nine-point list of such places, and expanded it to a list of twelve
leverage points with explanation and examples, for systems in general. She describes a system as

Running head: NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE LOOPS IN A SYSTEM

being in a certain state, and containing a stock, with inflows (amounts coming into the system)
and outflows (amounts going out of the system). At a given time, the system is in a certain
perceived state. There may also be a goal for the system to be in a certain state. The difference
between the current state and the goal is the discrepancy.(Wikipedia, 2015)
Negative Feedback Loops
The strange of negative feedback loops are those things that always work together with
any kind of situation as Meadowns, (1999) explained Negative feedback loops are ubiquitous in
systems. Nature evolves them and humans invent them as controls to keep important systems
state within safe bound. This is as thermostat works if everything is working correctly and if
there is a limit on the temperature; the negative feedback will come as overheat which will have
consequences at the end, so we have to be aware of it, to not be on risk. We can also say that
negative Loops can slows down a process, tending to promote stability.
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. Say the plant management has to pay into a water management fund, on a weekly or
monthly basis, depending on the actual amount of waste found in the lake; they will, in this case,
receive a direct benefit not just from reducing their waste output, but actually reducing it enough
to achieve the desired effect of reducing concentrations in the lake. They cannot benefit from
"doing damage more slowly" -- only from actually helping. 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(Wikipedia, 2015). So there is a form of how you can identify the negative
feedback loops as the consequences that you do not want to have again.

Running head: NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE LOOPS IN A SYSTEM

Positive Feedback Loops

The gain around driving positive feedback loop speeds up a process. Meadows indicates that in
most cases, it is preferable to slow down a positive loop, rather than speeding up a negative one.
An increase of nutrients will lead to an increase of productivity, growth of phytoplankton
first, using up as much nutrients as possible, followed by growth of zooplankton, feeding up on
the first ones, and increase of fish populations. The more available nutrients there are, the more
productivity is increased. As plankton organisms die, they fall to the bottom of the lake, where
their matter is degraded by decomposers.
However, this degradation uses up available oxygen, and in the presence of huge amounts
of organic matter to degrade, the medium progressively becomes anoxic (there is no more
oxygen available). In time, all oxygen-dependent life dies, and the lake becomes a smelly anoxic
place where no life can be supported (in particular no fish).
Many positive feedback loops in society reward the winners of a competition with the
resources to win even bigger next time. Systems folks call them success to the successful
loops. Rich people collect interest; poor people pay it. Rich people pay accountants and lean on
politicians to reduce their taxes; poor people cannot.(Meadowns, 1999)
Conclusion
This brief explanation of how negative feedback loop is a self-reinforcing and positive
feedback loop is a self-reinforcing (Meadows, 1999). Can help us understand better that a
system analysis is not that easy, there is little of complexity. As Meadows (1999) explained that
population and economic growth rate are leverage points that by slowing them gives many
negative loops technology and markets and other forms of adaptation, all of which have limits
and delays time to function. It is the same as slowing the car when you are driving too fast,

Running head: NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE LOOPS IN A SYSTEM

rather than calling for more responsive brakes or technical advances in steering. And in the
other hand a positive loops can turn into a chaos The most interesting behavior that rapidly
turning positive loops can trigger is chaos. This wild, unpredictable, unreplicable, and yet
bounded behavior happens when a systems starts changing much, much faster than its negative
loops can read to it.(Meadows, 1999) So the way of these two feedback loops (negative an
dpositve) are really interesting and help us understand better how a system work and how make
it better and productive.

Running head: NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE LOOPS IN A SYSTEM

References
Wikipedia,. 'Twelve Leverage Points'. N.p., 2015.
Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Meadows, Donella H. Leverage Points. Hartland Four Corners, VT: Sustainability Institute,
1999. Print.

Running head: NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE LOOPS IN A SYSTEM