Ecology and Environment

Externalities Unbounded Abstract This article employs a systems thinking framework to analyze recent empirical research attributing $10.2 trillion in cumulative global economic damages (1990–2020) to United States carbon emissions. We argue that the policy paradigms underpinning the historical extraction and production systems of powerful nations have systematically neglected the interconnectedness of ecological, economic, and social domains—a core tenet of systems thinking. This epistemic failure has enabled the externalization of climate costs onto geographically and politically distant communities, while simultaneously generating feedback harms that rebound upon the originating actors. Drawing on the methodology and findings of Burke et al. (2026), published in Nature, we demonstrate how self-interested leveraging of geopolitical and economic advantage perpetuates a global system of ecologically unequal exchange. The analysis underscores that environmental degradation and economic inequality are co-constitutive challenges, and that rectifying the resulting “loss and damage” requires a fundamental reorientation toward policy coherence grounded in systemic interdependence. 1. Introduction The accelerating climate crisis represents not merely a technical challenge of emissions reduction, but a profound failure of governance rooted in fragmented, domain-specific policymaking. Systems thinking, which emphasizes the complex interdependencies and feedback loops within socio-ecological systems, offers a critical lens for diagnosing this failure. Recent research quantifying the economic damages attributable to national carbon emissions provides a stark empirical foundation for such an analysis. Burke et al. (2026) estimate that United States emissions since 1990 have caused approximately $10.2 trillion in global GDP losses, with roughly 70% of this harm inflicted upon nations other than the […]