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Thursday, September 9, 2010

Lets Get Deep . . .

What is needed is a new paradigm shift towards "Econophysics"-the key to interfacing the global economic system with the ecological one that can act in the real-world, framework of physics:

"There is a fundamental conflict between economic growth and environmental protection, including conservation of biodiversity, clean air and water, and atmospheric stability. This conflict is due to the laws of thermodynamics. An economic translation of the first law of thermodynamics is that we cannot make something from nothing. All economic production must come from resources provided by nature. Also, any waste generated by the economy cannot simply disappear. At given levels of technology, therefore, economic growth entails increasing resource use and waste in the form of pollution. According to the second law of thermodynamics, although energy and materials remain constant in quantity, they degrade in quality or structure. This is the meaning of increasing entropy. In the context of the economy, whatever resources we transform into something useful must decay or otherwise fall apart to return as waste to the environment. The current model of the disposable economy operates as a system for transforming low-entropy raw materials and energy into high-entropy toxic waste and unavailable energy, while providing society with interim goods and services and the temporary satisfaction that most deliver. Any such transformations in the economy mean that there will be less low-entropy materials and energy available for natural ecosystems. Mounting evidence of this conflict demonstrates the limits to our global growth!"

http://www.mi2g.com/cgi/mi2g/frameset.php?pageid=http%3A//www.mi2g.com/cgi/mi2g/press/121209.php

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100511092406.htm

Many maintain the anthrocentric perspective that “man is the measure of all things” when, in reality, physics dictates the human world. In other words, ecological systems have largely conformed to the laws of physics and provide a ready-made template for the largely diverging trajectory of our global economic system. Most modern, mainstream green techies and environmentalists dream of and strive towards interfacing the synergy of the human economic system with the natural, ecological system in order to realize one seamless system that does not compromise the integrity of the other half. In terms of sheer physics, this overarching, integrated system approach towards sustainability should embrace two core strategies based in physics:


(1) Decrease the Otherwise Increasing Entropy of the Biosphere:

A. Decrease the amount of waste heat and heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the biosphere.

B. Prevent the informational/genetic losses of numerous species of plants and animals.


(2) Increase the Otherwise Decreasing Carrying Capacity of the Planet:

A. Promote responsible population growth through wise personal actions.

B. Restore and increase the terrestrial and oceanic photosynthetic productivity of the planet.


In terms of physics, striving towards these two goals will ultimately strengthen the synergy of our global economic/ecological system without compromising the integrity of the other half.

Thankyou for the Lesson Brennan Jorgensen.