Deal with waste - References and quotes
Philosophy
2021
REFERENCES AND QUOTES
ENERGY AND ECONOMIC MYTHSLimited access to energy and material 355 Hard to create matter 355, 356 Exhaustion of material and recycling a pearl neckless, need enough energy and infinite time 356 Waste as a physical phenomenon. Chemically, nuclearly and physically (carbon dioxide) 357 Waste and finitude of our space. Written 1975 “The finitude of our space renders more dangerous wastes which persist for a long time and especially those which are completely irreducible. Typical of the last category is thermal pollution, the dangers of which are not fully appreciated” “Since the Entropy Law allows no way to cool a continuously heated planet, thermal pollution could prove to be a more crucial obstacle to growth than the finiteness of accessible resources.” 358 “Fourth, until either the direct use of solar energy becomes a general convenience or controlled fusion is achieved, all waste of energy-by overheating, overcooling, overspeeding, overlighting, etc.-should be carefully avoided, and if necessary, strictly regulated.” 378 I SUSTAINABILITY ECONOMICS: WHERE DO WE STAND?Limits already exceeded, figure 5 286 figure 6. GNP growth inconsistent with ecological sustainability. Inconvenient truth is that material output creates waste. All economic activity are driven by expenditures of energy (exergy). Resources are real constraints to economics 287 I ON THE CIRCULAR BIOECONOMY AND DECOUPLING: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH Empty to full world. “Human society (in the technosphere) gathers and concentrates material and energy forms required for its maintenance and reproduction from the context, and to achieve this result it heavily relies on non-renewable energy sources (linearization of flows) (Giampietro et al., 2012). The current level of productivity of production factors (labor, capital, land) is obtained by altering the pace and density of the flows naturally occurring in the biosphere in managed ecosystems (human land-uses). In doing so, society can express structures and functions (associated with a given rate of positive entropy generation) that would otherwise not be possible (if relying on the negative flux generated by natural processes) (Smil, 2015).” Boosted agriculture through fossil fuel. “Went from low external input to high external input in agriculture with the industrial revolution. While the former relied on nutrient recycling through a complex network of interactions among ecological fund elements (thus guaranteeing soil health, biodiversity, healthy aquifers, etc.), the latter is based on linearization of flows through the use of fossil energy (stressing ecological fund elements).” The price of linearization is the liquidation of ecological funds. Linearization of energy. 149 I ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS – PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONSThroughput has two ends: depletion of environmental sources and pollution of environmental sinks. Unlike exchange value the flow of throughput is not circular. It goes from low-entropy sources to high-entropy sinks, a consequence of 2nd law of thermodynamics, the entropy law. Recycling not possible at 100 %, neither material nor energy. Recycling, “a circular eddy in the overall -one-way flow of the river”. 31 Throughput and extreme use of materials 33 Technology helps us to be more efficient but cannot not reverse the metabolic flow. Recycling requires more energy and more material. Entropic dissipation. Nature 100 % recycler? Maybe but not human beings. 39 Finite planet. Finite materials. Finite rate of replenishment, finite sinks and flow of sun light. Cannot create something from nothing. Economic production requires material input. 62, 63 Low entropy only restored by conversion of low entropy to high entropy elsewhere. High entropy will always be greater than the low entropy restored. 67 Life is an open system powered by the sun! Schrodingers explanation! 68 Economics wanted to be like mechanical physics. Alfred Marshall although thought biology would be a better model. Entropy means absence of temperature differential and inability to perform work. Universe and heath Death. Mechanical physics, no free will but allows circular flow in economics. Economic system is entropic! 1st law of Thermodynamics states that you can’t create something from nothing. “…hence that all production must ultimately be based on resources provided by nature.” Only low entropy can transform resources. 69 1st law of Thermodynamics also waste is created in the economic process. 2nd law of Thermodynamics both in process of transforming resources into useful stuff and in the disintegration of useful stuff. “The economy is thus an ordered system for transforming low-entropy raw materials and energy into high-entropy waste and unavailable energy, providing humans with a “psychic flux” of satisfactions in the process. Most importantly, the order in our economic system, its ability to produce and provide us with satisfaction, can only be maintained by a steady stream of low-entropy matter-energy, and this high-quality, useful matter-energy is only a fraction of the gross mass of matter-energy of which the Earth is composes” See THE ENTROPY LAW AND THE ECONOMIC PROCESS IN RETROSPECT 70 Chemical and physical erosion. Georgescu-Roegen vs Ayres on entropy and minerals, 100 % recycling and possibility of steady-state and. Are we causing irreparable damage to Earths ability to sustain life and can we master the art of polymers that could possibly substitute minerals? Daly, probably could sustain a steady-state for a long time. 84 Waste from minerals. 85 Minerals and entropy, atoms being rubbed off. Minerals will never depleted because they will be of higher and higher entropy and become useless to humans. Steady state a pipe-dream because of entropic limit? In the long run atom by atom will erode but in the meantime we can come close to steady state. Waste is a bigger problem though. 86 Problems of wastes, the other end of economic process as dictated by laws of thermodynamics 107 Waste absorption capacity No evolutionary experience of man made chemicals. 108 Recycling start doing it. 85 % of phones were not recycled. Look at Japan! Cyclical not circular! Nothing is 100 % recyclable SeeTHE CIRCULAR BIOECONOMY AND DECOUPLING: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH on circular economy, DECOUPLING DEBUNKED – EVIDENCE AND ARGUMENTS AGAINST GREEN GROWTH AS A SOLE STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY183To encouragement
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