Be one with nature and take care of our life-supporting planet and respect its limits - References and quotes Philosophy 2021 REFERENCES AND QUOTES ENERGY AND ECONOMIC MYTHS Economy of any life is governed by the entropy law 352 Economy as irreversible process that takes low entropy (valuable resources) and leaves high entropy (valueless waste). But “It compels us to recognize that the real output of the economic process (or of any life process, for that matter) is not the material flow of waste, but the still mysterious immaterial flux of the enjoyment of life” 353 Myths that price mechanism can offset shortages in land, energy or materials. 354 Limited 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 Belief in the immortality of mankind, that humans will exceed all limitations but mankind’s dowry is finite! “The truth, however unpleasant, is that the most we can do is to prevent any unnecessary depletion of resources and any unnecessary deterioration of the environment, but without claiming that we know the precise meaning of "unnecessary" in this context.” 363 Myth that price reflects value. Cannot put a price on irreversible resource depletion or irreversible pollution. 374 “But since in both cases there is no such thing as the cost of undoing an irreparable harm or reversing an irrevocable depletion, and since no relevant price can be set on avoiding the inconvenience if future generations cannot bid on the choice, we must insist that the measures taken for either purpose should consist of quantitative regulations, notwithstanding the advice of most economists to increase the allocation efficiency of the market through taxes and subsidies. The economists' plank will only protect the wealthy or the political proteges. Let no one, economist or not, forget that the irresponsible deforestation of numerous mountains took place because "the price was right" and that it was brought to an end only after quantitative restrictions were introduced. But the difficult nature of the choice should also be made clear to the public-that slower depletion means less exosomatic comfort and that greater control of pollution requires proportionately greater consumption of resources. Otherwise, only confusion and controversies at cross-purposes will result” 377 I THE EMPATHIC CIVILIZATION: THE RACE TO GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN A WORLD IN CRISIS Peak oil and economic system dependency on oil. See THINKING IN SYSTEMS – A PRIMER 70 510 I TURNING POINT: THE END OF EXPONENTIAL GROWTH? Running up against limits. We are running out of a number of high quality resources (topsoil, fresh water, fish, virgin forests, oil and gas, and toxic waste assimilation) There are no substitutes. All product and services are dependent on energy. 1191 THE ENTROPY LAW AND THE ECONOMIC PROCESS IN RETROSPECT Materials that decays and problems of recycling. Irrevocable dissipation of matter into unavailable states. 7 Scarcity is steadily increases. 8 I ON THE CIRCULAR BIOECONOMY AND DECOUPLING: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH Empty to full world. “Biophysical analyses of the metabolic pattern of contemporary social-ecological systems show that inside the technosphere both the densities and paces of flows per unit of societal funds (flow/fund ratios) are much larger than those of the natural flows per unit of ecological funds (flow/fund ratios) in the biosphere (Giampietro et al., 2012). 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. “For example, the yield of grain per hectare from a crop field is at least an order of magnitude larger than the available quantity of biomass from unmanaged land. The pace and density of the natural deposition of nitrogen in soil (the fund-flow supply given by nature) does not permit yields of 7–10 t/ha of grain typical of modern agriculture. Maintaining such yields require heavy doses of artificial fertilizer. In the same way, irrigation in agriculture boosts the supply of water (blue water) whenever the natural availability of water in the soil (green water) would limit yields. Rather than relying on ecological processes of natural pest control, modern agriculture uses pesticides. Indeed, with the event of the industrial revolution the agricultural sector moved from low external input to high external input agriculture (Giampietro, 1997; Arizpe et al., 2011). 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). This continuous human struggle to boost the pace and density of natural flows has resulted in a tremendous increase in agricultural productivity inside the technosphere: from less than 1 t/ha of grain in pre-industrial agriculture to more than 10 t/ha in industrial agriculture. An even more impressive improvement has been achieved in labor productivity—from about 1 kg of grain per hour of labor in pre-industrial agriculture to around 1000 kg/h in industrial agriculture. The price to pay for this increased agricultural productivity has been a progressive liquidation of ecological funds (which would slow down productivity because of their low flow/fund ratio).” The price of linearization is the liquidation of ecological funds. Linearization of energy. 149 I PROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTH “Any credible vision of prosperity must hold a defensible position on the question of limits. This is particularly true of a vision based on growth. How – and for how long – is continued growth possible without coming up against ecological and resource constraints?” 41 Fight resource use through equality. 99 I SOCIETIES BEYOND OIL: OIL DREGS AND SOCIAL FUTURESInvolment of oil in thing and in food production, e.g. the Green Revolution See THE CIRCULAR BIOECONOMY AND DECOUPLING: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH on circular economy on the great linearization 149 50, 51 I EATING FOSSIL FUELS - RESILIENCEOil in food https://www.resilience.org/stories/2003-10-02/eating-fossil-fuels/ I THE SPIRIT LEVEL: WHY MORE EQUAL SOCITIES ALMOST ALWAYS DO BETTER Physical quotas of resources, mineral, agricultural and sinks. Material living standards depended on stock rather than flow and the wear and tear (2^nd law of thermodynamics) 220 Contraction and convergence, cap and share. Fix limits doesn’t mean end of development, development not dependent on growth. See DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS: SEVEN WAYS TO THINK LIKE A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMIST, PROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTH Greater equality gives us a crucial key to reducing the cultural pressure to consume. 221 I ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS – PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS Economy is the allocation of limited resources among competing ends. Plows or SUVs? Difference between neoclassical and ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS – PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS regarding allocation. What ends do we desire? Utility, and traditional economics wrongly equating welfare with what people want to buy and sell on the market. Market naturally misses important nonmarket goods. See THINKING IN SYSTEMS – A PRIMER on goals, < DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS: SEVEN WAYS TO THINK LIKE A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMIST: SEVEN WAYS TO THINK LIKE A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMIST on problem of utility and narrow picture of human beings. 3 Earth as a ship See The economics of the coming THE ECONOMICS OF THE COMING SPACESHIP EARTH 4, 5 Economy a subsystem of the ecosystem. 15 Optimal scale 16 Throughput 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 2^nd 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 History of thermodynamics, Georgescu-Roegen, entropy – increasing disorder. Entropy, a continual increase in disorder in the universe 64, 65 E=MC2 and increasing disorder in materials. 66 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! 1^st 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 1^st law of Thermodynamics also waste is created in the economic process. 2^nd 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” Psychic root in want satisfaction. 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 Biotic resources and abiotic resources. Value of our complex ecosystem for our survival. 93 Ecosystems and uncertainty 94 Risk uncertainty and ignorance. Quantum physics and chaos theory show that uncertainty and ignorance are inherent in systems. Bill Gates and 540 kilobyte of computer memory 95 uncertainty in economic analysis a normative (ethical) decision 96 Positive feedbacks in rain forests. Uncertainty in structure and function. Ecosystem structure and function interact. 96, 97 Critical depensation and sustainable yield vs uncertainty 101 Ecosystem functions of trees 105 “In review, the structural elements of an ecosystem are stocks of biotic and abiotic resources (minerals, water, trees, other plants and animals), which when combine together generate ecosystem functions, or services” 106, 107 Destroying biological stocks destroys funds. Forest to timber. Soil moisturizer. “The relationship between natural capital stock-flow and fund-service resources illustrates one of the most important concepts in ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS – PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS: It is impossible to create something from nothing; all economic production requires a flow of natural resources generated by a stock of natural capital. This flow comes from structural components of ecosystems, and the biotic stock are also funds that produce ecosystem services. Therefore, an excessive rate of flow extracted from a stock affects not only the stock and its ability to provide a flow in the future, but also the fund to which the stock contributes and the services that fund provides. Even abiotic stocks (i.e, elements and fossil fuels) can only be extracted and consumed at some cost to the ecosystem. In other words, production requires inputs of ecosystem structure. Ecosystems structure generates ecosystem function, which in turn provides services. All economic production thus as an impact on ecosystem services, and because this impact is unavoidable, it is completely internal to the economic process” Problems of wastes, the other end of economic process as dictated by laws of thermodynamics 107 Humans depend on the ability of plants to capture solar energy in 2 ways: 1. direct energy 2. Life-supporting functions generated by the ecosystems. Economic production require natural resources. Economic production generates waste. 109 Resource and sinks where limits in sinks are the most pressing problem for human beings See ENERGY AND ECONOMIC MYTHS 358 122 Perfect information concerning impacts on ecosystems is a mirage 188 Ecosystem and evolution are not predictable. Dealing with uncertainty is an ethical issue. 277 Scale and sustainability and justice and distribution are not determined by market economics but are biophysical and cultural. 418 Impose quantitative restrictions on the market that limit the scale of throughput and the degree of inequality. The limits reflect the social values of justice and sustainability. They are collective values that cannot be captured in the market of personal tastes. 419 First control point is to limit the narrowest point, the inflow. 420 Ecosystem care about quantities extracted and not prices therefore are quotas better than tax in setting limits. 420, 421 Should someone own sources and sinks? See History of basic income on arguments for sharing resources 422 Distribute the return to capital 451 We are ignorant of all the goods and services healthy ecosystems provides 460 Physical economy is like an animal, a dissipative structure sustained by metabolic flow from and back to the environment 477 Spatial and quantitative encroachment on ecosystem and qualitative degradation of environmental sources and sinks. 477, 478 I MYTEN OM MASKINEN: ESSÄER OM MAKT; MODERNITET OCH MILJÖ The ecological consequences of the British economy 100 6 human supply strategies and its increasing use of artificial ecosystems with increasing energy consumptions 108 I DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS: SEVEN WAYS TO THINK LIKE A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMIST Earth as a closed system with economy as subsystem. Going from empty to full world. 65 Limits to growth and World 3 was right 132 Increasing material footprint. 173 Is sufficient absolute decoupling happening? See THE ENTROPY LAW AND THE ECONOMIC PROCESS IN RETROSPECT on economic process as entropic, THE CIRCULAR BIOECONOMY AND DECOUPLING: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH on circular economy, DECOUPLING DEBUNKED – EVIDENCE AND ARGUMENTS AGAINST GREEN GROWTH AS A SOLE STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABILITYability. European Environmental Bureau, PROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTH on decoupling 213 I THINKING IN SYSTEMS – A PRIMER good or bad, depends on what is growing 32 A stock with one reinforcing loop and one balancing loop, population and industrial economy. 42 All physical entities are constrained by nature, consumes material, energy and produces waste. “Any physical, growing system is going to run into some kind of constraint, sooner or later.” Constraint is “a balancing feedback loop that in some way shifts the dominance of the reinforcing loop driving the growth behavior, either by strengthening the outflow of by weakening the inflow:” Growth in constrained environment – the limits to growth archetype. “No real physical system can grow forever.” “In physical, exponentially growing systems, there must be a least on reinforcing loop driving the growth and at least on balancing loop constraining the growth, because no physical system can grow forever in a finite environment” Resource-constrained systems – pollution-constrained systems. 59 The depletion of nonrenewables through growth system. “A quantity growing exponentially toward a constraint or limit reaches that limit in a surprisingly short time”. Little added time to develop alternatives independent of amount of nonrenewable resource. See PROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTH 63 Local limits will become global limits for growth. 65 The economic fall will be great after the production peak of an economy based on non-renewables “Unless, perhaps, the economy can learn to operate entirely from renewable resources” Two-stock systems, renewable stock constrained by a renewable stock—a fishing economy, a fishing economy. 66 Turning renewable into nonrenewable through technical efficiency “Nonrenewable resources are stock-limited. The entire stock is available at once, and can be extracted at any rate (limited mainly by extraction capital). But since the stock is not renewed, the faster the extraction rate, the shorter the lifetime of the resource” “Renewable resources are flow-limited. They can support extraction or harvest indefinitely, but only at a finite flow rate equal to their generation rate. If they are extracted faster than they regenerate, they may eventually be driven below a critical threshold and become, for all practical purposes, nonrenewable.” Renewable-resource cycles but now we can through technology and efficiency drive resource population to extinction. Possible behaviors of renewable resource system: 1. overshoot and adjustment to a sustainable equilibrium 71 Overshoot followed by collapse of the resource and the industry dependent on the resource. Outcome depends of 2 things: 1. Threshold 2. Rapidity and effectiveness of the balancing feedback. Consequence: 1. Equilibrium 2. Oscillation 3. resource and industry collapses 72 Resilience, self-organization and hierarchy make systems work well. 75 To encouragement Next encouragement