Promote diversity - References and quotes
Philosophy
2021
REFERENCES AND QUOTES
ENERGY AND ECONOMIC MYTHSEconomy 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 enjoymentof 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 I THE EMPATHIC CIVILIZATION: THE RACE TO GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN A WORLD IN CRISISPeak oil and economic system dependency on oil. SeeTHINKING 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 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 No incentive to no growth policy is problematic for nature as all economic activity is based on material foundation and in the end also all economic actors. Peak oil and other peaking resources. 290 I THE ENTROPY LAW AND THE ECONOMIC PROCESS IN RETROSPECTScarcity is steadily increases. 8 I DECOUPLING DEBUNKED – EVIDENCE AND ARGUMENTS AGAINST GREEN GROWTH AS A SOLE STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABILITYconditions for real decoupling 18 increase in materials use, note 14 20 Increase in energy use 21 Circular economy cannot grow. “If economic growth means an increase in the size of the economy compared to its environment, then it means that growing economies will sooner or later reach the limits of circularity.” 47 When material consumption is increasing recycling will only delay resource depletion. As with steel and copper. Recycling is more relevant in a non-growing economy. 48 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 The limit of the carrying capacity of the world 221 I EN VÄRLD UTAN BRÖD – OM FRAMTIDENS LIVSMEDELSFÖRSÖRJNING11 % arable land on earth. Figure 3.1 59 Soil is on averiage 150 mm. Restoring 1 mm of soil takes 100 years. 60 Erosion SeeTHE EMPATHIC CIVILIZATION: THE RACE TO GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN A WORLD IN CRISIS on decline of roman empire 61 Water scarcity 89 Population cannot like economy grow forever 103 Need of diversity SeeTHINKING IN SYSTEMS – A PRIMER 160 159 I THE SPIRIT LEVEL: WHY MORE EQUAL SOCITIES ALMOST ALWAYS DO BETTERPhysical quotas of resources, mineral, agricultural and sinks. Material living standards depended on stock rather than flow and the wear and tear (2nd law of thermodynamics) 220 Contraction and convergence, cap and share. Fix limits doesn’t mean end of development, development not dependent on growth. SeeDOUGHNUT ECONOMICS: SEVEN WAYS TO THINK LIKE A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMIST, PROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTHGreater equality gives us a crucial key to reducing the cultural pressure to consume. 221 I ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS – PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONSEconomy 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 EARTH4, 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 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 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! 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 Net Primary Production 90 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 Running out of minerals including topsoil. 116 Running out of water. 117 Running out of renewable resources 118 Destroying ecosystems and the services they provide by harvesting structural components and emitting waste. Biodiversity enhance ecosystem productivity and stability, “For example, biodiversity appears to enhance ecosystem productivity and stability along with other ecosystem services, and continued loss of oceanic biodiversity may lead to the total collapse of marine fisheries by 2048.31 Virtually all other ecosystems confront similar threats through depletion of their component stocks.” Running out of waste absorption capacity. 119 Suffer in 2 ways – on humans and degrade ecosystem services we depend on. 119, 120 Resource and sinks where limits in sinks are the most pressing problem for human beings SeeENERGY AND ECONOMIC MYTHS 358 122 “The inadequacy of existing political and economic systems for managing public goods is particularly problematic in light of the fact that many ecosystem services are public goods that provide vital services. On the global level, such functions include protection from excessive solar radiation, global climate regulation, and the role of biodiversity in sustaining the web of life.. On the local level, ecosystems provide microclimate regulation (often critical for successful agricultural production, buffering form storms, and maintenance of water quality and quantity, all ow which may be essential for community sustenance” 184 limit on throughput 350 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. 366 Ecosystem care about quantities extracted and not prices therefore are quotas better than tax in setting limits. 420, 419 I THINKING IN SYSTEMS – A PRIMERAll 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. SeePROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTH63 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 Layers of limits. We don’t like limits. All inputs are limited, therefore all outputs, are limited! Example of needs of industrial manufacturing. Example of the need of a patch of growing grain needs. 100 Limiting factor. “At any given time, the input that is most important to a systems is the one that is most limiting.” Economics evolved when labor and capital were the limiting factors. Now the limiting factor are the earth, dump space, acceptable forms of energy and raw materials. 101 Layers of limits. “Growth itself depletes or enhances limits and therefore change what is limiting”. Understanding layers of limits is not a recipe for perpetual growth. “For any physical entity in a finite environment, perpetual growth is impossible. Ultimately, the choice is not to grow forever but to decide what limits to live within.”“Any physical entity with multiple inputs and outputs is surrounded by layers of limits” 102 Limits by human beings or environment. “There always will be limits to growth. They can be self-imposed. If they aren’t they will be system-imposed” 103 “Self-organization is basically a matter of an evolutionary raw material – a highly variable stock of information from which to select patterns – and a means for experimentation, for selecting and testing new patterns.” Biodiversity is the source of evolutionary potential. “Allowing species to go extinct is a systems crime”. Human cultures. “Insistence on a single culture shuts down learning and cuts back resilience. Any system, biological, economic, or social, that gets so encrusted that it cannot self-evolve, a system that systematically scorns experimentation and wipes out the raw material of innovation, is doomed over the long term on this highly variable planet.” Encourage variability, experimentation and diversity even if it means losing control. “Let a thousand flower bloom and anything could happen!” 160 Expand the boundary of caring. “Living successfully in a world of complex systems means expanding not only time horizons and thought horizons; above all, it means expanding the horizons of caring.” Moral arguments and system thinking. Everything is interconnected. “The real system is interconnected. No part of the human race is separate either from other human beings or from the global ecosystem. It will not be possible in this integrated world for your heart to succeed if your lungs fail, or for your company to succeed if your workers fail, or for the rich in Los Angeles to succeed if the poor in Los Angeles fail, or for Europe to succeed if Africa fails, or for the global economy to succeed if the global environment fails.” 184 I MEASURING REGENERATIVE ECONOMICS: 10 PRINCIPLES AND MEASURES UNDERGIRDING SYSTEMIC ECONOMIC HEALTH7. Maintain sufficient diversity. “The endless diversity found in human beings, enterprises, and communities increases resilience, and helps fill niches and find new ways.” 21 “Apropos of an energy-flow process, every round of emergence and development follows a similar process, which is found in a vast array of different systems. Energy buildups create pressures that drive change. Naturally-occurring diversity (inhomogeneity) provides the seed crystals that open new paths and catalyze new forms of organization. Meanwhile, the matrix of internal and external constraints determines the degree of flexibility or rigidity, which in turn shapes the outcome and whether flow moves toward constructive or destructive ends. For example, a tornado's funnel and a hurricane's spiral (organization) both emerge from the confluence of: 1) heat, i.e., a temperature gradient that creates pressure; 2) naturally occurring variations, i.e., small gusts, twists of geography, etc.; and 3) pressure or geographical constraints that block more gradual dissipative flow. Such foundations in the science of complex systems provides both rigorous first principles and allows network methods to be very widely applicable with meaningful application including socio-economic systems, which are comprised of energy systems and networks of many kinds. Prigogine's work shows how cycles of self-organizing development, repeating over and over, are behind the succession of increasingly complex forms from the origins of atoms and galaxies to the latest incarnations of life and civilization (Fig. 7).” Figure 7 cycles of self-organizing development. “The same process repeats in every round: energy fuels, pressure drives, diversity catalyzes, and constraints shape the emergence of new organizations.” See THE DYNAMICS OF SELF-RENEWAL: A SYSTEMS-THINKNING TO UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZAITIONAL CHALLENGES IN DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENTS6. “Biologist Lynn Margulis, for example, shows that biological organisms become more complex by linking previously independent lifeforms into new unified organisms linked by synergy and mutual benefit: land plants are in an immortal marriage between photosynthetic algae and rugged, nonphotosynthetic lichens; while the mitochondria, flagella, and nucleus of eukaryotic cells are built of previously independent prokaryotic cells” “Overall, complex living systems arise and evolve in between the complex dynamic forces acting both bottom-up and top-down.” “Though such self-organizing processes develop along directional trajectories, they never fully reach an end destination. As a result, evolutionary development appears as a recursive process of trial-and-error learning following a cyclical, punctuated, stair-step pattern of increasing complexity (Fig. 7).”23 I DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS: SEVEN WAYS TO THINK LIKE A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMISTHuman beings inability to cope with complex systems SeeTHINKING IN SYSTEMS – A PRIMER111 Warren Weave and problems of organized complexity 115 Economy of the future must alter not only income but the distribution of wealth, time and power. Natures network by branching fractals, river delta, branches in a tree, blood vessels, vein In leafs. Balance between systems efficiency and resilience. Nature teaching for economy is diversity and distribution. SeeTHE SCIENCE OF FLOW SAYS EXTREME INEQUALITY CAUSES ECONOMIC COLLAPSEhttps://evonomics.com/science-flow-says-extreme-inequality-causes-economic-collapse/, MEASURING REGENERATIVE ECONOMICS: 10 PRINCIPLES AND MEASURES UNDERGIRDING SYSTEMIC ECONOMIC HEALTH145 Common trusts to establish limits 167 9 planetary boundaries. Chemical pollution, endangering ecosystem on land and in ocean. Nitrogen and phosphorus loading cause algae blooming that kill of aquatic life. Freshwater withdrawals, water is essential for life. Land conversion, can destroys life supporting ecosystems. Biodiversity. Decreasing diversity means decreasing resilience. Decreasing resilience of ecosystems means decreasing capacity of ecosystems capacity to provide food, fuel and fibre, and to sustain life. 243 To encouragement
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