Slide Use renewable material - References and quotes Philosophy 2021 REFERENCES AND QUOTES PROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTH “Economics is an artefact of human society. Its apparent intractability is a cultural construct.” 196 I ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS – PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS Economy as subsystem 15 empty to full world 18 neoclassical economics preanalytical vision 22 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” 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 I THE EMPATHIC CIVILIZATION: THE RACE TO GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN A WORLD IN CRISIS Equilibrium in near climax ecosystem and Amazon rainforest. 494, 495 peak oil and the oil dependency of the economy 509 new energy for new economy 511 Culture a prerequisite for trade and commerce and governance, since they are built on social trust. Culture creates the empathic cloaks that allows people to confidently engage in market place or government. 550 Vision of economy where collaboration trumps competition. 553 I 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 Waste as a physical phenomenon. Chemically, nuclearly and physically (carbon dioxide) 357 Waste and finitude of our space. Written 1975 “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 I 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 Technology efficient lever but mineral bonanza the source for growth 13 I DECOUPLING DEBUNKED – EVIDENCE AND ARGUMENTS AGAINST GREEN GROWTH AS A SOLE STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY Increase in energy use 21 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 To encouragement Next encouragement