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Re: Ecological Economics and Entropy



John McCarthy wrote:
 
->      The world doesn't come with dotted lines Harold. <G> We draw
->      them!  For example, the entropy of a dinner plate system
->      increases when the dinner plate breaks.
-> 
-> You may draw a line around the dinner plate system if you like, and
-> its entropy indeed increases when the plate breaks.  However, the
-> dinner plate system is not closed, so its entropy goes down again
when
-> someone glues the plate back together or replaces the plate by
-> another.  When the plate breaks the entropy of the universe increases

We can only reduce the entropy of our broken "dinner plate system"
by creating even more entropy at higher level of our ecosystem
(e.g., burning oil and accumulating greenhouse gases).

Our future was sealed when we went over our solar budget.

It's the law.

That last essay is now archived at:
 http://csf.Colorado.EDU/authors/hanson/page65.htm

Jay



References: