Entropy Happens
An energy blueprint toward sustainability
www.geoproven.com
Original Publication date: March 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4583-4698-8
I-10 San
Gorgonio Pass, CA, August, 2010
Abstract
Energy, the ability to perform work,
is money. The laws of energy “[control], the rise and fall of
political systems, the freedom or bondage of nations, the
movements of commerce and industry, the origins of wealth and
poverty, and the general physical welfare of the race." Energy
also governs life and ecosystems. It is conserved, but moves from
available to unavailable. Entropy measures both unavailable energy
and disorder, and changes when systems change: creating order and
available energy in one system, but at the expense of greater
disorder or unavailable energy in others. Entropy change happens.
Entropy has never been fully accounted in models of economic or
environmental sustainability, neglect made possible by the
availability of energy, solar energy for a historically small
population, and now fossil fuels for a large population. Peak-oil
and population make solving the energy crisis imperative, but it
will not be solved without recognizing the intrinsic energy value of our
ecosystems.
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