Supply Shock: Ecological Economics Comes of Age

[ujoni08]

Article extracted from Brian Czech's new book:

Things that are hotter than their environment cool off. Of the billions of cups of coffee poured in the broad sweep of history, not one has warmed up of its own accord, not for an instant. The entropy process is as consistent and irreversible as Father Time; you can tell whether it’s earlier or later based on the warmth of your coffee. Einstein said of the entropy law, “It is the only physical theory of universal content, which I am convinced . . . will never be overthrown.” Einstein was also impressed by the entropy law’s “range of applicability.”

[...] And apply it Georgescu-Roegen did, unto 457 pages! The main application, in a nutshell, is that absolute efficiency in the economic production process cannot be achieved. Nor can recycling be 100 percent efficient. Pollution is inevitable, and all else equal, more economic production means more pollution. These findings may seem like no-brainers to many, yet neoclassical growth theory has led to wild-eyed optimism regarding “green growth” and “closing the loop” by turning all waste into capital. Such fantasia cannot be soundly refuted without invoking the entropy law.

[...] But the tremendous value of The Entropy Law is that it unequivocally established the profound relevance of thermodynamics to economic affairs. Unlike neoclassical economics, ecological economics embraces this relevance, putting ecological economics into a better position for enlightening real world affairs.

(continues)

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013- ... age-part-1

[kenneal - lagger]

Reminds me, I must get round to finishing "Energy and the Wealth of Nations: Understanding the Biophysical Economy" by Charles A. S. Hall and Kent A. Klitgaard which goes into this sort of stuff as well. I'm about half way through after a year or so. It's very interesting but I don't get round to book reading as often as I would like. Must travel by train more often as this is usually when I read books.

[dudley]

I read the book of Georgescu-Roegen, but can't remember a lot about it, except that it connects entropy with economics. It's annoying that he confuses entropy, which is a measure of order, with the process of becoming disordered. He seemed to think he was saying something extremely profound, which might have been true then as his ideas were new for his time.

The book of Hall and Klitgaard has three main topics. The first is peak oil, which everyone posting here should know about already. The second is neoclassical economics, which would be interesting to learn about, however the description is more like an outline and too sketchy to sink in. The third is EROI, Hall's specialty, and that part was more interesting. He got the idea for EROI from the energetics of fish populations. The book is a textbook aimed at college students and rehashes a lot of history you probably know already. You should probably just read the parts of interest to you and skip the rest, which is what I did. They talk about biophysical economics, but don't seem to have much concrete to say about it except for EROI.

Have ordered Supply Shock. Am hoping it's better than the other two.