WHY MODERN HUMANS INEVITABLY TRASH ECOSYSTEMS (AND ULTIMATELY UNDERMINE THEMSELVES): A THERMODYNAMIC INTERPRETATION

Imagine a disordered homogenized world in which everything is evenly dispersed—there are no distinguishable forms or structures, no gradients of energy or matter and no finite point in the ‘system’ is distinguishable from any other. This random distribution of all naturally occurring elements and stable compounds represents a state of maximum local entropy. It is also, by definition, a state of local thermodynamic equilibrium.

By contrast, all complex dynamic systems—e.g., organisms, ecosystems and economies—are highly-ordered, self-organizing, self-producing entities characterized by concentrations of energy and matter. We say that such self-producing systems exist in a state of low entropy, dynamically suspended ‘far-from-(thermodynamic)-equilibrium.’ To create and maintain such order from disorder requires a constant input of available energy that is irreversibly degraded in the process. Because such complex systems develop and grow by continuously degrading and dissipating available energy they are called “dissipative structures.”

Ecosystems are self-producing systems that evolve and maintain themselves by dissipating exogenous solar energy. Green plants ‘fix’ a small portion of the incident solar radiation as chemical energy through photosynthesis. The plants use the resultant products—carbohydrates, fats and proteins—to produce themselves and in the process provide the fuel for most other life-forms, including humans. The functioning and development of ecosystems is regulated by the interplay of positive and negative feedback.

Like ecosystems, the human enterprise is a complex dissipative structure. It is also a sub-system of the ecosphere. However, unlike other sub-systems, the human enterprise is uniquely dominated by positive feedback and therefore expands continuously. To support this growth and to maintain itself, the human sub-system feeds on endogenous energy/matter produced within the ecosphere. Since it is structurally positioned to consume the ecosphere from within, the expanding human enterprise necessarily degrades and dissipates the (non-growing) ecosystems that sustain it. With no change in this relationship, the eventual implosion of the human sub-system seems inevitable.