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Remembering last week
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microeconomics is about making the best use of a given resource whereas
macroeconomics is about the overall overuse of finite resources (and sinks)
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the economy takes resources from the earth system and transforms them
into wastes and pollution
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IPAT formula: Population * Affluence * Technology (efficiency) = Impact
GER: 81 Mill. E * 47,000 $ / E * 235 gr CO2 / $ = 891 Mill. Tonnen CO2
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Environmental accounting as satellite of economic accounting (Statistical
Offices of Nation States)
The laws of thermodynamics
- Everyday understanding of the consumption of matter and energy
- First law of thermodynamics
- Second law of thermodynamics
- Examples: biological life, production of goods, production of energy
- Practical implications
energy as most relevant unit at the economy / ecology-interface
limits of available renewable energy
limits of possible transformation efficiency
- Further implications: similarities between (human) economy and (natural)
ecology
From your questions and comments
While this is about the quantity of energy the second law is about energy quality.
Quality here refers to the proportion of energy available for conversion. The
entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease; entropy shall be understood as
energy which is not available for conversion. Furthermore, conversion always
has an efficiency that is below 100% and thus conversion can just be
irreversible. So, what does this tell us when approaching Ecological Economics?
Finally it is essential to mention the notion of evolution and co-evolution. Coevolution means the fact, that the niche for any one population is affected by
evolutionary dynamics involving other populations. It’s about the ability of
adaption.
This whole study can be pretty important for ecological economics, when you
consider, that human activity, especially human economic activity, is going to
influence the further development of the natural environment, which will have
to influence the human behavior the other way round too.
Question: Which effects will the evolution of the biosphere have on economic
activities, respectively on the development of an ecological economical
comprehension?
Taking the animals and the plants as an example for an open systems, we can see
that both of them exchange energy and matter with their environment.
Moreover, they are a highly ordered systems, in which disorder is not
increasing because they take energy from their environment to maintain order.
But there is a difference between both of them; the energy of the plants is
solar energy, while the animals take their energy from the chemicals in the food
and that the plant take carbon dioxide and give oxygen while the animals take
oxygen and give carbon dioxide.
An interesting question will be why is the entire universe the only possible
isolated system?
Could be the second law a justification against environmentalism? It basically says
that we do not consume just what we produce, but also a part of the physical
heritage of the earth.
Many people could think that no matter what we do, it is impossible to preserve,
and much less enrich, the biosphere.
Everyday conception: the "consumption" of matter and energy
Definitions
- open system: inflow and outflow of matter and energy (e.g. living organism)
- closed system: no inflow or outflow of matter – but streams of energy (e.g.
planet earth)
- isolated system: no inflow or outflow of matter and energy (theoretical edge
case, can be approached under laboratory conditions; or in a metaphysical
sense: the cosmos)
First law – Conservation of matter and energy
a) Conservation of matter: whatever the transformation (solid, liquid, gas), the
mass of matter remains constant (within an isolated system / the cosmos)
b) Conservation of energy: whatever the transformation (heat, light, motion
etc.), the amount of energy remains constant (within an isolated system / the
cosmos)
Second law – the loss of order/exergy and the increase of disorder/entropy
a) Order versus disorder of matter
aa) isolated system: order will inevitably be lost over time (but this entails the
metaphysical question how order was once established within the cosmos)
ab) closed system: order will increase with the inflow of energy / decrease
with the outflow of energy
ac) open system: order additionaly to ab) depends on the order of the
material inflows and outflows
b) Exergy versus entropy of energy
ba) isolated system: exergy will inevitably be lost over time (but this entails the
metaphysical question how exergy was once established within the
cosmos)
bb) closed system: exergy will increase with the inflow of energy / decrease
with the outflow of energy
bc) open system: exergy additionally to bb) depends on the order of the
material inflows and outflows
Examples
a) Living organisms as open systems
aa) plants: take up matter (carbondioxide, water, nutrients) and energy
(sunlight); respire oxygene
ab) herbivores: take up matter/energy in form of plants, oxygene and water;
respire heat and carbondioxide; excremention of faeces
ac) carnivores: take up matter/energy in form of herbivores; respire heat and
carbondioxide; excremention of faeces
"order" (life) is conceptualized here as "composition" of matter and uptake of
exergy, "disorder" (death) as decomposition of matter and loss of exergy
b) human goods as open systems of non-living material
ba) raw materials (e.g. iron ore): iron is not found in pure form, but "mixed up"
with other (more or less useless) material; needs the input of exergy
(work) to be purified
bb) production (e.g. of steel, of bicycles): the pure form is often not so usefull,
so it will get "composed" (mixed up) with other (pure) materials;
compositions again needs exergy
bc) consumption: bicycles are not directly digested (as e.g. bred), but worn out
(if no repair / re-production in the sense of bb) takes place)
bd) waste: decomposition by natural processes, as e.g. the rusting away
(oxidization) of the steel; recycling might take place, but needs the input of
exergy
"order" is conceptualized here as (chemical) "purification" and (chemical +
mechanical) "composition", "disorder" as "decomposition" in use or on the
disposal site; decomposition might take place in the form of endothermic
(e.g. bleaching out by sunlight, digestion by bacteria) or exothermic
transformation (e.g. burning)
c) human production of exergy
ca) direct use of natural energy streams: sunlight, streaming water, wind
cb) using exergetic potentials from higher ordered matter; e.g. burning of
biomass and fossil fuels; results in "disordered" matter and exergy (work)
Practical Implications
a) exergy ("energy") as central economic variable
aa) all natural and economic ordering needs the input of exergy (work)
ab) the environmental impact of industrial economies up to now corresponds
to large extend with the exergy produced (mainly from fossil fuels)
ac) the environmental impact of industrial economies could be reduced
through recycling, but this needs the intake of exergy more directly from
the sun (otherwise a further depletion of raw materials would occur)
b) the final sustainable limit of growth is given by the exergetically available
inflow of solar radiation (and by surplus of stored geothermal energy)
Trenberth, K. E., Fasullo, J. T., & Kiehl, J. (2009). Earth's global energy budget.
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 90(3), 311-323 (314).
source: Resch, G., Held, A., Faber, T., Panzer, C., Toro, F., & Haas, R. (2008). Potentials and prospects
for renewable energies at global scale. Energy Policy, 36(11), 4048-4056.
Caution: the technical potential is not the economical potential (which depends
on the substitution price for fossil fuels)!
c) no transformation can be better than 100 percent, but 100 percent are far
away
Cullen, J. M., & Allwood, J. M. (2010). Theoretical efficiency limits for energy
conversion devices. Energy, 35(5), 2059-2069 (2065).
Cullen, J. M., & Allwood, J. M. (2010). The efficient use of energy: Tracing the
global flow of energy from fuel to service. Energy Policy, 38(1), 75-81.
Cullen, J. M., & Allwood, J. M. (2010). The efficient use of energy: Tracing the
global flow of energy from fuel to service. Energy Policy, 38(1), 75-81.
example of bulbs
lumen
watt
lumen/watt
total efficiency
incandescent
1600
100
16
5%
fluorescent
1600
25
64
21%
22
72
24%
LED
1600
100 % efficiency ≈ 300 lumen/watt
example of public street lightning in UK (Herring 2006):
- since 1920's 20fold efficiency increase
- eaten up by an 30fold intensity increase
transformation efficiency
affluence (service unit per capita) + population
ecological efficiency (resource per service)
"green growth" means that the ecological effiency ("T" within the IPAT-formula)
increases faster than affluence and population (but Jevons' paradox)
Further implications: human economy and natural ecology are based on the same
principals
- transforming matter and energy to produce life // consumer goods & services
- economy: flows of goods – counterflow of work
- ecology: flows of matter – flows of exergy
- some idea of balance
- some idea of evolution
- limits to growth
Common&Stagl p.41
Common & Stagl, p.87
Appendix: How long "green growth" could last on the base of the theoretical
potential of sun radiation on earth?
Source of the theoretical limit: see above, Resch et al. 2008
theoretical limit (sun radiation on earth)
current demand primary energy
currently used final energy
supposed growth factor
3,900,000
475
55
1.03
ExaJoule
ExaJoule
ExaJoule
how long the economy can grow at that rate until it reaches the theoretical limit?
a) on the base of the current transformation efficiency rate (ca. 11,6%)
b) on the base of full transformation efficiency
c) on the base of full efficiency and current primary energy as limit
a) theoretical limit / current efficiency
current primary/ efficiency rate * growth factor^x=theoretical limit
475 / 0.11 * 1,03^x=3.900.000
1,03^x=
x
b) theoretical limit / full efficiency
55 * 1,03^x=3.900.000
1,03^x=
x=log(70909)/ log(1,03)
x
c) current primary demand as limit / full efficiency
55*1,03^x=475
1,03^x=
x
8211
305
years
70909
378
years
9
73
years