"Energy is eternal delight." William Blake
Navigating the site:
How
can we know if the earth's life support systems are functioning well,
or poorly?
Energy.
1. Overview, pieces of a puzzle [Rubric's Cube]
2. foundation: forestry, arboreta & diversity; the problem of sustainability in Amazon rain forest is a microcosm of the world's dilemma.3. Energy, forces,flows and feedback: Gregory Bateson and the model of reality.
4. The problem energy lies in the Western origins of Nature which was defined as the dialectical creation of four elements.
Energy is the ability to do work and the capacity to regenerate spent fuel to overcome resistance.
Systemic qualities are characteristic functions that tie the parts to a whole interdependent structure
We know nature by disturbing the universe.
Disturbance:
Law of the Conservation of matter
Laws of Thermodynamics
1st: energy is neither created nor destroyed
2d: energy is constantly degrading
Newton
Three laws of motion: inertia, gravity, and reciprocity.
The Complexity of nature
1. distinguish inorganic habitat's parts:
radiation as a limiting factor
area's size, extent geology, & geographical setting
water, energy, air & land form a resource base
2. recognize the biotic communities' essential features
vegetation is the cornerstone of natural productivity
keystone species and the web of numbers
stress functions, rates of turnover& renewable cycles.
Gravity relentlessly pulling water even through the ice build-up of Niagra falls moves mass from the upper level of the Canadian shield down to the lower elevation.
Such force of moving water can be made to turn a turbine. In so doing the turbine or dynamo spins an iron electro-magnet in a magnetic field inducing an electrical current to flow.
Electricity is inherent in the very structure of the atomic elements and compounds, such as water. Electrical forces inhere in the electrons and protons comprising the atoms which compose all that we see in the universe.
Three basic Scientific Laws of matter and thermodynamics
Systems and feedback loops are a means to understand ecosystems
Sustainable Earth, low-throughput or low-waste society (12, 50-51,60-63)
Population, energy & resources ratios:
P *E/ R-E (squared) [net useful energy Miller, 89.]Nourish the earth or perish!
Land Realism & geographical regeneration:
4 Fs: fuel, food, fiber, functionfuel, plant and seed oils, petrol, coal, etc.
food, calories from lips, fats, proteins.
fiber, cotton, sisal, hemp, wool, thatch, etc.
function, fodder, feed or forage for animals
Biological integrity & species richness rest on th idea that the habitat is sufficient to nourish the keystone species of any biological community.
Habitat as WEAL:
Water - Energy - Air - Land
4 Rs:
School reading 'ritin 'rithmetic reason Ecology reduce reuse recycle restore
functional integrity
The Earth as a system and ecosystems as sub-systems of the Earth must have sufficient energy to move nutrients, rearrange materials, and remove wastes in sufficient amount and over adequate time-periods to not diminish new life from being nourished. This process functions with integrity based on the assimilative capacity of the water and air, and the carrying capacity of the land to nourish emerging life.
Ecologcal integrity is hidden, removed from our experience, but it is only too obvous when it is not functioning, as in the case of "waldsturben" or the destruction of forests by acid precipitation.
Six concurrent crises today hamper our scientific understanding of ourselves in the world.
Identity -- do we know who and what we are?
economy & society of narcissism
biological diversity is being lost
ecological life support system decay
spirit -- have we lost our souls in succeeding?
perception is confusing the real and the ideal
Interpreting the order we perceive in the world.
dichotomy Ancient Elements vs. Modern Forces 1 Earth Gravity 2 Air Electromagnetism 3 Fire Fission -weak 4 Water Fusion -strong
Three forces, not four:
- Strong, hydrogen fusion into helium.
- Electro-weak, radioactive decay.
- Gravitational, space is warped.
The search for fundamental explanations of complex relations is one job of science.
1. Overview, pieces of a puzzle [Rubric's Cube]
2. foundation a problem of sustainability in the Amazon rain forest
3. Energy, systems and forces In our own back yard.
4. Western origins of Nature
