Staying out of the lifeboat: Sustainability, culture, and the thermodynamics of symbiosis

Journal/Book: Ecosyst Health. 1999; 5: 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Blackwell Science Inc. 91-103.

Abstract: Many authors state that sustainability is purely a matter of the management of scarce and ever-diminishing ''negentropy,'' while others still pretend that unlimited exploitation of the environment is possible. Either view rests on fundamental misunderstandings of ecosystems. Ecologically, sustainability must mean a mutualistic sym biosis. II is useful to understand symbiosis from a thermodynamic point of view. Many organisms-including humans in principle-are able to modulate large flows of free energy, directing it into the formation of organized structures, while expending a proportionately small amount of free energy in the process. They are thus able to capture useful energy for their ecosystem as a whole. Ecosystems can thus maintain a high degree of internal coherence and, just as can individual organisms, apparently defy the Second Law of Thermodynamics within their own boundaries. The breakdown of ecosystem coherence we observe in the world today is thus a symptom not so much of the ''Law of Entropy'' but: of the undermining of the ecosystem's autopoietic capacity by human parasitism. A guarded optimism about the possibility of sustainability is thus possible, so long as we grasp the particular way in which humans can contribute to ecosystem vitality. Even very subtle features of human culture may contribute positively to the physical vitality of the ecosystem.

Note: Article Peacock K, Univ Lethbridge, Dept Philosophy, 4401 Univ Dr, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, CANADA

Keyword(s): GAIA

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