Download or read book The Entropy Law and the Economic Process written by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and published by Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1971 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the ultimate analysis man struggles for low entropy, and economic scarcity is the reflection of the Entropy Law, which is the most economic in nature of all natural laws. Thermodynamics itself is presented by the author as the physics of economic value and mans economic activity as analogous (though not identical) to that of the purposive sorting of the famous Maxwellian demon. Economic activity is in fact an extension and a complement of mans biological evolution. In it, man can use exosomatic organs, i.e., organs with which he is not endowed biologically but which have evolved through a process of mutation, selection, and diffusion similar to that of biological evolution. For wherever there is evolution, the author argues, there is the work of the Entropy Law with its irrevocable qualitative Change. This point leads the author to an extensive examination of the limitations of arithmomorphic models in all sciences. He argues that no complete description of reality, no philosophical argument (not even that of the ultrapositivists), no creative thought can dispense with dialectical concepts and reasoning, which he views somewhat differently from Hegel. The tight-knit excursus ends with an analysis of some general economic issues, from that of the analytical representation of a process to that of social conflict. The author argues that, because of the very nature of exosomatic evolution, the social conflict will last under any regime as long as there is a human society. -- Publisher's description.

Download or read book Energy and Economic Myths written by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2014-05-18 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy and Economic Myths: Institutional and Analytical Economic Essays is a collection of materials that deal with various issues and concerns in economics. The title aims to clarify the misconception in economics. The first part of the text deals with the issues in natural resources and the economics of production. Next, the selection tackles the problems in institutional economics. Part III covers the epistemological and methodological concerns in economics. The title also talks about economic theories. The book will be of great interest to economists and readers who want to enhance their understanding of economic concepts.

Download or read book The Second Law of Economics written by Reiner Kümmel and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-06-24 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nothing happens in the world without energy conversion and entropy production. These fundamental natural laws are familiar to most of us when applied to the evolution of stars, biological processes, or the working of an internal combustion engine, but what about industrial economies and wealth production, or their constant companion, pollution? Does economics conform to the First and the Second Law of Thermodynamics? In this important book, Reiner Kümmel takes us on a fascinating tour of these laws and their influence on natural, technological, and social evolution. Analyzing economic growth in Germany, Japan, and the United States in light of technological constraints on capital, labor, and energy, Professor Kümmel upends conventional economic wisdom by showing that the productive power of energy far outweighs its small share of costs, while for labor just the opposite is true. Wealth creation by energy conversion is accompanied and limited by polluting emissions that are coupled to entropy production. These facts constitute the Second Law of Economics. They take on unprecedented importance in a world that is facing peak oil, debt-driven economic turmoil, and threats from pollution and climate change. They complement the First Law of Economics: Wealth is allocated on markets, and the legal framework determines the outcome. By applying the First and Second Law we understand the true origins of wealth production, the issues that imperil the goal of sustainable development, and the technological options that are compatible both with this goal and with natural laws. The critical role of energy and entropy in the productive sectors of the economy must be realized if we are to create a road map that avoids a Dark Age of shrinking natural resources, environmental degradation, and increasing social tensions.

Download or read book From Bioeconomics to Degrowth written by Nicolas Georgescu-Roegen and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2011-03-28 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nicolae Georgescu-Roegen (1906-1994) is considered today as perhaps the chief founder of the transdisciplinary field today known as Ecological Economics, but that he defined himself as Bioeconomics. In his later years Georgescu-Roegen intended to write a book of this title that would systematize what he considered to be the most significant results of his work. This project intends to resume this project, publishing a collection of the most relevant Georgescu-Roegen essays on Bioeconomics, including previously unpublished papers.

Download or read book Developments in the Design of Thermal Systems written by R. F. Boehm and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-10-28 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reference for engineers in a wide variety of industries (including power plants and chemical plants) on design of thermal systems.

Download or read book Knowledge and Power written by George Gilder and published by Regnery Publishing. This book was released on 2013-06-10 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ronald Reagan’s most-quoted living author—George Gilder—is back with an all-new paradigm-shifting theory of capitalism that will upturn conventional wisdom, just when our economy desperately needs a new direction. America’s struggling economy needs a better philosophy than the college student's lament: "I can't be out of money, I still have checks in my checkbook!" We’ve tried a government spending spree, and we’ve learned it doesn’t work. Now is the time to rededicate our country to the pursuit of free market capitalism, before we’re buried under a mound of debt and unfunded entitlements. But how do we navigate between government spending that's too big to sustain and financial institutions that are "too big to fail?" In Knowledge and Power, George Gilder proposes a bold new theory on how capitalism produces wealth and how our economy can regain its vitality and its growth. Gilder breaks away from the supply-side model of economics to present a new economic paradigm: the epic conflict between the knowledge of entrepreneurs on one side, and the blunt power of government on the other. The knowledge of entrepreneurs, and their freedom to share and use that knowledge, are the sparks that light up the economy and set its gears in motion. The power of government to regulate, stifle, manipulate, subsidize or suppress knowledge and ideas is the inertia that slows those gears down, or keeps them from turning at all. One of the twentieth century’s defining economic minds has returned with a new philosophy to carry us into the twenty-first. Knowledge and Power is a must-read for fiscal conservatives, business owners, CEOs, investors, and anyone interested in propelling America’s economy to future success.

Download or read book The Upcycle written by William McDonough and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the authors "Cradle to Cradle," the next step, in how society must change the way it uses resources. Drawing on the lessons gained from 10 years of using the cradle-to-cradle concept, McDonough and Braungart envision the next step in the solution to our ecological crisis.

Download or read book The Origins of Ecological Economics written by Kozo Mayumi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2001-07-26 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen deserves to be called the father of ecological economics. This book connects Georgescu-Roegen's earlier work such as consumer choice theory and a critique of Leontief's dynamic model, with his later ambitious attempt to reformulate the economic process as 'bioeconomics', a theoretical alternative to neoclassical economics.

Download or read book More Heat Than Light written by Philip Mirowski and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1991-11-29 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The development of the energy concept in Western physics and its subsequent effect on the emergence of neoclassical economics are traced to reveal how economics has sought to emulate physics, especially with regard to the theory of value.

Download or read book Thermodynamics and the Destruction of Resources written by Bhavik R. Bakshi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-04-11 with total page 523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a unique, multidisciplinary effort to apply rigorous thermodynamics fundamentals, a disciplined scholarly approach, to problems of sustainability, energy, and resource uses. Applying thermodynamic thinking to problems of sustainable behavior is a significant advantage in bringing order to ill-defined questions with a great variety of proposed solutions, some of which are more destructive than the original problem. The articles are pitched at a level accessible to advanced undergraduates and graduate students in courses on sustainability, sustainable engineering, industrial ecology, sustainable manufacturing, and green engineering. The timeliness of the topic, and the urgent need for solutions make this book attractive to general readers and specialist researchers as well. Top international figures from many disciplines, including engineers, ecologists, economists, physicists, chemists, policy experts and industrial ecologists among others make up the impressive list of contributors.

Download or read book The Physical Foundation of Economics written by Jing Chen and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2005 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All human activities, including mental activities, are governed by physical laws and are essentially thermodynamic processes. However, current economic theories are not established on these foundations. This pioneering book seeks to develop an analytical theory of economics on the foundation of thermodynamic laws. A unified understanding of economic and social phenomena is presented, an understanding that is much simpler than what mainstream economic theory has to offer. Its aim is to revolutionize thinking in economics and transform social sciences into an integral part of the physical and biological sciences.

Download or read book Bioeconomics and Sustainability written by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economists from around the world discuss Georgescu-Roegen's (1906-94) theories in a number of areas, but especially on environmental and energy economics. They address such topics as how long neoclassical economists can continue to ignore his contribu

Download or read book Energy Complexity and Wealth Maximization written by Robert Ayres and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-14 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the mechanisms of wealth creation, or what we like to think of as evolutionary "progress." The massive circular flow of goods and services between producers and consumers is not a perpetual motion machine; it has been dependent for the past 150 years on energy inputs from a finite storage of fossil fuels. In this book, you will learn about the three key requirements for wealth creation, and how this process acts according to physical laws, and usually after some part of the natural wealth of the planet has been exploited in an episode of "creative destruction." Knowledge and natural capital, particularly energy, will interact to power the human wealth engine in the future as it has in the past. Will it sputter or continue along the path of evolutionary progress that we have come to expect? Can the new immaterial wealth of information and ideas, which makes up the so-called knowledge economy, replace depleted natural wealth? These questions have no simple answers, but this masterful book will help you to understand the grand challenge of our time. Praise for Energy, Complexity and Wealth Maximization: “... people who run the modern world (politicians, economists and lawyers) have a very poor grasp of how it really works because they do not understand the fundamentals of energy, exergy and entropy ... those decision-makers would greatly benefit from reading this book ...” - Vaclav Smil, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Manitoba “... A grandiose design; impressive, worth reading and reflecting!” - Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizäcker, Founder of Wuppertal Institute; Co-President of the Club of Rome, Former Member of the German Bundestag, co-chair of the UN’s Resource Panel “... The book is a must read for concerned citizens and decision makers across the globe.” - RK Pachauri, Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and ex-chair, International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Download or read book Rethinking the World written by Peter Pogany and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2006-09 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The post-Marxian, new historical materialism described in this book breathes new life into our comprehension of the world. A 200-year perspective on modernity tells us that an all-embracing physical phenomenon holds humankind in its grip. History has recorded two distinct global systems thus far: "laissez faire/metal money," which spanned most of the 19th century and lasted until the outbreak of World War I, and "mixed economy/weak multilateralism," which began after 1945 and exists today. The period between the two systems, 1914-1945, was a chaotic transition. This evolutionary pulsation is well known to students of thermodynamics. It corresponds to the behavior of expanding and complexifying material systems. The exhaustion of oil and other natural resources is pushing the world toward a third global system that may be called "two-level economy/strong multilateralism." It will be impossible to get there without a new chaotic transition. No repeated warnings, academic advice, moral advocacy, inspired reforms, or political leadership can provide a shortcut around it. But if it took "1914-1945" to make a relatively minor adjustment in the global order, what will it take to make a major one?

Download or read book Analytical Economics written by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and published by . This book was released on 1966-02-05 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Story of Stuff written by Annie Leonard and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-03-09 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic exposé in company with An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring, The Story of Stuff expands on the celebrated documentary exploring the threat of overconsumption on the environment, economy, and our health. Leonard examines the “stuff” we use everyday, offering a galvanizing critique and steps for a changed planet. The Story of Stuff was received with widespread enthusiasm in hardcover, by everyone from Stephen Colbert to Tavis Smiley to George Stephanopolous on Good Morning America, as well as far-reaching print and blog coverage. Uncovering and communicating a critically important idea—that there is an intentional system behind our patterns of consumption and disposal—Annie Leonard transforms how we think about our lives and our relationship to the planet. From sneaking into factories and dumps around the world to visiting textile workers in Haiti and children mining coltan for cell phones in the Congo, Leonard, named one of Time magazine’s 100 environmental heroes of 2009, highlights each step of the materials economy and its actual effect on the earth and the people who live near sites like these. With curiosity, compassion, and humor, Leonard shares concrete steps for taking action at the individual and political level that will bring about sustainability, community health, and economic justice. Embraced by teachers, parents, churches, community centers, activists, and everyday readers, The Story of Stuff will be a long-lived classic.

Download or read book Economy Ecology Towards Sustainable Development written by F. Archibugi and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After a period of relative silence, recent years have been marked by an upswing of interest in environmental issues. The publication of the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development on 'Our Common Future' (1987) has acted as a catalyst for a revival of the environmental awareness, not only regarding local and daily pollution problems, but also -and in particular- regarding global environmental decay and threats to a sustainable development. In a recent study by W.M. Stigliani et al., on 'Future Environments for Europe' (Executive Rep~rt 15, IIASA, Laxenburg, 1989) the environmental implications of various alternative socioeconomic development pathways with respect to eleven environmental issues that could become major problems in the future are analysed. These issues include: Managing water resources in an era of climate change. Acidification of soils and lakes in Europe. Long-term forestry management and the possibility of a future shortfall in wood supply. Areas of Europe marginalized by mainstream economic and agricultural development. Sea level rise. Chemical pollution of coastal waters. Toxic materials buildup and the potential for chemical time bombs. Non-point-source emissions of potentially toxic substances. Transportation growth versus air quality. Decreasing multi-functionally of land owing to urban and suburban land development. Increasing summer demand for electricity, and the impact on air quality.