Thermodynamics of Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability must be global, or it will not be. Our planet is a thermodynamic system, as are ecosystems, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the crust. Natural resources are at risk of depletion, meanwhile, the waste is overwhelming. Minerals, fresh waters, fertile soils, biota and waste are also thermodynamic systems to be characterized. A Second Law vision of natural systems is largely lacking in many research fields relating to sustainability issues. In fact, entropy is used as a metaphor in ecological economics rather than as a quantitative tool. Exergy-related analyses are almost restricted to energy engineering designs and slowly rising in macroeconomic studies. As Science Europe recommends, think exergy, not energy.

The message of the Second Law is related to evolution, irreversibility, and degradation, which are central ideas for understanding sustainability. However, the Second Law is also the key to understanding and assessing efficiency and sufficiency. Efficiency in the social use of all scarce natural resources (not only energy but materials, soils and waters), and sufficiency to avoid collapse due to the nonlinear behavior of many subsystems of the Earth.

Topics such as Second Law assessment of all natural resources and waste—including fertile soils and biotic systems, exergy modelling of resource use trends, the intricacies and deficiencies of materials circularity, exergy-based indicators of planet degradation and the loss of natural capital, natural cycles and planet boundaries, thermodynamics of biodiversity and resilience, and so on, are welcomed.

The fate of humanity is not determined by the Second Law, but this law can help humanity to avoid hazardous irreversible paths of the planet evolution.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Valero
Guest Editor

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