Climate Change Factoid - The 2nd Law - Part 2 (#13 of a series)

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Author: Rich Albertson

This discussion of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (2nd Law), is connected to climate change in a backhanded sort of way. The premise is: If you elect to conform how you do things to comply with this part of the 2nd Law, something we do not do now, it transforms your relationship with nature from hostile to cooperative.

In Factoid #12, the 2nd Law's rule that heat goes to cold, was discussed. The 2nd Law has several components. Here, the focus is on another of its pronouncements, which is; All of the forces of nature move in one direction, and one direction only from the combined to the dispersed. Galileo once explained it by saying; We see wood and fire come together to produce heat and smoke but we cannot retrieve the wood or the fire by combining the heat and smoke. That covers the one direction part but, what about the combined to dispersed part?.

That's not so easily explained. Perhaps this might work. Nature, is an organized system (organic means, organized). Any system, that can produce an uncountable number of different creatures and creations, assembled from only a hundred and eighteen basic elements and, which never leaves any residue of its activities laying about and never runs out of parts to make new ones, all over a physical area as large as a planet, needs a very tight plan indeed, don't you think? Apparently the method selected to accomplish all of that was to create all of these creatures from the atoms of the basic elements, using their DNA as the recipe, and then, when they had lost their life force (expired), disassemble them all the way back down to those individual atoms and then rely on the weather and the creatures still alive to spread those atoms out as far and wide as possible. That's the combined to dispersed part, which is also known as composition to decomposition. The benefits are twofold never any waste accumulation and maximum diversity of species is achieved. In nature, maximum diversity is assured because strength and vitality increase as diversity increases. Contrariwise, attempts to consolidate, incorporate or accumulate are met with a loss of strength and vitality and an increase in the amount of energy required to accomplish basic tasks ultimately leading to the point of extinction if uncorrected. The idea gives added dimension to What goes around, comes around, doesn't it?
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Even inanimate objects that block natural forces are subject to the 2nd Law. Actually, everything is. Hoover Dam, as big and bad as it is, subjected over time to rain, sunlight, atmosphere, wind, earthquake and its own internal imperfections, will one day see some last little piece of structural integrity give way and the natural force behind it, the water, is released and then dispersed as far and wide as it can go until the pent up energy it once contained is completely expended.

Why is that important? For me, the importance is to realize, as a modern human, that there is this natural, ever present force pushing everything that has been composed toward disassembly and dispersal. The force is unseen but ever present. That's important to know because it helps us realize that opposing this force of nature, which is what we do when we consolidate, centralize, combine, incorporate, etc, (and we seem to elect this option most of the time) requires a continuous application of energy just to hold this natural force at bay while we try to accomplish our goals. Conversely, when we decentralize, disassemble, etc we are not required to expend that energy.
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Now it's time to look around and observe that the way we run our world, now consolidated to the extreme level of globalization, takes energy that could be saved by reversing that process and decentralizing. There may actually be an energy bonus, since the force behind the 2nd Law would be moving in the same direction we are. As an additional bonus you get the added strength and vitality from the increase in diversity that decentralization would produce. Looks like a good deal to me, we should look into it. (Peer reviewed research, supporting the claims made in this factoid, can be found at the website)About the Author:

Rich Albertson is a retired lawyer, author, builder, building designer, carpenter and long time amateur naturalist. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Albertson's most recent book (2009), The Sky is the Limit A Brief and Easy Explanation of Climate Change for Present and Future Voters (134pp), is an explanation of the science, economics, politics and a discussion of the future of climate change written for people of average experience. Climate Change Factoids are drawn from the book. His first book (1978), The Bio-Conversion of Waste to Resource (4 Vols, 2624pp), was a treatise on methods for the sustainable management of solid and liquid waste in urban society. More about the Sky is the Limit book can be found at http://www.thecircleworks.org

As a Naturalist, Albertson's primary interest is to understand and then explain the conflicts that result from modern human practices that interfere with the operation of the natural world on a planetary scale.

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