GMT 1

"Green Material Throughput" (GMT), is an extension of the expression material throughput, which refers to the entropic flow of matter and energy, generally from a state of high usefulness to a state of reduced usefulness. Nature's throughput tends to be very low in entropy production. This is so, because the materials that fuel natural processes decay into forms that can be reused by other natural processes, with little significant waste.

Material throughput is a robust concept that finds resonance in human systems and nature. Material throughput refers to the process of taking materials and turning them into something else that is more immediately useful. Green material throughput refers to the human process of converting materials into something more useful, where the throughput waste accrued can be viewed as negligible due to sensible planning and cautious conversion of wastes into more benign substances. The main difference between normal throughput and green material throughput is found in the entropy cost associated with each. The obvious objective of GMT is to reduce entropy generation.

In a nutshell, entropy is generated when one form of potential energy is converted to another form, which is usually less accessible to humans. Life on earth naturally generates entropy, but it is negligible in rate and quantity. Modern humans generate excessive entropy. Because energy can neither be created nor destroyed (although it can be radiated out into space), modern western cultures are engaged in a process of converting easy-to- access low entropy into a form, generally heat, that would radiate into space, save for it being contained by the earth's atmosphere. Global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion both serve as evidence of excessive entropy generation.

To attain a material throughput cycle that is in conformity with the assimilative capabilities of the earth requires that entropy generation be held to a level and quality that is coincident with natural entropy generation. A human designed green material throughput cycle may never match natural throughput precisely, but the two must be equivalent in impact and scope.

Arguments with respect to resolving environmental and social problems rarely focus exclusively on entropy generation; the range and complexity of global problems are too multifaceted to allow for an argument based solely on entropy generation to be meaningful. Environmental problems defy simple analysis by virtue of the complexities that they represent: they are too closely linked with social and geopolitical issues that also have relevance in modern society. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that excessive entropy generation will lead to global ecological change, and a new set of homeostatic boundaries that may make human habitation difficult or impossible.

Attaining GMT is for the moment an elusive goal for society. The technology required to emulate nature's throughput cannot be implemented except at a cost that is substantially higher than what the free market currently pays for energy. Understanding GMT as a long term objective, however, is a desirable aim. Nature's throughput example can be construed as a target that may never be attainable, but is worth pursuing, just the same.

Themes

This paper pursues three basic themes with respect to environmental problems. These themes consist of firstly, the environmental crisis as a consequence of entropy generation, or what might be called a problem of objective reality; secondly, the environmental crisis as a consequence of the view of nature as a resource from which human benefit is derived, or what might be called a problem of interpretation; thirdly, the environmental crisis as a consequence of the lack of sufficient understanding about nature to integrate environmental factors into development processes, or what might be called a problem of understanding.

I explore the first theme in chapter 2, Energy, matter, and waste: An entropy discussion, which is built upon the following precepts: Nature's throughput (with exception to human inputs) can be identified as having low entropy production, in contrast to human generated patterns of throughput, which are currently high in entropy production. Although entropy can be reduced for any given material in specific instances through recovery and recycling, there is generally a cost in entropy elsewhere. Eventually, it may be possible to reduce entropy by means of technology and knowledge upgrades that may allow marginally useful materials to become more useful. Zero entropy levels may never be attainable, although a balance in entropy production that corresponds to residual levels that exist in nature may be possible. To do so would be to attain GMT.

The second theme, which focuses on societal tendencies with respect to throughput, is dealt with in chapter 3, The social context of material throughput. In this chapter, I explore two facets of human nature that have had great historical significance in terms of environmental degradation, notably, the inclination to regard nature as a resource to be exploited for the benefit of the exploiter (resourcism), and, the tendency toward obtaining maximum benefit and advantage at the lowest cost to the individual, which leads to the problem of common property resource depletion.

My reference to these two social tendencies is made in the form of evidentiary argument, somewhat with an eye toward exploring the history of environmental abuses (although only in a limited sense), but more particularly with an eye toward contextualizing environmental problems as existing within a societal frame that owes much of its prosperity to date to Earth's richness of easily obtainable materials.

Resourcism is an ideology from which many functional systems of organization have sprung, including, for example, land use planning. Only after a rational determination of relative value has been established between, say, resources, or landscape features, can choices be made about how the resources or landscape features are to be utilised.

The latter tendency that I have referred to here, which has been described as the tragedy of the commons, is reinforced daily in business settings, on one hand, and has also given rise to governmental regulations as a measure of controlling its worst manifestations, on the other hand. The depletion of common property resources imposes profound environmental costs that are shared equally among humans, for the benefit of a small minority.

In making reference to these social tendencies, I am outlining a set of circumstances that can be treated as intractable for the most part. Resourcism and the depletion of common property resources are manifestations of a historical social behaviour that sees reinforcement in society, in the same manner that overwork (or what is called workaholicism) is often glorified to the grave. In offering this premise, I am weighing the obvious fact that social tendencies are changeable, against entrenched value systems (such as Judaeo-Christianity) that shape intent and action in the minds of western Man.

In the fourth chapter, Beyond Resourcism, I make some reference to my third theme (understanding), by exploring some of the ideas about man-environment relationships posited by Evernden, Jantsch, Prigogine, and Thom. Understanding nature is a major quest, and my reference to this field is brief. My objective in this section is to provide the reader with some sense of the relationship between concepts that might seem unrelated, notably the interstice of the ideas of Jantsch and Prigogine. In one respect, the most important relationship between the two can be found in their differences, once the common basis for their two conceptual areas has been acknowledged. While Jantsch argues for a well tempered relationship with nature, Prigogine pushes toward the boundaries of natural systems and laws, in search of synergistic relationships and negentropy, perhaps with an ultimate goal of attaining a greater understanding of human systems and nature.

In the fifth, concluding chapter, Toward stable throughput, I present the arguments of Daly and Ophuls, who observe that no form of environmental and societal stability can ever be hoped for, without firstly pursuing a stable throughput that is within homeostatic limits. I refer to this quality of throughput as Green Material Throughput, but in essence, the title is of little consequence. What some call a steady state, or throughput within homeostatic boundaries, can all be thought of as necessary steps toward a state of green material throughput.

Perspective

The popular notion that awareness of a problem is the first step toward resolution may not apply in the case of the environment. While it is true that the opposite state -- ignorance of the environmental crisis (or worse yet; the state of indifference that might lead to awareness but no will), will never help to resolve the crisis, it also cannot be denied that the scope of the crisis challenges even the most devoted to the issues.

For one thing, it is difficult to separate environmental problems from the "other" problems, such as poverty. As the WCED report observed: "These are not separate crises: an environmental crisis, a development crisis, an energy crisis. They are all one." Addressing environmental issues without any regard for the basic human suffering that is intimately linked to much environmental devastation will not help to resolve the crisis, nor will "cleaning up our act" here in the rich West have much meaning to desperate Third World nations.

This view loosely fits between the first two of three paradigms that are expressed by the environmental community. The first paradigm, which might be referred to as the "Livingstonian View", holds that the environmental crisis is unsolvable, and there is not much point in society trying to manage its way out of the crisis, since humans don't know how to manage, in any case. The second paradigm holds that while western society is shifting toward the will to resolve the crisis, Third World problems are so profound that action is almost impossible. The third paradigm, which is reinforced by conventional wisdom, holds that environmental problems are a problem in management, and they may be solved by applying an enlightened management approach.

While there may appear to be little hope in resolving the environmental crisis, one cannot stand aside and watch the "passing parade", as it were. Although it may not be possible to understand the nature of the crisis sufficiently well as to be in a position to offer suggestions toward its resolution, one cannot fall back on futility as a reason for inaction. In the late 19'th and early 20'th century, a hopelessly outclassed Chinese army was faced with doing battle against superior European and Japanese armies. In the face of certain death, Chinese soldiers and mercenaries continued to engage in raiding missions, which they called futility raids. It is, perhaps in this spirit that the arguments in this paper should be considered.    ....More