Cargando…
Thanatia : the destiny of the Earth's mineral resources : a thermodynamic cradle-to-cradle assessment /
Is Gaia becoming Thanatia, a resource exhausted planet? For how long can our high-tech society be sustained in the light of declining mineral ore grades, heavy dependence on un-recycled critical metals and accelerated material dispersion? These are all root causes of future disruptions that need to...
| Clasificación: | Libro Electrónico |
|---|---|
| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Electrónico eBook |
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
[Hackensack] New Jersey :
World Scientific,
2014.
|
| Temas: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Texto completo |
Tabla de Contenidos:
- Preface; Rationale and history; Structure of the book; Acknowledgments; Contents; List of Figures; List of Tables; The Threads: Minerals, Economy and Thermodynamics; 1. The Depletion of Non-Renewable Abiotic Resources; 1.1 Introduction; 1.2 The demand for minerals; 1.3 Energy and environment; 1.4 Materials demand for the new Green Economy; 1.4.1 Bioenergy; 1.4.2 Solar photovoltaics; 1.4.3 Wind energy; 1.5 The shortage of strategic elements. An international problem; 1.6 The implications of mineral scarcity; 1.7 Thanatia: the destiny of mineral resources?; 1.8 Summary of the chapter.
- 2. Economic versus Thermodynamic Accounting2.1 Introduction; 2.2 Natural capital concept; 2.3 Cost, price and value; 2.4 The economists' view; 2.4.1 The neoclassical approach; 2.4.2 A discussion on the Hotelling and Barnet and Morse approaches; 2.4.3 The environmental economists' approach; 2.4.4 The ecological economists' approach; 2.4.4.1 "Matter matters too": N. Georgescu-Roegen; 2.4.5 How is economic thinking related to the Entropy Law and its recent developments?; 2.5 The accountants' view; 2.5.1 The SNA and the U.N. System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA).
- 2.5.2 The net price and the user cost methods2.5.3 The Hueting approach: environmental functions; 2.5.4 Weak and strong sustainability; 2.5.5 Mineral capital or mineral endowment?; 2.6 The natural scientists' view; 2.6.1 Material input per unit of service; 2.6.2 Ecological footprint; 2.6.3 Energy/exergy indicators; 2.6.3.1 Embodied energy; 2.6.3.2 Emergy; 2.6.3.3 Heat equivalent of noxious substances; 2.6.3.4 Exergy based methods; 2.6.4 Energy, land and time indicators: a relationship?; 2.6.5 Thermoeconomics; 2.7 Summary of the chapter; 3. From Thermodynamics to Economics and Ecology.
- 3.1 Introduction3.2 Second Law: the link between Physics and Economics; 3.2.1 The First Law; 3.2.2 The Second Law; 3.2.3 Exergy and the Snow White myth; 3.2.4 The nature of irreversibility; 3.3 From Thermodynamics to Economics: Thermoeconomics; 3.3.1 Basics of Thermoeconomics; 3.3.2 The exergy cost; 3.3.2.1 Conceptual meaning; 3.3.2.2 Exergy cost definition and allocation rules; 3.3.3 Success and shortcomings of Thermoeconomics; 3.3.4 Thermoeconomics a new vision of saving natural resources; 3.4 From Thermoeconomics to Ecology: Exergoecology and Physical Geonomics.
- 3.5 Philosophical afterthoughts and warnings3.6 Summary of the chapter; 4. Physical Geonomics: A Cradle-Grave-Cradle Approach for Mineral Depletion Assessment; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Material cycles and the dispersion problem; 4.3 The view over the rainbow: cradle to grave; 4.4 The view down the rainbow: grave to cradle; 4.5 Thermodynamic rarity; 4.6 Summary of the chapter; Over the Rainbow: From Nature to Industry; 5. The Geochemistry of the Earth; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 The bulk Earth; 5.2.1 The composition of the Earth; 5.3 The atmosphere; 5.3.1 The chemical composition of the atmosphere.