PUTTING METABOLIC PATTERNS OF

SOCIETY WITHIN A LARGER

PERSPECTIVE

Integrating Energy, Ecology and Economics

Mark T. Brown

Center for Environmental Policy

University of Florida

FL, USA

Sergio Ulgiati

Department of Sciences for the Environment

Parthenope University of Napoli

Italy

markusFASresearch

Where Are We?

Where Are We?

The recent global economic meltdown has reinforced our

understanding of the effects of decoupling monetary growth and

resources.

Artificial “wealth” (derivatives, futures, subprime mortgages, etc)

not supported by a resource basis is not sustainable.

Where Are We?

Decoupling money and

resources

Money as Value• The amount of money that we

pay for some product is an indication of how much we valuethat product, economists say

• If we buy an expensive car, then it must have great value to us

I love my car!

BUT…the money we pay for something is determined by:

Scarcity

Human labor costs

Perception

Money does not reflect the work of the environment

• The wind that disperses the smoke from factories

• The forest that builds soil to grow trees for timber

• The wetland that cleans the rainwater runoff

• The potential energy in streams

•etc

We cannot use money to value the ecosystem services that nature provides for free:

Energy as value

Energy has been proposed

as a measure of value.

But:

• one joule of stream energy

• one joule of nuclear electricity

• one joule of sunlight

• one joule of jet fuel

• one joule of heat by burning a log

• one joule of a speech of US President Obama

• one joule of this ppt

are all different in both production cost (upstream) and ability to generate work (downstream)

Wealth & Cost

Willingness to pay

Rain

Sun

Environmental cost

to produce wealth

Emergy evaluation Economic evaluation

Wealth

http://images.google.com.br/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mobilityfreedom.org/images/money.jpg&imgrefurl=http://pseudo-piloto.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html&h=788&w=1050&sz=316&hl=pt-BR&start=9&um=1&tbnid=GIbGYbw6JL9HYM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images?q=money&gbv=2&um=1&hl=pt-BR&sa=G

Available Supply as value

• Environmental driving forces (sunlight, deep heat, and gravitational potential) support all systems and processes on Earth…

• …to generate completely different products: water, minerals, biodiversity, cities, information…

…highest

‘quality’

objects

It took all

of this, to

get the…

Original ‘sources’

Barnes, 2007. Capitalism 3.0

Emergy: available energy of one form previously required directly

or indirectly to make a product or a service. It is measured as Joule

of one form (form energy joules, or form equivalent joules).

Solar emergy:

Solar available energy required

directly and indirectly to make a

product or a service. It is

measured as seJ (solar energy

joules, or solar equivalent joules)

Defining Emergy

Emergy = the value of resources in common units of solar equivalent

energy (solar emjoules)

Emergy…

Ultimately, our

wealth depends

on three sources

of emergy…the

sun, tidal

momentum, and

deep heat

Price = money

equivalent

Energy = oil

equivalent

Global annual flows Supporting the Geobiosphere….

Global Emergy Storages

1. Where are we…A Review and Reflection

2. Six Caveats of Sustainability

3. The Pulsing Paradigm and a Prosperous

Way Down

Organization…

Currently 1/4 of the total emergy driving the geobioshpere is

renewable, and the remaining 3/4’s is non-renewable

Where Are We?

The Geobiosphere…

The declining share of

“renewability”….

The Geobiosphere…Where Are We?

Real wealth = energy & resource throughput

(measured in units of Emergy)

Emergy- is the

throughput of

resources driving the

economy

GWP - Gross World

Product - is driven by

energy and resource

use.

Where Are We?

Emergy per unit GDP

• The emergy-to-money ratio is calculated

by dividing the total emergy supporting a

national economy (seJ) by its GDP

(Gross Domestic Product, $).

• It indicates the amount of resources

needed to generate one unit of GDP or,

vice versa, the amount of resources that

one unit of currency can purchase in a

given country.

Emergy to money

ratio

Emergy per person

On average, we are

worse off today than

we were in 1950.

Where Are We?

Where Are We?

2. Six Caveats for Sustainability

o Resources are the real wealth of nations

o Quality matters

o The false promise of renewables

o The environment is a limited resource.

o Information is not unlimited

o A systems view is mandatory

Contrary to common beliefs, monetary measures do not

reflect the wealth of nations….

Resources Are Real Wealth…

Resources Are Real Wealth…

…they only measure the activities of humans

manipulating resources, energy, and information.

Resources Are Real Wealth…

A nation’s wealth is its resources.

Relying on monetary principles only, dismisses this crucial information

that is necessary for sound economic policy.

Not all energy is equivalent…each form of energy

has very different capacity to do work.

Quality Matters…

Solar emjoules per

Joule

(sej/J)

Sunlight 1

Plant production 6,700

Wood 36,000

Coal 67,000

Oil 90,000

Electricity 300,000

Solar transformities

It requires 300,000

units of sunlight to

make 1 unit of

electricity

Not all resources are equivalent…

Quality Matters…

Faster is not always better…

o Greatest net yields

are associated with

slow growing biomass

resources

(Figure refers to a

forest growth)

o It took millions years

to make fossil fuels.

Cycle Time & Net Energy…Quality Matters…

False Promises…

Renewable energy sources, up to now, have lower net emergy yields than fossil

fuels and thus provide false promises to those who are looking

for “business as usual” at the end of cheap oil.

Environment Is Limited…

The ability of the environment to support human

society is limited in both source and sink services

Information is not unlimited

MTB 02/21/06

Using current estimates of water requirements for ethanol from sugarcane…

FL Transportation energy = 9.5 E17 J/yr

FL water consumption = 11.3 E 12 l/yr

Water required for ethanol from sugarcane = 30t/net GJ = 3 E4 l/1 E9 J

9.5 E 17 J/yr * 3E4 l = 2.9 E 13 liters of water

1.0 E9 J/ha

Renewable Ethanol…? WATER

…almost 2.5 times current total water consumption in Florida!!

Quantitative Myth Busting…

MTB 02/21/06

Using current Florida sugarcane production per hectare (70 GJ/ha)

FL gasoline consumption = 9.49 E 17 J/yr

9.49 E 17 J/yr = 1.35 E 7 ha of land

70 E9 J/ha

Florida LAND Area = 1.4 E7 ha

Renewable Ethanol…? LAND

Quantitative Myth Busting…

Nearly the entire State!…

MTB 04/08/05

Net Energy…

The net energy

return of

biomass is

barely 1.1 to 1

Information Is Not Umlimited…

Information is a key ingredient in all productive

processes and contrary to popular belief, the

creativity of humans is not without resource

costs (e.g.: consider research and education).

A Systems View Is Mandatory…

Radical changes are necessary for the transition to a more

sustainable future with lower availability of resources.

This cannot be done without a

systemic understanding of the

place of humans and their

economy within the wider

economy of the biosphere.

Where Are We?

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB, 2009)

3. A Prosperous Way Down.

The pulsing paradigm

• (1) growth on abundant available resources: increase ofpopulation, structure, and assets, low-efficiency, high-competition;

• (2) climax and transition: the system reaches the maximum sizeallowed by available resources, increases efficiency, developscollaborative patterns, and prepares for descent by storing information;

• (3) descent: less resources available, decrease of population andassets, increased recycling, transmission of information in a way thatminimizes losses;

• (4) low-energy restoration: no-growth, consumption smaller thanaccumulation, storage of resources for a new cycle ahead.

• Sustainability is not achieved once for ever.

• Systems follow oscillating patterns.

• This calls for different sustainability strategies

(Odum & Odum, 2001)

Cycles of growth and descent

What’s Next… ?

The problem is not just resource availability

nor finding another cheap source of energy.

The problem is BUSINESS AS USUAL.

Our fascination and addiction with continued

growth may have unbelievable

consequences in the long run.

Our focus must turn to living within the

planet’s carrying capacity.

The real issue is:

do you want to be part of the

solution

or continue to be the problem?

Questions?

ThankYou…