“Gottamnit Leroy!” exclaimed Fritz very irately. “Ju may play goot pitch. But ju’re a tamn disgrace ta da Jerman race!! … I vent down to Haby’s store and bought some of dat Alsatian sausage vit goot coriander for a nickel-a-link. Din I cuuked-tit-up and ate dat link sausage. … Din I pooped tit out, and put tit on my jard for da grass ta grow green. … I can’t believe ju Leroy—a Jerman—vasted dat poop like ju tid down da tamn poop-pot. You’re a tamn disgrace ta da Jerman race!”
“Hell Fritz!” exclaimed Bruno. “ JU’RE a tamn tschame ta all us Jermans. … I bought dat Haby-link-sausage, cuuked tit up, ate tit, pooped tit out … and I put tit on my wegatable garten. I can’t believe ju vasted dat sausage poop on dat tamn jard-grass!”
Leo jumped up off of his rickety old chair a-hollering. “I caan’t believe ju tamn squandervers … all of ju! I’m tschamed to play pitch vit all of j’all. I vent down ta Haby’s and got some of dat link sausage and cuuked tit. Din I cut dat casing and peeled tit off … weeery caaarefully. I ate dat goot link sausage and pooped tit out. Din I put dat poop in da casing and took tit down to Haby’s and told dat Leon Haby, ‘Leon, dis tamn sausage tastes like tschit! Give me my nickel back!’ Leon took a bite and said ‘Tamn!! You’re right! Here’s jur tamn nickel.’”
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This story from the Alsatian-German-Texan land in which my wife Betsy grew up was my usual introduction to the Second Law of Thermodynamics for years in my principles of biology class at St. Philip’s College. It was my attempt at a humorous story about how the Second Law of Thermodynamics was sort of miraculous circumvented by Leo. [I’d follow it up in class by holding up some good candy like a pecan praline in my hand, and ask if anyone wanted it. Of course a bunch of these hungry students appreciative of good candy did want it badly, and they pleaded, “I do!!” in unison. Then I plopped it in my mouth, chewed it up and swallowed it, and teased them with, “You can have it after I’m through with it!”]
The Second Law or Entropy Law was, I guess, briefly introduced to me in high school and college biology, physics and ecology. But it was economist Herman Daly*, Daly’s mentor Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, and ecologist David Pimentel and energetics scientist H.T. Odum who really made me cogitate on it.
The Second Law states that in a thermodynamic process, the total entropy, or “disorder”, of the participating systems increases. Also, as you transform energy which can not be created or destroyed, it tends toward uselessness. And: … You can’t recycle energy; recycling stuff always comes at a cost; perpetual motion is impossible; and growth economics will eventually hit the wall (or I guess it already has!).
There are many other implications of the Second Law of Thermodynamics in positively ethical applied community ecology which should be considered. Leon Haby’s nickel sausage was still useful as poop, but not as useful as it was in its store-bought form. And in using the sausage, each of the Alsatians did produce poop (or something which tasted like “tschit!”.
Fossil energy resulting from the (inefficient) capture of solar energy through photosynthesis over millions of years can be very useful. However, rampant transformation and use of this or any energy source also results in pollution, stress and socio-political/economic (ecological) destruction and chaos. Moreover, BIG, … and Fast, … and Complex–whether it be houses, automobiles; geothermal air-conditioning, photovoltaics, windtricity; conventional or “organic” or sustainable agricultural food/fiber/shelter systems; cities, towns or villages; schools, businesses, governments, churches, or do-good non-profits—can be very problematic for whole systems. … Order (in one system) creates Chaos (in another systems, communities, lives). Overdoing the built environment is detrimental to the natural resource base, biodiversity, and natural, efficient photosynthesis and biogeochemical and hydrological cycles. Too much Artificial destroys Nature.
“Small is Beautiful” (from E.F. Schumacher) and so are Slow and Simple. … And I’ll state again my Wendell Berry mantra:
“To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation. When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. In such desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness, and others to want.”
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* http://steadystate.org/thermodynamic-roots/