Premise ---- The author's lack of in-depth knowledge of biological and social anthropology, as well as thermodynamics, primarily leads to simplifications. These simplifications, however, are well-suited to an article not intended for publication in a scientific journal but simply included in the "Stay Fresh" column as food for thought and a stimulus for discussion on issues related to the climate crisis. --- Before I begin, I'd like to draw the attention of those who follow this column to the booklet " CLIMATE CRISIS: Critiques and Perspectives from an Anarchist Point of View ," edited by a working group of the Italian Anarchist Federation. This document frames and explores in a more structured manner the issue of climate change . Due to its global nature and its multiple implications for environmental, social, and economic issues, it is not only of interest to the entire planet Earth, but also allows for an analysis that inevitably relates to the complexity of the society in which we live.
https://umanitanova.org/crisi-climatica-critiche-e-prospettive-da-un-punto-di-vista-anarchico/
Energy for Homo sapiens
Life, even in its simplest forms-single-celled organisms-requires energy to perform its fundamental functions. Energy sources vary: plants directly harness the sun's energy through the process of photosynthesis; we humans depend on energy derived from the nutrients produced by other living things; we are heterotrophs. While the need to feed ourselves is primarily linked to survival, we cannot forget that the history of the species Homo sapiens and its evolution, not only in quantitative terms (in terms of the number of individuals), but also in social, economic, and cultural terms, is closely linked to the exploitation of various energy resources.
If we review the most significant stages in the evolution of the Homo genus, taking for granted the importance of the use of fire (starting 1.5 million years ago), we must certainly consider the transition from small groups of hunter-gatherers, who used only their own muscle energy to gather plants or capture prey, to the agricultural-breeding man, who managed to generate a food surplus from agricultural labor (controlled photosynthesis) and the exploitation of domesticated animals. This surplus contributed to the first leap in terms of the availability and accumulation of energy in the form of foodstuffs. The resulting management of more complex forms of aggregation favored a different structuring of social relationships, with the definition of new roles and functions and the parallel imposition of hierarchical relationships. While for millennia the primary energy source was wood, through its combustion and the use of animals as a labor force that partially replaced human muscle activity, we must remember that starting in the 17th century, the demand for wood-for the construction of houses, ships, and bridges, as fuel, and for the production of charcoal-became so high that it was no longer sustainable. As demand exceeded the regeneration capacity of forests, a well-known source, coal, gradually gained importance throughout the 18th century. Another technological innovation, the invention and improvement of the steam engine (James Watt 1765), brought about a further breakthrough, allowing coal to be exploited on a massive scale. Coal became the energy source that made the first industrial revolution possible, with all the consequences we know so well: urbanization, accelerated exploitation of human and environmental resources, and the rapid development of the capitalist system, to name just a few.
Humanity's inclination to subjugate and plunder natural resources did not originate with the Industrial Revolution or with the emergence of the first proto-state hierarchies. Homo sapiens tends to expand its ecological niche by dissipating residual energy whenever technically feasible, but its impact has become significant since the Industrial Revolution. Indeed, since the early twentieth century, it has been the use of other fossil fuels, first oil and then natural gas, that has "stretched the boundaries" of the prevailing economic model. The relationship between fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change has already been emphasized countless times; on this occasion, I would like to add a few more elements that, as mentioned at the outset, draw on physics, more specifically thermodynamics and studies in evolutionary anthropology.
Physics says so
It is therefore necessary to introduce the second law of thermodynamics, whose formulations closest to everyday experience are: (from Wikipedia)
* It is impossible to carry out a transformation whose sole result is the transfer of heat from a colder body to a hotter one without the contribution of external work» ( Clausius ).
* It is impossible to construct a cyclic heat engine whose sole result is the conversion into work of all the heat absorbed from a homogeneous source» ( Kelvin-Planck ) .
That is, it is impossible to build a heat engine with 100% efficiency . It is useful and appropriate, at this point, to introduce the concept of entropy. Entropy is a quantity interpreted as a measure of the "disorder" present in a physical system . This is a somewhat complicated concept to manage in a few lines, so I'll reduce it to an example. If we take a piece of wood and burn it, we go from a state of low entropy (in which the C, H, and O atoms are bonded together in an orderly fashion to form cellulose fibers) to a state of high entropy (in which CO2 molecules, ash, and heat are dispersed ) . Broadening our perspective, while remaining within a simplistic framework, we can argue that every economic process transforms low-entropy energy (useful resources, fossil fuels, rare minerals) into high-entropy energy (waste heat, CO2 , non-recyclable waste).
I would add that even the idea of implementing extensive recycling processes clashes with the inexorable increase in entropy. That is, from an energetic perspective, even 100% recycling of materials is physically counterproductive because it in turn requires energy, generating a further increase in entropy. It is therefore the energetic-thermodynamic constraint that explains why the exploitation of resources for exponential growth, the basis of the capitalist system, is on a collision course with a finite, low-entropy stock of resources.
Can we free ourselves from a model that accelerates the increase in entropy?
The success of the energy-intensive model established in the "Capitalocene," according to several evolutionary anthropology studies, exploits the mismatch between a Paleolithic brain and a technologically omnipotent environment. That is, a brain that evolved slowly in a hostile environment, where scarcity and the struggle for survival were the daily obstacles to overcome-an ancestral brain inherited from our ancestors-now finds itself in a totally different, rapidly changing environment, and is easily influenced by the countless stimuli to which it is constantly subjected. Evolutionary anthropology studies are closely associated with those of medicine, given the impact of this evolutionary discrepancy on human health. Let's look at some examples.
- Metabolism and nutrition: Our ancestors had to deal with food scarcity by developing a metabolism adapted to extracting the maximum number of calories from ingested foods and storing energy as body fat. A fundamental advantage in times of famine turns into a disadvantage when we have a constant abundance of high-calorie and refined foods, making us more vulnerable to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other diet-related chronic conditions.
- Neurobiology and mental health: In an ancestral environment, the "fight or flight" response provided a fundamental survival strategy for dealing with dangerous situations that required a rapid response. A surge in cortisol and adrenaline prepared the body for fight or flight. The chronic stress we are subjected to in modern society-from work, intense competition, and intensified commitments, combined with a constant flow of information-keeps our bodies in a constant state of alert, with negative consequences for the immune system, cardiovascular health, sleep, and mental well-being.
- musculoskeletal system: a body "calibrated" to sustain intense muscular activity develops pathological conditions when forced to remain sedentary and/or assume prolonged postures.
Continuing our reasoning, however, it would not be risky to evaluate how this same "disconnection" offers a very powerful weapon of persuasion to those who pursue profit by supporting the consumerist approach that translates into a "bulimic mania to buy, own, and throw away" addressed, thanks to an increasingly widespread and penetrating technological apparatus, to an audience of more than eight billion individuals.
What hasn't been sufficiently emphasized until now is that the capitalist system actually accelerates entropy growth, which is why it must be criticized not only from a social and ethical perspective, but also from a thermodynamic perspective. This economic model, with the centralized megastructures that underpin it (the state, Big Tech, global logistics, militarism), is thermodynamically unsustainable because it dissipates enormous amounts of energy not only in production and distribution cycles, but also to maintain its bureaucratic and structural complexity.
Anarchist organization cannot transcend the laws of physics and must no longer be proposed merely as a minority ethical and political choice, but as the only adaptive survival niche for the human species . Anarchist, mutualistic, decentralized, self-managed networks are not only "fairer," but are the only low-entropy structures capable of surviving on a finite planet while respecting the environment and living things, ensuring egalitarianism, freedom, and social justice.
MarTa
https://umanitanova.org/stiamo-freschi-il-taccuino-della-crisi-climatica-la-fisica-condanna-il-capitale/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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