In the previous two messages, I used the word mess instead of the thermodynamic term entropy. Excuse me for sneaking science into some light-hearted fun-with-words. I also made some everyday language inferences that are based on the second law of thermodynamics. Whenever you do anything, you make a mess. Even cleaning up a mess makes a mess. That is equivalent to: the entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease, which begs explanation.
The current buzz is that there is already too much information coming at us, and another science lecture isn't going to help. I disagree. If we rely on the fight-or-flight (or-freeze-or-fawn-or-feint-or-faint) response to deal with the climate emergency, we will be rushing off wildly in all directions or denying that it is real or leaving it up to God or drinking the kool-aid. Better to learn what we need to know to fix things. That often involves some math. Sorry.
Here are some things that have caught my attention recently.
Nuclear, wind and solar power have amazingly low carbon footprints: Carbonbrief.org (2017)
Everything Under the Sun: David Suzuki and Ian Hanington, The David Suzuki Institute (2022)
The Thermodynamics of Earth: Buchanan, M. Nature Phys 13, 106 (2017)
Getting Skeptical about Global Warming Skepticism: Skepticalscience.com (current)
We've got climate change under control...apparently: Just Have Another Think (2022)
Just to let you know I'm still following you -- math and all.
ReplyDeleteYou may notice that I'm still stuck in language and poetry. But I acknowledge the very close connection between poetry, music and math. Hang in there.
I am smiling.
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