Foreword
Usually, when we talk about Energy Accounting as a hypothetical alternative to capitalism, we are discussing it from an ecological, structural and technical perspective. This is not surprising, by our very roots our movement is concerned with sustainability, and sustainability as a subject is connected to the objective physical reality of the world – a reality which as you know unfortunately doesn’t concern itself with morality or compassion or any human values for that matter.
The First Criterion for Sustainability – the Energy Survey
Written by ENRIQUE LESCURE
Introduction
The first of the Three Criteria is that humanity may not use more resources than the Earth can renew each year, and it is no coincidence it’s the first. After all, if we use more than our planet can renew each year we will be creeping towards a Mass Extinction Event (MXE) no matter how many sustainable technologies we are implementing and how little CO2 we are releasing.
Background
If you have read our article about the problems with the current monetary system, you know that it is addicted to exponential economic growth – something which is impossible within the near absolute constraints of a finite world. This can only mean one thing, and that is that we need to transition towards a different way of resource management – and one that can fulfill the three criteria outlined in this website.
Exergy for Resource Accounting
Written by Dr. Andrew Wallace PhD BEng(hons) EurIngAbstract
A hi-tech society utilises energy, materials and information. Such a society utilises automation as much as possible to reduce work thus in such a society in becomes useful to use a measure of energy for resource monitoring and allocation. The article looks at the exergy concept as a way to measure energy utilised, materials and information for a hi-tech resourced based economy such as one that uses an energy accounting system.