Thermodynamic footprints [View all]

[GliderGuider]

I've been developing a concept I call the "Thermodynamic Footprint". It's sort of like an ecological footprint, but it has different goals.

This work has two purposes: to measure the entropy a nation's energy use is bringing into the world, and also to measure the change in entropy per person (or collectively) over time. I'm measuring entropy because it's fundamental to the formation of both physical and social structure in the world. I don't know how "useful" it will turn out to be as a measure, but it's interesting.

Calculating a TF is very simple: it's the ratio of the total amount of energy a person uses in their daily life to the amount they would use if they used no external energy except for food. the result is a number that says how many peoples' worth of entropy an individual creates. If someone used no additional energy beyond food, their TF value would be 1.0.

To keep it simple, I use the ratio of CO2 per capita for a country (or the world as a whole) over the 0.9 kg/day of CO2 an average person at rest generates from burning food. I then multiply the ratio by a calculated factor to account for the addition of hydro and nuclear electricity, since all energy use creates entropy.

Here are some preliminary results.

First, the global average TF at various times since 1800:


The average individual TF in 1800 was just over 1, since not much fossil fuel or electricity was in use yet. By 1900 it was about 5, meaning that each person was creating the entropy of five "unassisted" people. by 2010 the TF of an "average" world citizen was about 19.

Now let's see how TF compares across different nations:


The USA is about 65, while Bangladesh is just over 2 - no big surprises there.

I find the next graph very interesting. By multiplying the TF figures from the first graph by the world population in those years, I calculated the "Thermodynamic Population" of the world through time, reflecting both increasing energy consumption and the growing world population.


In 1800 the actual world population was just under 1 billion, and the "thermodynamic population" was just over a billion. By 2010, the world's numeric population was 6.85 billion, while the thermodynamic population had ballooned to the equivalent of 132 billion people.

There is potentially much more to be discovered here, but one thing jumps out at me immediately. TF is probably a very good proxy for the "AT" term in the infamous I=PAT equation. From this we can determine that the total impact humanity is having on the planet today is about 130 times the impact we were having 200 years ago. Is it any wonder we're getting into a jam?