Thermodynamic footprints

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. Looks like good work.

Seeing the world in terms of fundamentals like energy is SO important right now. We get so blinded by secondary things like economic metrics.
I have to ask though, is entropy the right concept? I mean is it meaningful in the context of an open system with energy always pouring in from the sun?

Okay, off my tablet so I can actually type. Yeah, what I was wondering is, we always have this increase in entropy, but we also have this increase in terms of what comes in from the sun. So ... My question is, could we express things in terms of a deficit? I mean, solar power manifests as:
1) collectible solar energy
2) energy held in plants that can be used in bio-fuel solutions (the kind that don't get rid of food, like the algae of course)
3) Thermal differences that create wind, so wind energy.

(A few other energy sources exist in tidal and geothermal, not directly traceable to current sunlight. )

So all that makes up our natural energy revenue. The energy in fossil fuel comes from sunlight millions of years ago making plants. So we're spending more than we make right now. But what exactly is that deficit?