Sunlight streaming, green leaves photosynthesizing

CO2 from the air, water and nutrients from the soil,
building carbohydrates (sugars and fibres),
building tall canopies for more green leaves
photosynthesizing more sunlight.

Water carrying nutrients from the soil through

mycorrhiza, roots, stems, and branches to
sunlight bathed photosynthesizing leaves,
evaporating, cooling leaves and forests,
re-humidifying air, recycling water
across landscapes, valleys and mountains
– bringing life to all it touches -
expanding life on planet Earth

Fallen leaves stabilizing and enriching the soil,

enhancing nutrients, porosity, water holding capacity.
Roots interlocking, binding mountain slopes,
stabilizing mountains, streams, and rivers.

Sunlight energizing our planet

leaves capturing a portion of this energy
breathing, respiring
creating order and stability,
soil, food, and habitat.

"The energy that sustains all living systems (including human) is solar energy, fixed in photosynthesis and held
briefly in the biosphere before it is reradiated into space as heat.

Photosynthesis is the process whereby sunlight, high intensity, shortwave energy, is absorbed by chlorophyll in
green plants, combined with carbon dioxide from the air, hydrogen, and oxygen from water and minerals from
the soil, and converted to chemical energy in the form of carbohydrates.

This chemical energy becomes the roots, leaves, stem, branches, flowers, and fruits of the plant. And when the
plant drops its leaves or bark, or dies and falls to the ground, it becomes the all-important organic component
of the soil.

In combination with more photosynthesis in succeeding generations of plants, this ever-increasing reservoir of
organic energy slowly builds topsoil, perhaps one inch every five hundred years. Occasionally, during volcanic
eruptions, floods, or landslides, some of the organic material is buried in geologic substrates under the surface
of the land or in the ocean floor and eventually through millions of years becomes coal and oil.

It is solar energy that moves the rabbit, the dog, the boy on the bicycle, my pencil, and my computer.

Forests, which cover about a tenth of the Earth's surface, photosynthesize almost half of the biosphere's total
energy." (G. Woodwell, The Energy Cycle of the Biosphere, The Biosphere, Scientific American, 1970).

"All life on Earth equally depends on the photosynthesis that occurs in Earth's oceans. A rich diversity of
marine phytoplankton, found in the upper 100 m of oceans, accounts only for 1% of the total photosynthetic
biomass, but this virtually invisible forest accounts for nearly 50% of the net primary productivity of the
biosphere." (Donald A. Bryant, The beauty in small things revealed, PNAS, August 19, 2003)
The quantity of solar energy photosynthesized determines the total life possible on Earth.
The types and quality of photosynthetic energy flows determine the kinds of life possible on our planet.

Photosynthetic processes intertwine with climate, food production, economics, and human civilization.

Change the type of vegetation which grows on and in the soil, or change the microclimate near the surface, and the
organic, moisture and nutrient content and texture of the soil begins to change.
Changes in the distribution and type of vegetation or reduction of leaf surface area, over a large area will cause
changes in the climate of that area and related areas.

DEVELOPMENT AND EVOLUTION OF THE ECOSYSTEM

Excerpts from E. Odum, Fundamentals of Ecology (3rd Ed.), Chapter 9, 1971

THE STRATEGY OF ECOSYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

Ecosystem development, or what is more often known as ecological succession, may be defined in terms of the
following three parameters: (1) It is an orderly process of community development that involves changes in species
structure and community processes with time; it is reasonably directional and, therefore, predictable. (2) It results
from modification of the physical environment by the community; that is, succession is community-controlled even
though the physical environment determines the patterns, the rate of change, and often set limits as to how far
development can go. (3) It culminates in a stabilized ecosystem in which maximum biomass (or high information
content) and symbiotic function between organisms are maintained per unit of available energy flow. The whole
sequence of communities that replaces one another in a given area is called the sere; the relatively transitory
communities are variously called serial stages or developmental stages or pioneer stages, while the terminal
stabilized system is known as the climax. Species replacement in the sere occurs because populations tend to
modify the physical environment, making conditions favourable for other populations until equilibrium between
biotic and abiotic is achieved.

Succession involves a fundamental shift in energy flows, as increasing energy is used for maintenance and system
stability.

In a word, the "strategy" of succession as a short-term process is the same s the "strategy" of the long-term
evolutionary development of the biosphere, namely, increased control of, or homeostasis with, the physical
environment in the sense of achieving maximum protection from perturbations. The development of ecosystems has
many parallels in the developmental biology of organisms, and also in the development of human society.

SYSTEMS ECOLOGY: RESPIRATION – MAINTAINING INTERNAL ORDER AND STABILITY

Excerpts from E. Odum, Fundamentals of Ecology (3rd Ed.) Chapters 3, 1971

Maintaining internal order is the number one priority in any complex system of the real world. The continual work
of pumping out "disorder" is necessary if one wishes to maintain internal "order" and stability. (H. T. Odum, 1967,
building on the concepts of E. Schrodinger, 1945, and A. J. Lotka, 1925). In any living organism, respiration is
the process that pumps out disorder and maintains internal order. In the ecosystem, "order" in terms of a complex
biomass structure is maintained by the total community respiration, which continually pumps out disorder and waste
heat.

Respiration pumps out disorder - heat and waste. The scientific term for disorder is entropy.

CONCEPT OF PRODUCTIVITY

Basic or primary productivity of an ecological system, community, or any part thereof, is defined as the rate at
which radiant energy is stored by photosynthetic and chemosynthetic activity of producer organisms (chiefly green
plants) in the form of organic substances which can be used as food materials. It is important to distinguish between
Gross Primary Productivity and Net Primary Productivity. Gross primary productivity is the total rate of
photosynthesis, including the organic matter used up in respiration during the measurement period. This is also
known as "total photosynthesis" or "total assimilation." Net primary productivity is the rate of storage of organic
matter in plant tissues in excess of the respiratory utilization by the plants during the period of measurement. This is
also called "apparent photosynthesis" or "net assimilation." In all these definitions, the term" productivity" and the
phrase" rate of production" may be used interchangeably. Even when the term" production" is used to designate an
amount of accumulated organic matter, a time element is always assumed or understood, as, for example, a year
when we speak of agricultural crop production. To avoid confusion, the time interval should always be stated.

The keyword in the above definition is rate; the time element must be considered, that is, the amount of energy
fixed in a given time. Biological productivity thus differs from "yield" in the chemical or industrial sense, in the
latter case the reaction ends with the production of a given amount of material; in biological communities, the
process is continuous in time, so that it is necessary to designate a time unit; for example, the amount of food
manufactured per day or per year.

In more general terms, the productivity of an ecosystem refers to its "richness." While a rich or productive
community may have a larger quantity of organisms than a less productive community, this is by no means always
the case. Standing biomass or standing crops present at any given time should not be confused with productivity.
 The overall relationships between GPP, Respiration (energy used for system maintenance and stability), and NPP
(standing biomass) can perhaps be explained by a graphic model.

Leaf area index, as plotted along the x-axis of

the graph, represents a measure of
photosynthetic biomass. Maximum rate of net
production is obtained when the leaf area
index is about 4 (that is, the leaf surface
exposed to light is four times the ground
surface), but maximum gross production is
reached when leaf area index reaches 8 to 10,
which is the level found in mature forests.

Photosynthetic Assimilation, Carbon Sequestration, Respiration, System Maintenance, and Stability

Excerpts from P. Kreger, Energy Flow Through Watersheds, California Resources Agency, 1980 and
A Curriculum for Green Corps – Forth, Mersey, and Wilmot Watersheds, Greening Australia/Forestry Tasmania, 2004

Some comments about the graphic model:

• Photosynthetic Assimilation (GPP) provides energy for growing roots, stems, branches, leaves, seeds & fruits
(NPP).
• Photosynthetic Assimilation also provides energy for system maintenance and stability (Respiration).
• Respiration pumps out heat waste, cools the forest, and thus maintains optimum conditions for photosynthesis.
• The GPP and NPP curves in the graphic model show rates of increase in productivity in relation to leaf area
exposed to light per square centimetre of forest floor. The more leaves available to capture light, the better the
productivity. A diversity of plants, some capturing direct light, and others indirect light, also improve
productivity. The rich diversity and layering of plants and leaves in a relatively mature forest ecosystem have
many species arranged in a structure that apportions the available solar energy as effectively and efficiently as
possible.
• The NPP curve indicates that the rate of increase in production of standing biomass peaks at leaf area index of
4 and then slows. The accumulation of biomass continues, albeit more slowly, on to leaf area index 8 to 10.
• The gap between NPP and GPP is Respiration – the energy used for system maintenance and stability.
o Intense light energy from the sun provides energy for photosynthesis, but only a small portion of the
light hitting a leaf is used in photosynthesis. A significant portion of the intense energy is converted to
heat at the surface of the leaf. The tree evaporates water through the leaves to prevent overheating, to
maintain conditions optimum for photosynthesis, and life.
o Photosynthesis in the leaf is a thermodynamic process. Solar energy is being transformed into
carbohydrates. In all transformations of energy, a significant portion of the energy being transformed
becomes low-grade heat waste.
o Water evaporating through leaves of trees, cools the leaves, cools the forest, and recycles water
across landscapes.
• Water recycling through forests is broadly correlated with the rate of GPP and associated Respiration.
Maximum recycling of water vapour occurs beyond leaf area index 8.
• Optimum biodiversity and community stability are attained above leaf area index of 9 or 10.
 • Maximum storage of carbon in the biomass occurs beyond leaf area index 8.
• Photosynthetic Assimilation builds on itself, not merely preserving life but increasing the capacity of a site to
support life. In so doing, it stabilizes the biological community and its geographical area.

The natural patterns of energy flow - thermodynamics:

Energy is neither made nor destroyed, but it does change form – from intense to less intense.
Every time we transform energy, it losses quality and usefulness - and much of the energy being transformed
degrades to heat waste and disorder (entropy) into our habitat and biosphere -
the more energy we use, the more entropy we make.
 The First and Second Laws of Energy
Excerpts from G. Tyler Miller, Living in the Environment, Chapter 3, 8th Ed.

FIRST LAW OF ENERGY: Energy is neither made nor destroyed – but it does change form. After making
millions of measurements, scientists have observed energy being changed from one form to another in physical and
chemical changes, but they have never been able to detect any energy being created or destroyed. This summary of
what happens in nature is called the law of conservation of energy, also known as the first law of energy or the first
law of thermodynamics. This law does not apply to nuclear changes, however, where energy can be produced from
small amounts of matter. This law means that when one form of energy is converted to another form in any physical or
chemical change, energy input always equals energy output: We can't get something for nothing in terms of energy
quantity.

SECOND LAW OF ENERGY: As energy changes form, it goes from intense to less intense. Because the first law of
energy states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, you might think that there will always be enough energy;
yet, if you fill a car's tank with gasoline and drive around, or if you use a flashlight battery until it is dead, you have lost
something. If it isn't energy, what is it? The answer is energy quality.

Countless experiments have shown that in any conversion of energy from one form to another, there is always a
decrease in energy quality (the amount of useful energy). These findings are expressed in the second law of energy, or
the second law of thermodynamics: When energy is changed from one form to another, some of the useful energy is
always degraded to lower-quality, more dispersed (higher-entropy), less useful energy. This degraded energy is usually
in the form of heat, which flows into the environment and is dispersed by the random motion of air or water molecules.
In other words, we can't break even in terms of energy quality because energy always goes from a more useful to a less
useful form. The more energy we use, the more low-grade energy (heat), or entropy, we add to the environment. No one
has ever found a violation of this fundamental scientific law.
Consider two examples of the second energy law in action. First, when a car is driven, only about 10% of the high-
quality chemical energy available in its gasoline fuel is converted into mechanical energy to propel the vehicle and into
electrical energy to run its electrical systems. The remaining 90% is degraded heat that is released into the environment
and eventually lost into space. Second, when electrical energy flows through filament wires in an incandescent light
bulb, it is changed into about 5% useful light and 95% low-quality heat that flows into the environment. What we call a
light bulb is really a heat bulb.

The second energy law also means that we can never recycle or reuse high-quality energy to perform useful work. Once
the concentrated energy in a piece of food, a litre of gasoline, a lump of coal, or a chunk of uranium is released, it is
degraded to low-quality heat that becomes dispersed in the environment. We can heat air or water at a low temperature
and upgrade it to high-quality energy, but the second energy law tells us that it will take more high-quality energy to do
this than we get in return.

LIFE AND THE SECOND ENERGY LAW

Life represents a creation and maintenance of ordered structures. Thus you might be tempted to think that life is not
governed by the second law of thermodynamics.

However, to form and preserve the highly ordered arrangement of molecules and the organized network of chemical
changes in your body, you must continually get and use high-quality matter and energy resources from your
surroundings. As you use these resources, you add low-quality (high-entropy) heat and waste matter to your
surroundings. For example, your body continuously gives off heat equal to that of a 100-watt light bulb; this is the
reason a closed room full of people gets warm. You also continually give off molecules of carbon dioxide gas and
water vapour, which become dispersed in the atmosphere.
Planting, growing, processing, and cooking food all require high-quality energy and matter resources that add low-
quality (high-entropy) heat and waste materials to the environment. In addition, enormous amounts of low-quality heat
and waste matter are added to the environment when concentrated deposits of minerals and fuels are extracted from the
Earth's crust, processed, and used to make roads, clothes, shelter, and other items or burned to heat or cool buildings or
to transport you.

Because of the second energy law, the more energy we use (and waste), the more disorder (entropy) we create in the
environment. The second law of energy tells us that we can't avoid this entropy trap, but we can reduce or minimize
our production of entropy.

All life on Earth is an expression of energy flow

Excerpts from R. R. Curry, Watershed Form and Process, 1975, and Bobcat Notes, 1976

All systems, animate and inanimate, from grains of sand to microorganisms, and from watersheds to ecosystems, work
within the natural patterns of thermodynamics.

Observations of "thermodynamically efficient processes" in natural systems reveal some fundamental patterns of
behaviour, action, reaction, and interaction:

• Sunlight photosynthesized by green plants powers life on Earth.

• Plants absorb sunlight, store energy in the form of sequestered carbon, build communities, and strive to
influence and stabilize their living space.
• These "natural systems" are self-regulating patterns of beings and forces, which take care of themselves and
each other. [Self-regulating mechanisms are mechanisms that bring about a return to constancy if a system is
caused to change from the stable state by a momentary outside influence.]
• Direct interactions (cell-to-cell, root-to-root, face-to-face exchanges within and across species) are those which
enable the self-regulation of life to happen.
• Stability in the community is enhanced by the mutually supportive interactions of a diversity of beings.
• Matter and energy are moved around as little as possible–to minimize entropy (waste and disorder).
• Information is moved around as much as possible–to maximize synergy (efficiency and cooperation), to
minimize entropy (waste and discord).
• Open and honest information flows – unobstructed feedback loops – are the processes that allow individuals
and groups to self-regulate and self-correct.
• Open-flow feedback loops are necessary for maximizing potential benefits to the ecological community and
achieving economic efficiency in the use of available solar energy and mineral resources.

No organism, no mind, can know everything or see the whole picture. Free flow of information provides opportunities
for many minds to focus on an issue and share their differing views, and thus develop larger mental descriptions and
concepts. The greater the diversity of viewpoints and the more honest the information flow, the more complete the
picture. Full-on competition of ideas and processes, continual feedback, expansion of mental processes, reduction of
corruption, all enable continuous adjustment toward high efficiency / low entropy outcomes.
 Excerpt from P. Kreger, Energy Flow Through Watersheds, California Resources Agency, 1980

Forests stabilize micro and macro climates by:

• Photosynthesizing sunlight through green leaves

• Absorbing carbon dioxide from the air
• Accumulating carbon in standing biomass – roots, stems, branches, and leaves – growing tall canopies for
more efficient photosynthesis
• Providing energy for respiration, pumping out heat waste and disorder
• Evaporating water through leaves, dissipating heat to improve photosynthetic efficiency and cool forest areas
• Recycling water vapour across valleys and mountains, increasing precipitation in marginal areas
• Minimizing soil erosion with layers of leaf litter and growing interlocking root systems that help stabilize
seasonally unstable hills and mountains
• Adding nutrient-rich fallen leaves to the soil which becomes humus enabling forest soils to store more water
and carbon than most other soils
• Increasing the capacity of a site to support life, building on itself, stabilizing the site and the biota. Mineral
nutrients are conserved and re-circulated, offering opportunities for more life.
• Building climax communities that are stable, self-regulating, self-healing and resilient
• Assisting in the essential global recycling of water, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen — without expending fossil
fuels.
• Influencing the wind, temperature, humidity, precipitation, soil, and water and energy flow in ways often
discovered only after the forests are cut, and these functions are reduced or lost.
• Maintaining high efficiency, low entropy processes: matter and energy are moved around as little as possible to
minimize entropy (waste and disorder), information is moved around as much as possible to maximize synergy
(efficiency and cooperation), to reduce entropy (waste and discord).
• Providing energy for biosphere system maintenance and stability.
 the more energy we use, the more entropy we make

Modern humans have a propensity to over-centralize and over-industrialize food production and forest management
processes. We contrive long and complex energy transformation chains requiring equally complex management
systems and government subsidies.

Recently we have evolved economic/industrial systems where

• A kilogram of food has a carbon footprint of three to four kilograms.
• We harvest, transport, and burn carbon-sequestering climate stabilizing forests to generate "renewable energy."
• Ecological and economic resources are exploited, financial systems are manipulated, profits are siphoned off
to corporations and non-resident shareholders while disparities in wealth increase and communities become
less resilient.
• We make too much disorder (entropy) in our biosphere, destabilize climate, and threaten our children's future.

In project management, we observe that every administrative layer has a minimum twenty-five percent energy flow
overhead (often, these overheads are much higher). These observations and calculations can be applied to most human
processes, projects and activities, economic structures, corporations, and government systems.

As a student of history and science, a project manager, and a manager of risk, I look at the steps and sequences needed
to enhance food security, community resiliency, and climate stability. The significant steps are:
• Understanding and respecting the natural patterns of thermodynamics and evolving away from high entropy
processes. Maybe we become a nation of gardeners, seed collectors, tree planters, and innovators - growing
food, saving energy, shrinking greenhouse gas emissions.
• Working with forests to maximize total photosynthetic productivity, thus enhancing carbon sequestration,
respiration (entropy pump out), and biosphere maintenance and stability.
• Facilitating the planting and nurturing of food trees and shrubs in forests – providing meaningful activity for
people of all ages, enhancing food security, democracy, and community sustainability.
• Setting up a framework to empower communities to manage wealth-producing resources – forests and
watersheds – for carbon sequestration, climate stabilization, and food security.
• Devolving, as much as possible, administrative layers and functions to local communities – to save energy,
conserve wealth, stimulate innovation, enhance economic multiplier effects, diminish disparities in the
distribution of wealth, and strengthen democracy.
• Encouraging and facilitating community ownership of electrical systems. In many places, overhead lines will
go underground, and there will be much less need for large grid systems - resulting in improved efficiency,
security, and resiliency. Solar, wind, and evolving energy storage technologies make this possible.
_________

Five hundred years ago, one of every four trees in the Eastern forests of North America was a food tree. Forest
canopies were tall; total photosynthetic productivity was high. Riparian vegetation provided shade and nutrients to
streams and rivers. The waters were rich with aquatic life. The biological and climate systems were stable. Human
civilizations thrived in this environment. Their wealth was in nuggets of golden sunshine processed and stored by the
leaves of trees and shrubs in seeds, fruits, nuts, and berries. Photosynthesised energy provided food, security,
community stability, and resiliency.

Today, as then, our survival as human beings depends on the real-world economy of photosynthetic productivity.

I hold title on the leftovers of an old farm (17 Ha) in the Torbrook geologic formation near Clementsvale, Annapolis County,
Nova Scotia. The soil is granitic with a bit of marine shale with small amounts of calcium – in the context of modern
economics, "relatively poor." This old farm was economically viable as long as the family living here was comfortable with a
life powered by sunlight, green leaves, horses, and growing enough food to sustain themselves and the community. The farm
became unviable when the family bought a vehicle that required highly processed concentrated energy that came from far
away. Mortgages, budget deficits, and clear-fell logging came soon after. And then came acid rain.
The key to restoring this farm is to rebuild the soil. Rebuilding the soil requires re-growing the forest. Forests, because their
canopies and varying layers of leaves are efficient photo-synthesizers. Their roots go deep to bring up bits of calcium to
neutralize the acidity from the rain. Sunlight through green leaves builds carbohydrates. Decaying carbohydrates, fallen
leaves, branches, and insects rebuild the soil. As the forest and soil are restored, prosperity returns. However, even when
fully restored, this land will never be rich enough to sustain a gasoline-powered vehicle.

This parcel of land will sustain eight to ten people (maybe more) carefully tending gardens and orchards, fruit and nut trees
in the forest. Trimming lower branches of spruce, oak, and fir for fuelwood and protecting the forest from wildfire, disease,
and insect infestations. People residing in small superefficient fireproof structures with attached thermal banking
greenhouses (for growing food, heating and cooling year-round), using rocket stoves with thermal mass benches (more heat,
much less fuel, clean burn) - and bicycles.

If we are going to survive, this is maybe the future for a lot of us. Living close to the land, growing food, shortening energy
transformation chains, evolving and praising low-entropy processes, finding synchronicity, protecting photosynthesizing,
(carbon sequestering, climate stabilizing) forests - melting and reforming glass, copper, aluminum, and iron -
teaching our children music, biology, physics, ecology, economics, art, history, and respect for divine processes.

Scientists tell us that there are already enough greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and oceans to destabilize global climate
for the next thousand or more years.*

We may need some geoengineering in our attempts to stave off catastrophic climate change, but our future depends on
healthy forests, streams, rivers, and oceans.

Communities of empowered people, growing enough food to feed themselves, and fortunate enough to be surrounded by
forests and water, may well be able to sustain social order, adapt, and survive.

*Susan Soloman, et al., Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions, 2009
https://www.pnas.org/content/106/6/1704

https://report.ipcc.ch/srocc/pdf/SROCC_SPM_Approved.pdf

Climate Change Will Cost Us Even More Than We Think

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/opinion/climate-change-costs.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=
Homepage

David B Lauterwasser, The Collapse of Global Civilization Has Begun, Nov. 2017
https://medium.com/@FeunFooPermaKra/the-collapse-of-global-civilization-has-begun-b527c649754c

J. P. Kreger, 2019 j.paul.kreger@gmail.com

In philosophy, as in practice, high entropy processes are counterproductive. Low entropy processes enhance life, beauty, joy, and goodwill.