Taking care of the Earth with an eco-centric approach based on minimal entropy production

Promoting biodiversity can be managed in two ways, i.e. by protecting species, and by improving the environment of the specific ecosystem, also called the boundary conditions for species. Species protection is an energetic approach for a sustainable transition of biotic energy in the food pyramid. The contribution of ecosystem protection to biodiversity is formulated in the energy-like niche approach of an ecological community of trophic similar species. Hubbel analysed in his monograph “The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography” the dispersion approach based on the migration and off spring of species within a specific ecosystem inspired by Fisher (1943) and the Island Biography of MacArthur and Wilson (1967). This is the entropy-like approach because the mean result of the species distribution is formalized by a lognormal distribution which implies the statistical Shannon entropy with the standard deviation as substantial parameter.

Why should we, humans, protect biodiversity? Is it purely for aesthetic arguments since all species – just like humans – have a role in the food pyramid? Is it because any non-human biological life is entitled with intrinsic or inherent moral values as claimed by a specific eco-philosophy school called Deep Ecology? Perhaps, there are more scientifically based arguments for good sustainable maintenance of our Earth?

The entropic approach and enlarged biodiversity is supported by Penrose´s claim that biologic life is lowering the entropy production rate of Earth. Out of the thermodynamic equilibrium, the Earth’s Helmholtz Free Energy is balancing around a minimum value enabling to produce an environment (boundary condition) for biotic life. Its entropy must be at minimum value given a constant mean temperature. As a consequence, minimum entropy implies maximum order so that any ecosystem tends to maximum biodiversity given the local boundary conditions for life. Can the entropy argument be considered as a pure eco-centric inspired ecological care in contrast to the energy/food argument which is definitely based on Enlightened anthropocentrism? We will elaborate about this during the presentation. To conclude, the minimal entropy production of the Planet can be considered as the reference physical standard to aim at for taking care of ecosystems and biodiversity.