This is why efficiency is only putting costs elsewhere. https://twitter.com/buildsoil/status/1265526118435733504

Here are some notes I took from Odum a while ago on the relationship between efficiency and power in systems. Every time something happens it is the result of a transformation of the energy and materials of a previous process. Sunlight becomes grass, grass becomes bison, etc.

imaging these transformations in the simplest form of a weight lifting another weight on a pulley. first scenario they are balanced. 1 kg and 1 kg. This would be 100% efficiency. 1 in 1 out. But nothing happens. There is no way for work to be done. zero energy transferred/time.

Next the opposite scenario. 1 kg pulling zero. This is 0% efficient and it’s just pure loss without any work being done.

So neither of these scenarios transfer energy meaningfully. Let’s look at a middle scenario: 1 kg lifting 0.5 kg. Work happens! The 2nd weight is lifted! Half of the energy is lost to make it happen. Turns out this is a law of thermodynamics. this could be a continuous process.

Turns out that if we graph this to show the power flow level for every efficiency it looks like this:

Everything in the world is a transfer of energy. Converging networks.

And over time processes work to maximize power. To dissipate energy. And to do meaningful work. They optimize not at 100% efficiency but that maximum power for the whole system by using some of their higher quality energy to shape and direct the processes that lead to it

But this is why we must not trust when someone looks at a single transfer and argues for the “most efficient”. This by definition means that any work happening has to be subsidized out of view.

Those losses from inefficiency ARE how work gets done. If efficiency is being maximized someone’s labor is being ignored.

Maybe it’s ancient sunlight locked in geologically compressed phytoplankton.

Maybe it’s bad slave labor conditions making cashews the easiest food for you to digest.

Maybe it’s the result of imperialism, soil loss, unvalued labor

You want to actually stop depending on out of sight exploitation? Start patterning the places and systems where you are for max power flow but know that requires less efficiency. Respect that payment of energy to entropy that lets the universe happen.

Understanding how things are formed helps us understand their position in trophic webs: networks of transformation. https://twitter.com/buildsoil/status/1245482032953569280?s=21

All of these hidden costs make it so that we miss evaluate and miss compare the various options and components that we have. The more hidden transformations the more efficient something seems if taking an isolation

This is the danger in relying on energy return on investment for evaluating what should be done. Instead we need to look at EMergy return on investment which is a measure of the total system energy required to make the thing or sustain the process

This is why we often find that tech solutions or high-tech renewable energy is pushed over investing directly in improving primary productivity and storage of energy in the form of clean water healthy ecosystems stable soils. Which are far better bases for ensure vast power flows

They seem like amazing scalable tools because they are so apparently efficient But by definition they will be unable to pay for the total true costs