|
|
Article: Entropy: Into the Greenhouse World.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- November 10, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Entropy: Into the Greenhouse World
JEREMY RIFKIN's Entropy: Into the Greenhouse World (first published in 1980 but now reissued in an updated and expanded edition) dismisses humanity's progress over the past three centuries as illusion because it rests on a false world view based on Newtonian mechanics. Instead, Rifkin offers an alternative world view, based on a sometimes literal but often metaphorical interpretation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, as embodied in the concept of entropy. Originally, "entropy" was a specific term used to describe the part of a closed system's thermal energy that is not available for conversion into mechanical work. In recent ...