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Re: Ecological Economics and Entropy



Jay Hanson <jhanson@ilhawaii.net> wrote:

>                           The corresponding
>human population is a function of per capita rates of material
>consumption and waste output or net productivity divided by
>per capita demand (Rees 1990).  This formulation is a simple
>restatement of Hardin's (1991) "Third Law of Human Ecology":
>
>(Total human impact on the ecosphere) =
>                         (Population) x (Per capita impact).

 
This remarkable passage demonstrates ignorance of the meaning of
"function of", "Law" and "=".  It confuses measurement with
arithmetical tautology.  It blithly assumes that "impact" is
defineable, and that "ecosphere" is something separate from "human."
 
All in all quite a performance.
 
                              -dlj.



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