Editing Pessimism (section)

=== Entropy pessimism ===
{{See also|Heat death of the universe|Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen #The relevance of thermodynamics to economics|Ecological economics #Methodology}}
[[File:Diagram of natural resource flows-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.2 |Natural resources flow through the economy and end up as waste and pollution.]]
"Entropy pessimism" represents a special case of technological and environmental pessimism, based on [[Thermodynamics|thermodynamic principles]].<ref name="ra01" />{{rp|116}} According to the [[Laws of thermodynamics#First law|first law of thermodynamics]], matter and energy is neither created nor destroyed in the economy. According to the [[Laws of thermodynamics#Second law|second law of thermodynamics]]—also known as [[Entropy|the entropy law]]—what happens in the economy is that all matter and energy is transformed from states available for human purposes (valuable [[natural resource]]s) to states unavailable for human purposes (valueless [[waste]] and [[pollution]]). In effect, all of man's technologies and activities are only speeding up the general march against a future planetary "heat death" of degraded energy, exhausted natural resources and a deteriorated environment—a state of maximum entropy locally on earth; "locally" on earth, that is, when compared to the [[heat death of the universe]], taken as a whole.

The term "entropy pessimism" was coined to describe the work of [[Romanian American]] economist [[Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen]], a [[List of people considered father or mother of a scientific field|progenitor]] in [[economics]] and the [[Paradigm shift#Kuhnian paradigm shifts|paradigm founder]] of [[ecological economics]].<ref name="ra01" />{{rp|116}} Georgescu-Roegen made extensive use of the entropy concept in his [[Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen#Magnum opus on The Entropy Law and the Economic Process|magnum opus on ''The Entropy Law and the Economic Process'']].<ref name="ngr01" /> Since the 1990s, leading ecological economist and [[Steady-state economy#Herman Daly's concept of a steady-state economy|steady-state theorist]] [[Herman Daly]]—a student of Georgescu-Roegen—had been the economic profession's most influential proponent of entropy pessimism prior to his death in 2022.<ref name="hd02" /><ref name="ck01" />{{rp|545}}

Among other matters, the entropy pessimism position is concerned with the existential impossibility of allocating Earth's finite stock of mineral resources evenly among an unknown number of present and future generations. This number of generations is likely to remain unknown to us, as there is no way—or only little way—of knowing in advance if or when [[Human extinction|humankind will ultimately face extinction]]. In effect, ''any'' conceivable intertemporal allocation of the stock will inevitably end up with universal economic decline at some future point.<ref name="hd01" />{{rp|369–371}} <ref name="jr01" />{{rp|253–256}} <ref name="kb01" />{{rp|165}} <ref name="jm01" />{{rp|168–171}} <ref name="jg01" />{{rp|150–153}} <ref name="js01" />{{rp|106–109}} <ref name="ck01" />{{rp|546–549}} <ref name="ap01" />{{rp|142–145}}

Entropy pessimism is a widespread view in [[ecological economics]] and in the [[Degrowth|degrowth movement]].