Energy and the Economics of Sustainability. The Entropy Paradox

Abstract

This paper analyzes the concept of entropy, as understood by both the weak sustainability and strong sustainability scholars. In seeking an answer to why such an apparently rigid concept cannot be used to falsify either paradigm, we make use of recent developments in Physics, in order to further substantiate the statistical nature of both the concept of entropy, and of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. We conclude that the probabilistic nature of the concept of entropy forbids the theoretical falsification of either paradigm, and designate this situation as the ‘entropy paradox’.