Anthroposystem Summary• Anthroposystem

– The ideal method for uniting the four main elements of our physical society• Producers, Consumers, Decomposers and the Matrix (non-living, non-

producing objects)– An anthroposystem would rely heavily on recycling to match the waste

production– Emphasis on minimizing pollution

• Industrial Ecology– Relation between industry and the environment– Goal is to achieve closed systems

• Self sufficient, sustainable system– Modeled in the same way as an anthroposystem

• Conclusions– When Sustainability is reached, the concepts of anthroposystem,

sustainable economic development, and industrial ecology will be interrelated and codependent

– Do not fix problems separately, think of as one large system to help focus goals

Ecosystem-Biosphere Summary• Ecosystem (Producers, Consumers & Decomposers)

– Naturally, an ecosystem will be sustainable because the decomposers, bacteria and fungi, can recycle all waste from the consumers (closed system)

– Human interference changed the dynamic of the ecosystem, decomposers can no longer recycle all the waste from the consumers (open system)

– The material flow between producers, consumers and receptors can be mapped out and easily analyzed using transform matrices

• This is possible through the use of conservation laws

• Environmental Spheres (Atmosphere, Biosphere, Hydrosphere & Lithosphere)– The environmental spheres viewpoint takes a step back from the

ecosystem viewpoint, to see all variables involved (closed system)

– Biosphere is where most damage is done, but its changes have a dramatic effect on the three other spheres

Critical Comparison• The first difference was the use of the term anthroposystem

– In the M. Santos paper, it was used as an ideal state of human civilization where our recycling output equaled are waste input

– Prof. Husar used the term to describe a similar human dominated system that was not necessarily ideal

• The main difference dealt with the realm of reference– M. Santos never considered the entire world as an individual

system, so the anthroposystems he discussed were all open systems

• This leaves little room for the calculation of material flow• Cannot measure the total impact of pollution, because the

atmosphere carries pollutants outside the original anthroposystem

• Harder to find efficiency of the system with respect to recycling to waste output