The life story of matter and its attribute, energy

Energy is often defined as ‘the ability to do work’ or ‘the ability to do something useful’. They are very misleading definitions that have contributed substantially to the dire situation that civilization is in today. ‘the ability of an object to do work on a vehicle’ or ‘the ability of an object to do something useful to a vehicle’ are more realistic definitions because they specify that energy is an attribute of an object and it can do something useful to a vehicle. Energy does not exist in isolation in our everyday world. The object may be a person or a horse or a stone or a machine or a fuel or a magnet. It makes no difference. If it has potential to do work, the object has potential energy. This describes the circumstances where work can be done on a vehicle. The object can only have potential energy if it has obtained it from our sole source, sunshine, by way of some process. A fuel has potential energy that was stored for eons in oil. My fingers have the potential to do work pressing keys because I got the energy from the food I ate. This potential energy invariably ends up as waste heat when used. A parcel of energy has a limited life. That is its invariable destiny so should realistically be incorporated in its definition. The object and vehicle invariably are natural material or made from natural materials (matter) and most also have limited lives. The waste material on their demise often degrades the ecosystem. Coal provides stored potential energy that can do useful electrical work. The life of the coal ends up as material wastes, including the carbon dioxide that is contributing to climate change. This is a simplified but realistic view of the operation of the ecosystem and its parasite, civilization. This view can contribute to elucidation of wiser means of using the limited remaining natural resources, including those that are the source of the energy that drives industrialized society which is built up from natural resources. Denis Frith Melbourne Australia denisaf2000|AT|yahoo.com.au ‘What went wrong’ http://users.bigpond.net.au/jaymz/download/Gaia_and_Us-Denis_Frith-jun07...