[lalaithion]

We don’t live in a closed system though.

[mempko]

Since we aren't able to export our pollution out into space, or mine food on mars, yes, we live in a closed system. We live on a round spaceship known as Spaceship Earth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceship_Earth)

[fluoridation]

Strictly speaking, even if we were able to do that we'd still live in a closed system, just a much, much larger one. :)

[Loquebantur]

Yes, we do.

For all practical purposes, earth's gravity well serves as a boundary for material resources at scale.

More importantly, the input of polluting material into earth's obviously very limited ecological system is limited. You simply cannot pollute as much as you want, so getting more stuff from the asteroid belt or whatever doesn't help.

[westcort]

Looks pretty closed to me: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144427/all-of-you-o...

How many thousands of dollars does it cost to launch a kilogram of mass into orbit again? Out of orbit?

Do we even have a closed system that can support a small group of people indefinitely to launch? Unfortunately, we do not yet have such a system outside of the earth itself.

[jackcosgrove]

Earth's biome gets most of its energy from the sun. I think that's what the GP was getting at.

[js8]

The physics definition of closed system allows exchange of energy. If neither matter nor energy can be exchanged, that's called an isolated system.

[jackcosgrove]

Thanks for the clarification. I'm not sure in what sense the others are using the term. The mechanism of collapse in the paper, exhaustion of fossil fuels, relies on not enough energy in the system, so I assumed energy was part of the calculation.