The key program of a surviving pattern of nature and man is a subsystem of religious teaching which follows the laws of the energy ethic. … We can teach the energy truths through general science in the schools and teach the love of system and its requirements of us in the changing churches. System survival makes right and the energy commandments guide the system to survival.
Odum, H.T., 2007. Environment, Power, and Society for the Twenty-First Century – The Hierarchy of Energy, New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Hmmm, Odum outlines a radical take on the relationship between humans and the natural system of energy flows they are a part of. A bit dogmatic sounding, though, so, out of context in that dimension. But in the context of science and, for example, climate change, it might be worth it for humans to get some scientific religion. Then again, maybe it’s all dogma and the processes that thermodynamics seeks to circumscribe will be the ruling factor: they will be, unless there is an intervention by forces beyond anything that science has framed. This is possible at any time, but seems unlikely. Who wants to depend on the unlikely and the improbable as a policy driver?