Energy Flow Systems

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Term Paper Title	Energy Flow Systems
# of Words	1333
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.33

Energy Flow Systems

Energy Flow Systems

     Richard White's Organic Machine, and William Cronon's Changes in the
Land, both examine environments as energy flow systems.  The energy flow model
was utilized by the authors to explain relationships within ecosystems.
     Richard White's thesis is to examine the river as an organic machine, as
an energy system that, although modified by human intervention, maintains it's
natural, its “unmade” qualities.  White emphasizes on energy because it is a
useful concept that can be easily understood.  He says, “the flow of the river
is energy, so is the electricity that comes from the dams that block that flow.
Human labor is energy; so are the calories that are stored as fat by salmon for
their journey upstream.”  White notes that energy is as concrete as salmon,
human bodies, and the Grand Coulee Dam.  White wants his readers to think about
nature and its relationship with humanity.
     White explains how the river is energy.  The Columbia River works as
gravity pulls it to the Pacific Ocean.  The Columbia is continuously cutting
into the terrain that it flows through.  Over millions of years water rushed
through the Columbia Basin to form the Columbia River.  Water carries soil, silt,
and debris downstream.  The constant movement of material in the river cuts and
shapes the river basin into the land.  This movement is a slow and inefficient
use of energy.  According to White, only two percent of water's potential energy
results in the work of erosion. The other ninety-eight percent of water's energy
was lost as water molecules rub against themselves, the river bed, and the river
banks.  This energy was released as heat into the river.
     Often the energy of flowing water was not recognized.  There are
occasions when rivers do show their power is destructive ways.  Power was
usually demonstrated through floods, and more so in flash floods.  Thousands of
years ago, an ice dam in the Columbia River, holding the glacial lake Missoula,
broke and created the largest known freshwater flood in earth's history.  The
flood rushed into the Columbia Channel and created the Grand Coulee and other
rock channels that would have taken the Mississippi River three hundred years at
full flood to create.
     Salmon are also a part of the Colombian energy model.  As the river
works its way downward to the Pacific Ocean, the salmon work their way up the
Columbia to spawn.  The energy in salmon can be measured by their body fat and
caloric value.  Sa...

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