ABSTRACT
CHAPTER 14 The core of this chapter is an exergy calculation of the biosphere, based on information from Chemical Evolution ofEarth by Vinogradov (1959). The chemical differences between the biosphere and the crust determine how much more exergy the biosphere has. The specific average exergy of the total biomass is found by this method to be about 309 kcal/g, while the specific exergy found from the calculations presented in Chapter 13 is about 308 kcal/g. If we anticipate that most of the biomass is trees, bushes, and similar vegetation, which has a f3 value (see Chapter 13) of 70, it means 70 times more exergy than detritus. As detritus contains in average about 4.4 kcal/g,the average exergy, including the embodied information, will as indicated above correspond to 308 kcal/g. The author calls this coincidence very interesting!
