Environmental Science 14th Edition by Tyler Miller ,Scott Spoolman

Exercise 1

Use the second law of thermodynamics (see Chapter 2, p. 36) to analyze the scientific and economic feasibility of each of the following processes:
a. extracting most of the minerals that are dissolved in seawater
b. mining increasingly lower-grade deposits of minerals
c. using inexhaustible solar energy to mine minerals
d. continuing to mine, use, and recycle minerals at increasing rates, using conventional methods