Apart from a tiny amount of energy generated in the core by radioactive decay, and tidal energy from the gravitational interaction of the Moon, the Earth generates no energy of its own. Yet this is a planet full of life, both biological, and physical – assuming we may stretch the language, and call atmospheric circulation, and the hydrological cycle, forms of ‘physical life’. (James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis treats the entire planet as a living organism.)
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