A great novel to help point out one of the major problems of our times. I found the story to be very interesting and informative, which is absolutely what I look for in a book. There’s a lot of dialogue, which is my thing, but if you’re looking for action then this might not be a book for you. I really enjoyed the characters though as I thought they were 3D and very intelligent. It was cool to read a book that really gets down to what needs to change and I hope many people read it for the message. I’d love to read a lot more from this author in the future, especially if he continues to point out such important things while creating a decent fictional story to go with them. I would recommend this book to anyone that loves science, philosophy and stories that involve a lot of thought.

Dear Author, Mr. Thomas Tunstall:
The compression of time (the eco-collapse that would have taken a couple years to impact supply lines only took what appeared to be days) aside, you've put into book form a very good and credible estimate of 'future shock'. I'll be waiting for the sequel, wherein the political fallout, along with the impact of total accounting rules, is exposed. Chairman Xi's twin in the Oval Office? Or does the Constitution survive?
The most visible, for me anyway, impact of over-extraction is in the fish stocks. The ocean's bounty is becoming markedly less so, and it's not CO2 levels or acid rain doing it. It's purely from garden variety over-fishing.
From my perspective, the environmental drivers you focus upon are long and slow in function. I don't deny them but there is in fact time, if not the will at present, to address them. What is moving much faster and much more obviously, having a much deeper impact in a very short time frame, is the general living standard of the global human population.
Widely known is that the percentage of sub-$2 a day numbers of people globally has dropped by some 90% in the last 50 years or so. The flip side of that is the pressure this broad and deep uplifting has had on every sort of grown, mined, or fabricated consumable. This is the undefined pressure on the ecosystem I think is the basis of your book. I'm not ready to go Malthusian; I still think of people as assets, not liabilities. In terms of your book, as Briana and Jack, not the elites trying to crush them. In that sense, the more assets, the more Briana's and Jack's, the better.
But yes, the book is on-point, even with the novelist's privilege of an accelerated narrative. An interesting read and worth the money. Kudos.

Widely known is that the percentage of sub-$2 a day numbers of people globally has dropped by some 90% in the last 50 years or so. The flip side of that is the pressure this broad and deep uplifting has had on every sort of grown, mined, or fabricated consumable. Which is the undefined pressure on the ecosystem I think is the basis of your book. I'm not ready to go Malthusian ... I still think of people as assets, not liabilities. In terms of your book, as Briana and Jack, not the elites trying to crush them. In that sense, the more assets, the more Briana's and Jack's, the better.

But yes, the book is on-point, even with the novelist's privilege of a very accelerated narrative. An interesting read and worth the money. Kudos.

The Entropy Model: Thomas Tunstall
Would you come up against your college professor to prove that his teachings are wrong or do not meet the current state of economic theory and he was caught in a web of old school thinking? Listening to the discussion in the classroom where Briana Ruiz and Jack McCullough attended you wonder how they did not get disenrolled from the class they were attending as the professor refused to hear her arguments and Briana resented it when Jack defended her. Her point was that there is and was a disconnect between economics and ecosystems and that it is still prevalent that continues to be unresolved by theory and public policy discussions and Briana was determined to change it all but how?
Briana is extremely self-absorbed and thinks that only her opinion counts and when attending an event sponsored by Parkus the corporation that just hired her after graduation, we realize that she is trying to project her thoughts, tell them about the storm that caused havoc when she was on the boat and it’s evident that both men that she is speaking with have no interest in hearing her thoughts. Anger rages her and when Jack tries to speak with her she becomes irate, out of control and almost gets them into a car crash. But, flashing back a bit we relive what Phil and his henchmen do to a tribe of Indians that live on a specific piece of land they want and the end result is horrific. Displacing these people and moving them thinking that small compensations will appease them, what happened to the Chief is questionable. Their environmental practices and ideologies about the environment are suspect.
Briana does not hear anything that goes against her way of thinking even when her best friend warns her about Parkus. Visiting West Texas and her friend Clint, he relates to her the problems with the land, the fact that it is dry and the differences in feeding cows and livestock in the East as opposed to the west but she heard nothing and went to visit her father. The economy has different rules and the present is not the past.
As events change and Briana begins to realize that something is odd in her company she creates a paper with her findings, huge amount of downloads but will she realize what these findings mean and the ramification of what they stand for as she realizes that the 98 meridian is shifting and that animals and plants are dying but why?
Listening to the higher ups of the corporation that wanted to hire her you wonder whether she will commit to them or decide to go in a different direction. When Briana talks to Phil from Parkus the response to her question about whether he saw the storm did not yield the response she hoped for. Speaking with Harry he relates that if the alternative energy project performs as the planned then Parkus will enable cuts in global oil and coal by half within five years and maybe even drive the numbers close to zero but until that time the money will come in.
Graduating from college and then graduate school and both Jack and Briana get their doctorates and things, ideologies and events heat up. Her role is to keep track of every environmental event in the U.S. and much more. Each one came up with their own model but Briana calls her the Entropy Model, which tries to use the real world as a basis for a model. Jack on the other hand states that the models can identify the limits to economic growth. But, there are not many organizations and people that would rather not hear about their ideas nor do they want to admit that she might be right in her findings. Matt Friedman is someone she feels can help her with what she needs to in order to develop her model. Listening to their banter and their discussion you wonder which side holds true for the future and will the economy fall?
The chair of the Senate Banking committee, Elizabeth Lawrence requested that Fed. Chair Margaret Melloan testifies about shedding some light on how Fed policy is influencing corporate behavior. Quite sure of herself Chair Melloan states her views with a treasure trove of canned responses: We have increased liquidity in the banking system in order to encourage bands to lend and stimulate business. But, what exactly are the corporations using their money for? Is it going to research and development or is it used to buy back stock and pay higher dividends to shareholders? The rest of the answers and the responses are on pages 158-159 and after hearing their words you wonder what the future really holds and could what is about to happen really occur? It’s not that far from reality. The entropy model incorporates as stated on the back cover variables economists have failed to consider in order to make more accurate predictions but will it work since the first group of environmental anomalies begins, sparks interest for a short time and dealing with unsustainability of lifestyles in the U.S. and the developed world. But within each meeting and their discussions there are unusual changes in the world, plant life and animals are endangered and the author creates storms that cause catastrophic results and in some cases near death accidents. But, like everything else when things settle down people become complacent and nothing changes and things go back to the way they were as Briana realizes she has to make some more changes to her programs. With both Briana and Jack working in federal government research positions and making huge waves against those in the establishment like the Federal Reserve and the President, things take a different turn.
Is the real problem from an economic standpoint that while there is bad financial stress that we manage to bounce back? But, the combination of economic and ecological crisis continues to morph from local to regional and global how will we recover? It just might be harder as we listen to both sides talk and debate. Both financial markets and ecosystem were decided local. That has changed first financial breakdowns went global and the ecosystems followed suit. Think about this question that the author poses through Jack: What would happen if an unprecedented ecosystem shock coincided with a cyclical financial shock? Thing about the ramifications!
A compelling scene is when several men attack a young homeless woman and how Briana manages to face them down and take her to safety bringing to light the huge enormity of the homeless crisis. It’s explained in full on pages 187-193.
As we hear the President and several others wanting to disband the agencies and funding for the organizations that both Briana and Jack work for. Environmental incidents and establishing the first comprehensive system of national accounts to fully allocate costs across industry sectors but the end result and what happens as a result of everyone discounting her entropy model and Jack’s too you won’t believe. What are they missing and what happens when another storm rages and things get totally out of hand? What happens when the Federal Reserve and the White House are in direct conflict with Jack and the economics establishment? More anomalies occur, more program changes, more conflicts and then the final blow to both economics and ecosystems that will alert readers to the fact that what the author presents just might happen if we don’t take measures to prevent it.
What would happen if Briana is right and her model proved to foreworn that the ecosystem and economic systems would crash?
As events unfold and the world becomes enlightened maybe they should have listened to the one voice that was silenced and unheard. Some endings will seem like beginnings as if the world was just created. If you follow the stock market, the agricultural reports and listen to food prices you might realize that what author Thomas Tunstall has presented through Briana and Jack might be plausible. What would happen if Briana’s thoughts and model were a forewarning of things to come? Find out when you learn more about THE ENTROPY MODEL.

Not exactly action packed to a person but something as slow moving as ecological change is more aptly compared to humanity than to the brief snapshot of time that an individual lives in. It was a pleasant read though and was much more interesting than in Gore's attempt to quantify the changes. Thanks for the read - "Kindle Saves Trees"

Current economics is growth-based. However, few economists would argue that the study of economics is based on finite resources. How do we reconcile this? According to this novel, we don't. We just continue consuming until the bottom falls out (entropy occurs). I can easily see this happening IRL.

This novel was a very easy read...once I started, I couldn't put it down. It's also a chilling reminder that the world economies have put themselves in a very precarious position. How much longer can we milk this closed system we call planet Earth before it all collapses around us?