  Darwinian Theory depicts life as being overwhelmingly consumed by a fight for
survival in a hostile environment. However, from a thermodynamic perspective,
life is a dynamic, out of equilibrium process, stabilizing and coevolving in
concert with its abiotic environment. The living component of the biosphere of
greatest mass, the plants and cyanobacteria, are involved in the transpiration
of vast amounts of water. Transpiration is part of the global water cycle, and
it is this cycle that distinguishes Earth from its apparently life barren
neighboring planets, Venus and Mars. The water cycle, including the absorption
of sunlight in the biosphere, is by far the greatest entropy producing process
occurring on Earth. Life, from this perspective, can therefore be viewed as
performing an important thermodynamic function; acting as a dynamic catalyst by
aiding process such as the water cycle, hurricanes, and ocean and wind currents
to produce entropy. The role of animals in this view is that of unwitting but
dedicated servants of the plants and cyanobacteria, helping them to grow and to
spread into initially inhospitable areas.
