<sod>The claims have been criticized for ignoring that the formulation second law specifies it only applies to [[isolated system]]s, those that do not exchange matter or energy with their surroundings. Organisms, in contrast, are open systems, as they constantly exchange energy and matter with their environment: for example animals eat food and excrete waste, and radiate and absorb heat. Similarly, the Earth absorbs energy from the Sun and emits energy back into space. The Sun-Earth-space system does not violate the second law, because the enormous increase in entropy due to the Sun and Earth radiating into space dwarfs the local decrease in entropy caused by the existence and evolution of [[self-organization|self-organizing]] life.<ref name=Isaak/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://physics.gmu.edu/~roerter/EvolutionEntropy.htm |title=Does Life On Earth Violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics? |last=Oerter |first=Robert N. |year=2006 |publisher=[[George Mason University]] |location=Fairfax, VA |accessdate=2007-03-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web<eod>
<sod>The claims have been criticized for ignoring that the formulation second law specifies it only applies to [[isolated system]]s, those that do not exchange matter or energy with their surroundings. Organisms, in contrast, are open systems, as they constantly exchange energy and matter with their environment: for example animals eat food and excrete waste, and radiate and absorb heat.  It is argued that the Sun-Earth-space system does not violate the second law  because the enormous increase in entropy due to the Sun and Earth radiating into space dwarfs the local decrease in entropy caused by the existence and evolution of [[self-organization|self-organizing]] life.<ref name=Isaak/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://physics.gmu.edu/~roerter/EvolutionEntropy.htm |title=Does Life On Earth Violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics? |last=Oerter |first=Robert N. |year=2006 |publisher=[[George Mason University]] |location=Fairfax, VA |accessdate=2007-03-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web<eod>