When considering the total ecological and economical impact of any endeavor there are currently two fundamental approaches:
(1) Economic input-output (EIO) based analysis: The economic input-output method is an entirely statistics-based approach. At the high level, there is a reasonably good understanding of the resources (energy and materials) that flow in and out of most national economies, and the fractions of those resources that flow in and out of the various sectors of an economy. Depending on the granularity of the available statistics, this method allows to determine the average impact of many activities within an economy. (2) Process-based analysis: The process-based method requires a detailed understanding of the specific processes that are involved in the endeavor under investigation and all materials and energy that flow in and out of these processes. This approach yields as result the ecological and economical impact of the specific endeavor that is being analyzed.
For any endeavor that consciously deviates from the average way things are done, for example when a particularly resource-preserving, or low-energy approach is chosen, the EIO-based approach is obviously ill-suited, because it cannot account accurately for non-average processes. However, the process-based approach can become extremely tedious, for example when accounting for the fractional contribution of specific car that a worker uses for her or his commute. Therefore, a hybrid approach is frequently selected, using the process-based method for those parts of the endeavor that deviate most from standard processes, and using the EIO method for the parts that use average processes, or for which detailed information is not available. Of course, none of this is as simple as it may sound, especially when attempting to sort out which parts considered under the EIO method may overlap with parts examined under the process-based method and how to account for these overlaps.
If we take a long-range, big picture view of the global endeavor (Earth), then we really have only a couple of inputs: gravitational forces and radiation. The peaks in those are Moon's gravitation which we experience as tides, and the Sun's radiation which we perceive as brightest light in the sky; invisible, sun-burn causing ultra-violet; and warming infrared. Most of the Sun's radiation is in the visible spectrum -most likely because visible capability in Earth's life forms evolved so it utilizes and perceives that electromagnetic radiation best which was most abundant...
In any case, meteorites aside, solar radiation and lunar gravitational pull are the only two inputs "endeavor Earth" receives. All other "inputs" into our endeavors here on Earth come from Earth and, therefore, are limited.
Side note: given the first law of thermodynamics that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, in theory, with increasing number of tidal power plants, in the long run we will slow down Moon's rotation around Earth.
Sun, Earth, and Moon from NASA.gov. Insights into EIO-based and process-based analysis from Prof. Seth Guikema.