News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Shell made a film about climate change in 1991. Parent comment

Re:Shell made a film about climate change in 1991 by dTal on Monday May 08, 2017 @05:46PM (#14295911)
Re incandescent bulbs: increasing the efficiency of consumption of a resource usually increases the total consumption of that resource. Ergo, switching away from incandescent bulbs will actually accelerate global warming.

This is known as Jevon's paradox.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Shell made a film about climate change in 1991 by aoeusnth1 on Tuesday May 09, 2017 @04:36PM (#14303589)
Ew, ok, but you get a lot more consumer surplus in the meantime and carbon taxes are much more palatable when costs are lower. This isn't a good reason to not invest in efficiency.
[ Parent | on HN ]