World’s consumption of materials hits record 100bn tonnes a year

Re:World’s consumption of materials hits record 100bn tonnes... by esotericn on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @11:49AM (#22119185)

That doesn't match with my experience of the world around us.

Rather it seems like what we've done is initially used a load of resource (e.g. low mpg cars, massively overbuilt bridges, buildings, etc) and then started to optimize later.

It seems more likely to me that we enter a regime whereby lots of stuff is needlessly expensive compared to what it could have been if we'd rationed properly from the get go.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:World’s consumption of materials hits record 100bn tonnes... by rabidrat on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @11:55AM (#22119279)

And then there's Jevons Paradox[0], which notes that higher efficiency leads to greater overall consumption.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:World’s consumption of materials hits record 100bn tonnes... by lostlogin on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @01:18PM (#22120306)

From that: “However, this does not imply that improved fuel efficiency is worthless if the Jevons paradox occurs; higher fuel efficiency enables greater production and a higher material quality of life.”

Good link, thanks.

[ Parent | on HN ]