Energy Efficiency, the Jevons Paradox, and the Elephant in the Room: Overpopulation

Some blog followers might be interested in a recent post of the above title. The abstract reads:

ABSTRACT: David Goldstein (2004) has claimed that (paraphrasing):

"enlightened energy efficiency policy can have much greater effects on environmental problems than any of the solutions proposed by Bartlett (2004) - stopping population growth - or Weisz (2004) - close international cooperation, peace, and security.”

The Jevons Paradox (or "rebound effect"): technological progress that increases the efficiency with which a resource is used, tends to increase (rather than decrease) the rate of consumption of that resource would tend to counter Goldstein's claim.

But four reports brought to my attention by Goldstein either neglect rebound effects or regard their influence as relatively small. But even if rebound effects are small can "enlightened energy efficiency policy" by itself tame the ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: OVERPOPULATION?

To access the complete 35 kB post please click on http://tinyurl.com/ylb8tdt .

REFERENCES

Hake, R.R. 2009. “Energy Efficiency, the Jevons Paradox, and the Elephant in the Room: Overpopulation,” online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://tinyurl.com/ylb8tdt . Post of 9 Oct 2009 11:52:01-0700 to AERA-L, Net-Gold, & Physoc.

The Elephant in the Room- Overpopulation

Some blog followers may be interested in a recent discussion-list post of the above title [Hake (2009). The abstract reads:

ABSTRACT: A recent LA Times report "Tackling the elephant in the room: overpopulation" calls attentions to a study "Reproduction and the carbon legacies of individuals" by Paul Murtaugh and Michael Schlax of Oregon State University. Their abstract reads:

"Much attention has been paid to the ways that people's home energy use, travel, food choices and other routine activities affect their emissions of carbon dioxide and, ultimately, their contributions to global warming. However, the reproductive choices of an individual are rarely incorporated into calculations of his personal impact on the environment. Here we estimate the extra emissions of fossil carbon dioxide that an average individual causes when he or she chooses to have children. The summed emissions of a person's descendants, weighted by their relatedness to him, may far exceed the lifetime emissions produced by the original parent. Under current conditions in the United States, for example, each child adds about 9441 metric tons of carbon dioxide to the carbon legacy of an average female, which is 5.7 times her lifetime emissions. A person's reproductive choices must be considered along with his day-today activities when assessing his ultimate impact on the global environment."

To access the complete 7 kB post please click on http://tinyurl.com/krfmw9.

REFERENCES

Hake, R.R. 2009. “The Elephant in the Room: Overpopulation,” online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://tinyurl.com/krfmw9. Post of 8 Aug 2009 20:09:31-0700 to AERA-L, Net-Gold, and Physoc.