No way out? The double-bind in seeking global prosperity alongside mitigated climate change

[OKIsItJustMe]

16. Oh, energy efficiency can’t save civilization by itself

But Jevons Paradox is a load of crap.

http://www.greatenergychallengeblog.com/2010/12/20/rebounds-gone-wild/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Rebounds Gone Wild[/font]

Posted by James Barrett of Clean Economy Development Center on December 20, 2010

[font size=3]Energy efficiency has become very popular in recent years. So much so that it’s becoming cool for the truly hip to hold it in disdain.

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To be clear, the rebound effect is real. The theory behind it is sound: Lower the cost of anything and people will use more of it, including the cost of running energy consuming equipment. But as with many economic ideas that are sound theory (like the idea that you can raise government revenues by cutting tax rates), the trick is in knowing how far to take them in reality. (Cutting tax rates from 100% to 50% would certainly raise revenues. Cutting them from 50% to 0% would just as surely lower them.)

The problem with knowing how far to take things like this is that unlike real scientists who can run experiments in a controlled laboratory environment, economists usually have to rely on what we can observe in the real world. Unfortunately, the real world is complicated and trying to disentangle everything that’s going on is very difficult.

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