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Climate Minute: Technology Alone Won’t Save Us
How the Efficiency Dilemma Poops on That Idea
I distinctly remember my friend in California saying that technology will stop climate change. I told him I thought he was wrong, but I couldn’t clearly explain why. Later, I learned about the “Efficiency Dilemma.” This problem is known as the Jevons paradox, after the first person to articulate it in 1865.
The Efficiency Dilemma describes how when a process is made more efficient, it might mean short-term savings in terms of inputs, but almost always in the long term, it increases the use of the inputs, because people feel the license to use more.
If someone invented a more efficient way to heat our homes, climate crisis alarmists like myself would probably applaud. But the Efficiency Dilemma says that all things being equal, we would adjust our behavior to end up using even more fuel. We would make bigger houses and turn up the heat — because we could afford to.
In my house, we got these super-efficient LED holiday lights. They are so cheap to operate that we leave them on all the time! Why bother with a timer?
In order to lower carbon emissions, we need policy and behavioral change to go along with any tech innovation.
