stackyFACTSIn 1865, everyone thought better steam engines would save Britain's dwindling coal reserves, but economist William Stanley Jevons realized a cynical truth.
In 1865, everyone thought better steam engines would save Britain's dwindling coal reserves, but economist William Stanley Jevons realized a cynical truth. Making a resource more efficient to use doesn't conserve it; it just makes it cheaper, triggering massive demand and causing you to burn through it even faster. This 'efficiency paradox' remains the ultimate buzzkill for modern green-tech optimists who think better batteries will automatically save the planet.
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