by yesplease » Thu 08 Jan 2009, 03:24:17
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'O')f course his paradox is apparent today. EnergyStar demanded refrigerators be more efficient and use less energy to cool the same amount of food. And so people now buy larger refrigerators reasoning they can afford more space, more cooling for the same cost. Plus they get to rationalize their greed as 'green.' Same goes for autos etc. etc.
That is not Jevon's paradox, that is the rebound effect. For Jevon's to be observed people need to, in the case of an EnergyStar fridge that uses half the energy, get a fridge that's twice as big. People just don't have that kind of room. In fact, according to the two studies cited, the rebound effect for appliances was 0%, meaning people didn't change the size of their fridge even if it used less electricity. That said, even if fridges were like other areas, where the rebound effect was ~10-40%, we still wouldn't see Jevon's paradox, which requires a rebound effect greater than 100%. In other words, if we saw more efficient autos that would, all things being equal, reduce gasoline consumption by 50%, and drove more to the point where we saw a 10% rebound effect, then we would still see a 45% reduction in consumption instead of a 50% reduction in consumption. Either way, we would still see a reduction in consumption. The only way we wouldn't would be if the rebound effect was greater than 100%, which is relatively rare.
Is it perfect? No. But it's still a reduction, and the vast majority of efficiency improvements result in them, even w/ the rebound effect. Seeing Jevon's paradox is relatively rare compared to seeing the rebound effect. The rebound effect is common, but in nearly seventy studies done on energy efficiency within the past few decades we have
not seen Jevon's paradox.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('yesplease', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'W')ith very few exceptions we have used more oil, gas, coal, nuclear, and renewable energy year to year.
And this increase in use is due to an increase in population and/or economic activity,
Jevon's paradox. They are different. Just because you do not understand the difference does not mean there isn't one.