mountain_tiger
Smash Champion
Link to original post: [drupal=2358]Are we going green?[/drupal]
As we all know, in the past couple of decades, people have been talking a lot about global warming. We hear stories all the time about how in another 20-30 years' time, there will be more floods, hurricanes etc. and they will be even more destructive than before. Thus, attempts to 'go green' have been initiated, including, but not limited to, getting energy efficient light bulbs and more fuel efficient cars, which aim to decrease our carbon footprint and help reduce global warming.
However, amazingly enough, performing actions like these actually increases the carbon footprint of the country as a whole. Now, if you don't know how this works, you'll probably be completely baffled by this. And I wouldn't blame you. The reason for this is due to a little thing called the 'Jevons Paradox', whereby increasing the efficiency of the usage of a resource leads to more, not less of it. An example would most likely explain this better:
Let's say, hypothetically, that you own a business which sells computers, and your monthly energy bill is $500 a month. You've decided to try and make your business greener, and you do this by replacing incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient ones, turning down the heating and getting your staff to wear warmer clothes instead and you improve the insulation. After this, your monthly bill decreases to $250 a month. Thus, after ten months, you will have saved $2,500. Though this will definitely make your business more profitable, it does nothing to help out your carbon footprint. In fact, it makes it worse.
Think about it. If you had $2,500, you wouldn't leave it lying around, would you? Chances are you'd use it for one of three things:
a) To buy something (e.g. a new TV). All products require fossil fuels to make. Not only to transport them but to extract the materials used to produce them, and to work the machinery as well. By buying a TV, you are increasing the demand for TVs, thus menaing mroe are produced, thus leading to a higher carbon footprint.
b) You invest it back into your business. Let's say that you spend it on advertising, to attract more customers. This results in more computers being sold. Like anything else, they require fossil fuels to produce (10 times their weight in fossil fuels, in fact), thus meaning a higher carbon footprint.
c) You deposit your money in a bank account to get interest. (I know the interest rate is like 0.25% atm, but this is hypothetical...) Now, because you're not buying or sellign anything, you'd think it wouldn't lead to more carbon dioxide emissions.
But it does. See, for every dollar that a bank holds in deposits, it will loan out anywhere from 6 to 12 dollars. These loans can be used for all sorts of things, including starting a new business, or buying a new car, or whatever, all of which needs fossil fuel energy to produce.
In a sense, the economy is like a giant machine which turns resources into goods, and needs oil to run. Removing its ineffiencies simply leads to the extra energy getting re-invested back into the machine, causing oil to be used at a faster, 'more efficient' rate.
After all, that's how capitalism works. The aim is to produce as much (And thus, consume as much fossil fuel energy) as possible. Although these green measures will allow more goods to be produced, in its primary aim to cut down on fossil fuel emissions, it fails.
tl;dr Green measures aren't actually green, even if they do save you money.
As we all know, in the past couple of decades, people have been talking a lot about global warming. We hear stories all the time about how in another 20-30 years' time, there will be more floods, hurricanes etc. and they will be even more destructive than before. Thus, attempts to 'go green' have been initiated, including, but not limited to, getting energy efficient light bulbs and more fuel efficient cars, which aim to decrease our carbon footprint and help reduce global warming.
However, amazingly enough, performing actions like these actually increases the carbon footprint of the country as a whole. Now, if you don't know how this works, you'll probably be completely baffled by this. And I wouldn't blame you. The reason for this is due to a little thing called the 'Jevons Paradox', whereby increasing the efficiency of the usage of a resource leads to more, not less of it. An example would most likely explain this better:
Let's say, hypothetically, that you own a business which sells computers, and your monthly energy bill is $500 a month. You've decided to try and make your business greener, and you do this by replacing incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient ones, turning down the heating and getting your staff to wear warmer clothes instead and you improve the insulation. After this, your monthly bill decreases to $250 a month. Thus, after ten months, you will have saved $2,500. Though this will definitely make your business more profitable, it does nothing to help out your carbon footprint. In fact, it makes it worse.
Think about it. If you had $2,500, you wouldn't leave it lying around, would you? Chances are you'd use it for one of three things:
a) To buy something (e.g. a new TV). All products require fossil fuels to make. Not only to transport them but to extract the materials used to produce them, and to work the machinery as well. By buying a TV, you are increasing the demand for TVs, thus menaing mroe are produced, thus leading to a higher carbon footprint.
b) You invest it back into your business. Let's say that you spend it on advertising, to attract more customers. This results in more computers being sold. Like anything else, they require fossil fuels to produce (10 times their weight in fossil fuels, in fact), thus meaning a higher carbon footprint.
c) You deposit your money in a bank account to get interest. (I know the interest rate is like 0.25% atm, but this is hypothetical...) Now, because you're not buying or sellign anything, you'd think it wouldn't lead to more carbon dioxide emissions.
But it does. See, for every dollar that a bank holds in deposits, it will loan out anywhere from 6 to 12 dollars. These loans can be used for all sorts of things, including starting a new business, or buying a new car, or whatever, all of which needs fossil fuel energy to produce.
In a sense, the economy is like a giant machine which turns resources into goods, and needs oil to run. Removing its ineffiencies simply leads to the extra energy getting re-invested back into the machine, causing oil to be used at a faster, 'more efficient' rate.
After all, that's how capitalism works. The aim is to produce as much (And thus, consume as much fossil fuel energy) as possible. Although these green measures will allow more goods to be produced, in its primary aim to cut down on fossil fuel emissions, it fails.
tl;dr Green measures aren't actually green, even if they do save you money.