John Rainbird responded today:<\/p>\n
Hi Phil \u2013 it is a critical point you make. \u00a0Efficiency has to be a core part of the response, but what is lacking are the other measures to prevent the rebound effect of increased efficiency on resource use.\u00a0 What are your thoughts on what these might be? John<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
—<\/p>\n
John,<\/p>\n
Right, that\u2019s the rub. We need to efficiently use the earth, but at the moment our efficiencies are being used to multiply our uses of the earth. Our most popular mental failing in that regard, though, is seeing the obvious \u201cdumb question\u201d that raises, and then not doing what you just did, asking it.<\/p>\n
but at the moment our efficiencies are being used to multiply our uses of the earth.<\/h3>\n
All economies actually start with a period of having their internal efficiencies multiply their impacts, called growth\u2026 I wrote two short pieces on how \u2018well mannered\u2019 economies make the switch away from that that you might start with. They\u2019re forced to choose between continuing growth until it exhausts them or collapses their environment,\u2026 or not. It\u2019s one of those things that nature reduces from being exceedingly complex to being elementally simple.<\/p>\n
One of a series of little hurdles people need to get over to \u201cwrap our minds around it\u201d is that economies are actual physical things. They\u2019re networks of loosely connected physical processes that work as a whole. They do that because they\u2019re made of individually learning parts, that learn to work together on lots of complementary tasks.<\/p>\n
Their designs and behaviors are necessarily complex and locally original, so mostly beyond our ability to define with theories. That continuing growth eventually causes their complex organization to fail is one of the simple things. Seeing how they switch away from that starts with just learning to observe them, noticing things that demonstrate how they act as a whole.<\/p>\n
6 pg\u00a0Economies That Become Part of Nature<\/a> \u2013\u00a02 pg\u00a0Letter in WorldWatch<\/a><\/p>\n
Best,<\/p>\n
Phil Henshaw\u00a0 \u00b8\u00b8\u00b8\u00b8.\u00b7\u00b4 \u00af `\u00b7.\u00b8\u00b8\u00b8\u00b8
\nNY NY www.synapse9.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Rainbird responded today: Hi Phil \u2013 it is a critical point you make. \u00a0Efficiency has to be a core part of the response, but what is lacking are the other measures to prevent the rebound effect of increased efficiency on resource use.\u00a0 What are your thoughts on what these might be? John — John, … Continue reading How to keep your efficiency from speeding up consumption<\/span>