Ecological Paradoxes: William Stanley Jevons and the Paperless Office

Here I draw attention to two socio-ecological paradoxes. The Jevons Paradox is based on the observation that an improvement in the efficiency with which a natural resource is used is often associated with an increase in the consumption of that resource. Similarly, the Paperless Office Paradox is based on the observation that the development of substitutes for a natural resource is not always associated with a decline in consumption of that resource, and in fact may occasionally lead to an increase in the consumption of that resource. These two paradoxes call into question whether technological advances alone will necessarily lead to conservation of natural resources.

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