Jevons Paradox
People view technology as a deus ex machina that will enable them to keep doing what they&#x27;re doing but magically it won&#x27;t pollute any more.<p>For example, many think that solar powered planes will enable flying without pollution, which somehow justifies their current flying. The &quot;logic&quot; doesn&#x27;t work, but they just want a story to help them sleep at night while they read that the arctic is 45 degrees above normal, knowing somewhere in the backs of their minds that the jet fuel they paid to burn to move their share of a plane around the world and back contributed more to that climate change than nearly anyone in hundreds of thousands of years of human existence.<p>Technology has helped humanity out of many problems, as have markets and economic growth. Now we&#x27;re facing problems that technology, markets, and growth are <i>causing</i> (extinctions, resource depletion, pollution, litter, climate change, etc), Jevon&#x27;s paradox contributing significantly (the tragedy of the commons and principle agent problem being others) and people haven&#x27;t realized that applying more of what solved other problems isn&#x27;t helping but <i>exacerbating</i> current problems.<p>Technology can buy us time, but systems change generally requires changing the goals and beliefs driving the system, which are social and emotional issues, not technological.