Jevon's Paradox states that the more efficiently a resource is used, the more the demand for it increases. Jevon's Paradox is a historically contingent observa

Jevon's Paradox states that the more efficiently a resource is used, the more the demand for it increases. Jevon's Paradox is a historically contingent observation that held for a while for some resources and has later been unjustifiably treated as a natural law (on occasion). Just like Moore's Law was a historically contingent observation that held for a while. There is no guarantee that Jevon's Paradox will remain paradoxical, and indeed I can already find counterexamples: electricity for lighting is used more efficiently in modern LED bulbs than ever before, and the effect is to reduce electricity consumption in facilities that switch to LED lighting. "But more efficient lighting prompts people to use lighting where they wouldn't have before!" True, some of the gains are lost that way, but not to the extent that it actually drives more total electricity demand than prior to LEDs. You need total consumption to increase following efficiency gains to get the "paradoxical" result. "But lower electricity demand causes prices to fall, which leads to more electricity consumption elsewhere!" Also a plausible objection, but remember that you need a rebound effect strong enough to wipe out the original savings and then some for it to be an example of Jevon's Paradox. And we're not observing that. Sorry for the terrible web site that doesn't let me post a direct link, but look at electricity consumption per capita for the United States here: http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=WDI&f=Indicator_Code%3AEG.USE.ELEC.KH.PC http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=WDI&f=Indicator_Code%3AEG.USE... According to that, the most recent year with data (2013) actually saw slightly lower consumption per capita than 1998: 12,988.3 kWh and 13,154.8 kWh respectively. The all time peak was in 2008 at 13,663.4.