Nov. 08: Dematerialization: Variety, caution, and persistence

Jesse H. Ausubel (Rockefeller University, New York)and Paul E. Waggoner (Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, CT) recently published an interesting paper on the variety, caution, and persistence of dematerialization in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United Stated of America (PNAS).

They state that dematerialization, represented by declining consumption per GDP of energy or of goods, offers some hope for rising environmental quality with development. The declining proportion of income spent on staples as affluence grows, which income elasticity <1.0 measures, makes dematerialization widespread. Further, as learning improves efficiency of resource use, the intensity of environmental impact per production of staples often declines.

Ausubel and Waggoner observed that combinations of low income elasticity for staples and of learning by producers cause a variety of dematerializations and declining intensities of impact, from energy use and carbon emission to food consumption and fertilizer use, globally and in countries ranging from the United States and France to China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia.

The full paper can be downloaded here: http://phe.rockefeller.edu/docs/PNAS-2008-Ausubel-0806099105.pdf