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by dagw
3440 days ago
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There is only so much iron/steel to build cars Steel doesn't really have an innate value, the value only comes when you've turned your steel into cars. If someone comes up with really clever way to make the same car using 30% less steel then we've effectively increased the total value of a fixes amount of steel and thus we are no longer looking at a zero-sum game. Sure in a large enough time scale there are only so many atoms in the universe and you can't fight thermodynamics (we think...), but that kind of argument is really interesting when looking at a practical level and time frame. |
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Consider the current rate of population growth: 2017 7,515,284,153 2010 6,929,725,043 2000 6,126,622,121
Roughly 1.28% growth per year. Unless you are able to make a car using 30% less steel EVERY 21 years you are in trouble within "a practical time frame". Oh and you also need to reduce the emissions by 30% every 21 years per person just to maintain current pollution levels.
Exponential growth is a beautiful thing for income, not so good for consumption.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/jul/07/research.waste