�The Jevons Paradox�, which was first expressed in 1865 by William Stanley Jevons in relation to use of coal, states that an increase in efficiency in using a resource leads to increased use of that resource rather than to a reduction. This has subsequently been proved to apply not just to fossil fuels, but other resource use scenarios. For example, doubling the efficiency of food production per hectare over the last 50 years (due to the Green Revolution) did not solve the problem of hunger. The increase in efficiency increased production and worsened hunger because of the resulting increase in population. The implications of this in today�s world are substantial. Many scientists and policymakers argue that future technological innovations will reduce consumption of resources; the Jevons Paradox explains why this may be a false hope. This is the first book to provide a historical overview of the Jevons Paradox, provide evidence for its existence and apply it to complex systems. Written and edited by world experts in the fields of economics, ecological economics, technology and the environment, it explains the myth of efficiency and explores its implications for resource usage (particularly oil). It is a must-read for policymakers, natural resource managers, academics and students concerned with the effects of efficiency on resource use.
Kozo Mayumi graduated from the Graduate School of Engineering at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Physics of Kyoto University. Between 1984 and 1988 he studied bioeconomics at Department of Economics of Vanderbilt University under Prof. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's supervision. Since then, Mayumi has been working in the field of energy analysis, ecological economics and complex hierarchy theory. Mayumi is a professor at the University of Tokushima and an editorial board member of Ecological Economics,International Journal of Ecological Economics and Statistics, and International Journal of Transdisciplinary Research. Together with Prof. John Gowdy of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Mayumi co-edited a memorial volume devoted to Georgescu-Roegen, Bioeconomics and Sustainability: Essays in Honor of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, with Foreword by Paul A. Samuelson, from Edward Elgar in 1999. In 2001 Mayumi published The Origins of Ecological Economics: The Bioeconomics of Georgescu-Roegen from Routledge. Meanwhile together with Dr. Mario Giampietro and other three researchers Mayumi started a biennial international workshop (Advances in Energy Studies) starting 1998 in which many distinguished scholars in the field of energy analysis took part. In 2008, The Jevons Paradox and the Myth of Resource Efficiency Improvements, was released from the Earthscan, co-authored with Blake Alcott, Mario Giampietro and John Polimeni. In 2009 together with Mario Gimapietro, Mayumi published The Biofuel Delusion: The Fallacy of Large-Scale Agro-Biofuel Production from the Earthscan.
