In America - a large, rich country that accounts for about 25 percent of the global economy - we’re now generally using less of most resources year after year, even as our economy and population continue to grow. In recent years we’ve seen a different pattern emerge - the pattern of more from less. So as we became more numerous and prosperous, we inevitably took more: more minerals, more fossil fuels, more land for crops, more trees, more water, and so on.īut not anymore. It’s about time.įor just about all of human history our prosperity has been tightly coupled to our ability to take resources from the earth.

We have finally learned how to tread more lightly on our planet. In the book’s introduction, excerpted below, McAfee lays out his thesis and confronts the criticism that is sure to follow, from environmentalists and capitalists alike. 8 from Scribner, is an unusually optimistic take on the future of the planet and humanity. “ More from Less: The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources – and What Happens Next,” McAfee’s new book out Oct. That is, through a combination of capitalism, technical progress, and other forces, humanity is doing more while using less. This unexpected and welcome neutralization of humanity’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for the earth’s resources is just one example of what MIT Sloan research scientist Andrew McAfee calls dematerialization. Suddenly, peak oil - while still inevitable - started to look like less of a problem. And renewable energies became cheaper and easier to access. Then fracking happened, greatly increasing how much oil and natural gas could be pulled from the ground. From the 1970s through the early aughts, peak oil was a rallying call against consumption and consumerism, a dire warning that the good times would end and humanity would drag the planet into decline. Remember peak oil? First appearing in 1956, the concept theorized that the world would reach a point when it could no longer increase the rate at which oil was extracted from the earth.

Capitalism ii turn off technology