Reindeer Farts

Another takeaway from our literature review published in Environmental Research Letters.

57% of the 115 environmental impact articles we reviewed did NOT consider economic feedbacks within their scope of analysis. That means they ignored the effects of behavior change, rebound effects (i.e., the Jevons Paradox), and economic growth due to efficiency gain, among many possible feedback mechanisms.

Most "smart" and "sustainable" techno-solutions base their environmental claims on efficiency metrics at the product level. Independent environmental research must strive for a broader Earth System-level boundary of analysis!

I first drew/posted this in December 2021, hence the holiday-themed sketch (: