Americans Are Using Less Steel, Paper, Fertilizer, and Energy
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Re: Americans Are Using Less Steel, Paper, Fertilizer, and Energy
#2I think the subtext here is obvious to people on HN, but isn't this because so much value is generated using electrons on increasingly efficient computer systems?
Re: Americans Are Using Less Steel, Paper, Fertilizer, and Energy
#3The a16z podcast recently had an interesting episode featuring the author of this article. It discussed the divergence of the GDP + energy usage curves as well as some of the other stuff in his book.
https://a16z.com/2019/10/03/the-environment-capitalism-techn...
Re: Americans Are Using Less Steel, Paper, Fertilizer, and Energy
#4I think the subtext here is obvious to people on HN, but isn't this because so much value is generated using electrons on increasingly efficient computer systems?
That doesn't explain crop tonnage going up while fertilizer and water use are going down.
Re: Americans Are Using Less Steel, Paper, Fertilizer, and Energy
#5Does this relate to the buyback-debt cycle of companies? [0]
[0]. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/29/buybacks-companies-increasin...
Re: Americans Are Using Less Steel, Paper, Fertilizer, and Energy
#6I think the subtext here is obvious to people on HN, but isn't this because so much value is generated using electrons on increasingly efficient computer systems?
That doesn't explain crop tonnage going up while fertilizer and water use are going down.
Is this partly due to things like drip irrigation?
Re: Americans Are Using Less Steel, Paper, Fertilizer, and Energy
#7I think the subtext here is obvious to people on HN, but isn't this because so much value is generated using electrons on increasingly efficient computer systems?
That doesn't explain crop tonnage going up while fertilizer and water use are going down.
A hypothetical example is drones going through a field and manually picking out weeds, increasing yield with the same amount of resources. Similarly you can get fine grained ‘crop analytics’ through drones scanning the field and acting in response.
Re: Americans Are Using Less Steel, Paper, Fertilizer, and Energy
#8I think the subtext here is obvious to people on HN, but isn't this because so much value is generated using electrons on increasingly efficient computer systems?
That doesn't explain crop tonnage going up while fertilizer and water use are going down.
Did it occur to you that, like ordinary consumer products, industrial products also oversell their efficacy?
There was just a paper released about a widely used pesticide that did not appear to actually increase yields.
If the question is, how does crop tonnage go up without water and fertilizer use, maybe the answer really is a computer helped people plan better and be less wasteful.
Or all the least efficient farmers were bankrupted out of the market.
Re: Americans Are Using Less Steel, Paper, Fertilizer, and Energy
#9I think the subtext here is obvious to people on HN, but isn't this because so much value is generated using electrons on increasingly efficient computer systems?
That doesn't explain crop tonnage going up while fertilizer and water use are going down.
Technological advances in agriculture would presumably explain it, many of which are probably computer driven (precision agriculture, data-driven agriculture being two examples).
Re: Americans Are Using Less Steel, Paper, Fertilizer, and Energy
#10Is this simply because manufacturing is offshore?