Javon's Paradox and our Motor Car

The Subaru only gets 25 MPG and as a result it is, by our standard, a bit expensive to drive. In addition, we feel that for the sake of the planet we need to consume less. Americana's uses 25% of the world's energy supply and we are only 6% of the population. We are simply racked with guilt over using so much energy to drive hither and yon.

Seeing the old car has some 200K miles on it, purchasing a new rig seemed appropriate and in doing so figured we'd get one that got 50 MPG, there by saving on the consumption of carbon producing fuel. It was just the ethical thing to do.

So, we got this VW TDI diesel unit that is some 6 years old. It is a beauty and has only 35K miles and sure as all get-up achieves 50MPG. So as a result of this improvement of efficiency we are of the mind that our move has helped fuel consumption globally and decreased carbon emissions. We are aware it is a diesel and there are some particulates but it is very "clean" and hardly smells like a diesel.

However, after going Steelhead fishing in Sheboygan some 110 miles away, it occurred to me that had I been driving the old subaru, I would not have gone fishing. In fact, had we had used the car that got the paltry 25MPG we never would have gone across country fishing and gabbing!

What we have here is good old Javon's Paradox which simply says that efficiency improvements don't necessary mean less consumption, but possibly more. I'm a loser, I guess.