TY - JOUR
T1 - Energetic limits to economic growth
AU - Brown, James H.
AU - Burnside, William R.
AU - Davidson, Ana D.
AU - Delong, John R.
AU - Dunn, William C.
AU - Hamilton, Marcus J.
AU - Mercado-Silva, Norman
AU - Nekola, Jeffrey C.
AU - Okie, Jordan G.
AU - Woodruff, William H.
AU - Zuo, Wenyun
N1 - Funding Information:
For support we thank the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Interfaces grant to JHB, JGO, and WZ; National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant DEB-0541625 and the Rockefeller Foundation to MJH; NSF Grant OISE-0653296 to ADD; and National Institutes of Health Grant DK36263 to WHW. We thank the many colleagues who have discussed these ideas with us and encouraged us to write this article. Charles A. S. Hall, Charles Fowler, Joseph A. Tainter, and several anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.
PY - 2011/1
Y1 - 2011/1
N2 - The human population and economy have grown exponentially and now have impacts on climate, ecosystem processes, and biodiversity far exceeding those of any other species. Like all organisms, humans are subject to natural laws and are limited by energy and other resources. In this article, we use a macro ecological approach to integrate perspectives of physics, ecology, and economics with an analysis of extensive global data to show how energy imposes fundamental constraints on economic growth and development. We demonstrate a positive scaling relationship between per capita energy use and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) both across nations and within nations over time. Other indicators of socioeconomic status and ecological impactare correlated with energy use and GDP. We estimate global energy consumption for alternative future scenarios of population growth and standards of living. Large amounts of energy will be required to fuel economic growth, increase standards of living, and lift developing nations out of poverty.
AB - The human population and economy have grown exponentially and now have impacts on climate, ecosystem processes, and biodiversity far exceeding those of any other species. Like all organisms, humans are subject to natural laws and are limited by energy and other resources. In this article, we use a macro ecological approach to integrate perspectives of physics, ecology, and economics with an analysis of extensive global data to show how energy imposes fundamental constraints on economic growth and development. We demonstrate a positive scaling relationship between per capita energy use and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) both across nations and within nations over time. Other indicators of socioeconomic status and ecological impactare correlated with energy use and GDP. We estimate global energy consumption for alternative future scenarios of population growth and standards of living. Large amounts of energy will be required to fuel economic growth, increase standards of living, and lift developing nations out of poverty.
KW - scaling
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U2 - 10.1525/bio.2011.61.1.7
DO - 10.1525/bio.2011.61.1.7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79751500366
SN - 0006-3568
VL - 61
SP - 19
EP - 26
JO - BioScience
JF - BioScience
IS - 1
ER -