Reductionist research has contributed tremendously to improving the efficiency of lighting technologies. However, the total energy consumed for lighting has not decreased. Details about this are provided in Section 3.2. Suggest ways in which reductionist research on improving technological efficiency could be combined with holistic research, to make sure that efficiency improvements per lighting device translate into similar improvements in total energy consumption for lighting.

Section 3.2:

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Over the last few centuries, societies have become increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of human activities, and what this impact may hold for us in the future. Among the earliest such concerns was the prediction of food shortages by Rev. Thomas Malthus in 1798, based on his insight that population increases exponentially while crop production, by bringing more land into culti- vation, increases linearly [8]. Similar predictions were made in the 1960s in the work of Ehrlich [9] and the Limits to Growth study [10]. These predictions even resulted in a famous bet between the ecologist Paul Ehrlich and the economist Julian Simon, which that is described in Box 3.2.