More from Less tells the story of an important, unexpected, and heartening change in our relationship with the planet we all live on. Whereas throughout the Industrial Era increases in human population and prosperity came at the expense of the earth, that pattern no longer holds in America and other rich countries. Instead, we’re now able to improve the human condition while also treading more lightly on the world: consuming fewer resources, using less cropland, reducing pollution, bringing back species we’d pushed to the brink of extinction, and so on. 

More from Less documents this phenomenon and explains how it came to be. The book makes the provocative and counterintuitive argument that two of the most important forces responsible for the change are capitalism and technological progress. In the past this combination caused us to take more and more from the planet over time. Now, it’s letting us get more from less. So what changed? Essentially, we invented the computer, the network, and a host of other digital tools that let us swap atoms for bits [think, for example, of how many different devices and media have vanished into the smartphone]. Quite literally, these inventions have changed the world. They’ve provided the opportunity to save on resources, while capitalism has provided the motive.