The industrial age had a great many effects, but perhaps the most startling is the rise in the consumption of energy per capita it unleashed. Humanity up until then functioned much like the rest of the natural kingdoms, making judicious use of energy and demanding little more than what was required to satisfy basic needs.
Man relied primarily on natural flows of environmental energy – solar (i.e. radiant), geothermal and planetary (e.g. tides, gravitational attraction) – up until quite recently. The records of steam engine technology date back to the first century AD, practical applications of the steam engine opened his mind to the possibility of tapping into the earth’s concentrated solar energy stores, including coal, oil and natural gas.
Human beings have proven to be voracious and insatiable consumers of energy ever since the industrial revolution. Prior to the industrial age, man’s increase in energy consumption rose steadily, but slowly. Per capita energy use skyrocketed as machinery and equipment came into the picture. The technological revolution, which later gave rise to the information age, accelerated that trend dramatically as is shown in the Department of Energy (DOE) chart below:
Up until roughly 1958, the US was largely energy independent. Since then, however, we’ve been on an energy binge, consuming much more than we can produce, as is shown in the DOE chart below:
Our so-called progress is marked more by the amount of energy consumed per capita than any other metric.
Interestingly, the rapid rise in consumption has not been matched by a corresponding increase in energy efficiency. If anything, energy production and transmission had to ramp up at such a rapid rate to meet the demand that little attention was paid to matters of efficiency, as is shown in the DOE chart below:
We are conducting ourselves in a way that is totally contrary to the rules by which the natural kingdom operates. Conservation of energy is the rule, as mindless exploitation and waste lead quickly to exhaustion and extinction. We may think that we’re smarter than nature, that we can game the system and win, but this has not proven to be a wise strategy anywhere else in history as far as I can see.
When intelligence is not tempered by wisdom, control becomes an issue. Like a fawn taking its first steps on wobbly legs, we’ve unlocked resources without yet knowing how to manage them properly.
There is an interesting analogy in the way we eat. Our ability to produce calories and package them in enticing ways far outpaces our caloric needs. The shift in supply of high calorie foods has been met with gluttony rather than control and the results couldn’t be more obvious. Obesity is quickly becoming the most significant threat to human health and productivity.
As human beings, we tend to operate on the premise that “we do because we can.” Like a college kid who eats nothing but sugared cereals and heat and serve Ramen or Mac-n-cheese, where license is mistaken for liberty self-destructive tendencies quickly take hold. We’re better than that.
I hope.
“Twas well observed by my Lord Bacon, That a little knowledge is apt to puff up, and make men giddy, but a greater share of it will set them right, and bring them to low and humble thoughts of themselves.” – Anonymous, 1698
Gregory Hake 
The last hundred years have brought incredible change to our world. Our gluttony used to be tempered by our inabilities, and also by the fact that few had the resources to be gluttons even by pre-industrial revolution standards. With the age of leisure came the age of excess, and I don’t know if we have the cash to pay for what we have bought.
I believe that the best answer is to, as much as possible, live simply and efficiently as natural law would have it. However, if we do not at least find a way to control our energy expenditures, it will be a moot point.
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Thanks Gregg for informing us of these facts. Interesting to see that in the 1950’s we were largely energy independent. Makes me think that continuing to cultivate such energy sources as solar has our ancestors utilized we can return to energy independence and associate ourselves more with the natural universal rhythms. Of course each of us can review and be alert to our own energy independence that includes our caloric intake and our functional outward expression.
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Thanks for putting this together so coherently. It makes it so clear that self centeredness and selfishness are motivations that always accumulate to tragedy. I’ve also been pondering that curious ‘motivation’ – “we do it because we can.” That phrase describes so much of what has characterized the course of things for humanity. Developing large scale technology was bound to be disastrous with this motivation already driving things.
I suppose the one encouraging fact here is that each person can do something about rejecting this core motivation in favor of a life-centered responsibility, and each one who does so will stand out as a vivid example of a very different potential and future for the world.
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Imbalanced economies are the natural result wherever consumption exceeds useful production, as something which is not immediately useful to an ecosystem is either stored or wasted. Storage and waste in excess do have crippling effects, and the laws of nature are constantly at work to keep a state of balance that secures health to the overall system, playing no favors.
This grand system of checks and balances is supreme, beyond the ability of human beings to manipulate. Causes have been set in motion the full effects of which have yet to be seen. This unbridled exploitation of resources is certainly a cause injected into our world, yet it comes as an effect to an even greater cause: one of imbalanced human temperament. The question now demands individual awareness and responsibility, for the governing rules and regulations no longer are serving to keep the system safe and balanced. Liberty has switched over to license as evidenced by the term used to describe people by the “market”: “consumers.”
There have to people willing to temper their appetites today as I see no other choice. Most consumption is driven by ingesting unsatisfying false hopes, just like the junk food which never satiates and the fashions which come and go. The meat and the marrow, or the true needs, when made the primary diet, are needed in surprisingly small amounts for the density of true sustenance it offers. In my opinion, we all need to find what that is for ourselves, with a return to being a sustainable, economically responsible member of society, where every choice we make confirms our membership with all of its inherent values and ideals. A life with a conscious purpose is a great start!
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Very interesting statistics and you make an excellent point. I plan on looking at this personally to ensure that I’m not utilizing more than I generate in my own living.
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Interesting post, thank you. I think making a change can start with a grass roots effort. Thinking austerity in power before it is legislated, which it seems to me will happen sooner rather than later, is a practical beginning. Shutting lights off and our personal technology, if this were the habit, I read, would make a substantial start. I believe if we each don’t take some measure of personal action here the future results are undeniable.
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