Why the World Urgently Needs an Energy Policy
| Date | 01 August 1972 |
| Author | M.W. Thring |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711787200400301 |
| Published date | 01 August 1972 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
225
WHY
THE
WORLD
URGENTLY
NEEDS
AN
ENERGY
POLICY
M.
W.
THRING
How
much
energy
does
a
person
use?
Fig.
1.
shows
the
relation
between
the
standard
of
living
in
various
countries
(expressed
as
dollars
G N P/Capita)
and
the
energy
consumption
per
capita.
In
general
they
are
closely
corre-
lated
although
some
countries
use
more
energy
than
that
corres-
ponding
to
their
total
expenditure
for
reasons
of
climate,
or
because
cheap
fuels
lead
to
a
wasteful
attitude.
This
correlation
comes
from
the
fact
that
the
whole
of
the
advances
of
the
First
Industrial
Revolution
are
based
on
the
possibility
of
each
worker
on
the
land,
in
the
factory,
and
each
consumer
in
the
home
and
in
transport
having
plenty
of
cheap
energy
available
to
aid
him.
Nearly
always,
when
a
skilled
human
manual
operation
is
replaced
by
an
unskilled
machine
operation,
the
machine
takes
ten
or
more
times
as
much
energy
because
of
increased
friction,
weight
lifting
and
inability
to
sort,
separate
and
place
accurately
by
coordinated
eye-hand
operations.
FIGURE
1
COMMERCIAL
ENERGY
USE
AND
GROSS
NATIONAL
PRODUCT
show
a
reasonably
close
correlation.
A
more
complete
listing
of
countries
is
presented
in
the
illustration
on
page
90
in
the
article
by
Earl
Cook
titled
&dquo;The
Flow
of
Energy
in
an
Industrial
Society.&dquo;
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