STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 10 April 2012

[Demeter]

44. World Energy Consumption Since 1820 in Charts

http://ourfiniteworld.com/2012/03/12/world-energy-consumption-since-1820-in-charts/

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With energy consumption rising as rapidly as shown in Figure 1, it is hard to see what is happening when viewed at the level of the individual. To get a different view, Figure 2 shows average consumption per person, using world population estimates by Angus Maddison.

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Let’s look first at Figure 2. Prior to 1900, energy per capita did not rise very much with the addition of coal energy, suggesting that the early use of coal mostly offset other fuel uses, or permitted larger families. There was a small increase in energy consumption per capita during World War I, but a dip during the depression prior to World War II.

Between World War II and 1970, there was a huge ramp-up in energy consumption per capita. There are several reasons why this might happen:

• During this period, European countries and Japan were rebuilding after World War II.
  
• There was a need to find jobs for returning US soldiers, so that the country would not fall back into the recession it was in prior to World War II.
  
• The US had a large oil industry that it wanted to develop, in order to provide jobs and tax revenue.
  
• Major infrastructure development projects were put into place during this period, including the Eisenhower Interstate System and substantial improvements to the electrical transmission system.
  
• To facilitate purchases both by companies and by consumers, the government encouraged the use of debt to pay for the new good. Figure 3, below, from my post, The United States’ 65-Year Debt Bubble, shows that non-governmental debt did indeed rise during this period.

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World population also expanded greatly during the period from 1820 to 2010:

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Figure 4 shows that there is a distinct “bend” in the graph about 1950, when population started rising faster, at the same time that energy consumption started rising more quickly.

If we look at 10-year percentage changes in world population and energy use, this is the pattern we see: