Back to Visuals Page
Back to Teaching Page

 

Energy Consumption in Various Contexts

(from Bodley 1985)


 
Type of Society
Daily Kilocalories 
per Person
Bands and Tribes
4,000-12,000
Preindustrial states
26,000 (maximum)
Early industrial states
70,000
Americans in 1970
230,000
Americans in 1990
275,000


 

In 1996 total American consumption was more than all the energy consumed by China, Japan, and India combined (Bodley 2001: 81).
 
 

China, with 21 percent of the world’s population, consumed less than 12 percent of the world’s commercial energy, about half the American total (Bodley 2001: 81).


 

Development:Terms
 

Development: the notion that some countries are poor because they have small industrial plants and few lines of communication and that they should pursue wealth by acquiring these things.
 
 

Sustainable Development:economic development that has its goal as planning and implementing projects which will benefit local people and which will eventually be able to continue without outside help or intervention
 
 

Appropriate Technology:technology which is appropriate to local needs--the idea is that the simplest least energy consuming methods should be tried first (this goes hand in hand with sustainability)
 
 

Participatory Development:a method for planning and implementing projects which includes local people at as many stages as possible or feasible


 
 

Grassroots Development:projects based on local organizing and ideas, and implemented by local people (can be supported by outside funds)