ENERGETIC CORRELATES - Energy in Nature and Society - page 348

numeracy, and high university attendance reflects low
standards rather than high intellectual achievements.
High enrollment in primary and secondary schools
( > 80% of eligible cohorts) have been attained in some
countries with energy use as low as 40-50 GJ per capita,
and relatively high university enrollments (20%-25% of
all young adults receiving postsecondary education) have
been associated with energy consumption of at least 70
GJ per capita (UNDP 2005). The United Nations De-
velopment Programme uses life expectancy at birth, adult
literacy, combined educational enrollment, and per capita
GDP to construct the Human Development Index
(HDI). There is little difference at the top: in 2005 Nor-
way's HDI was 0.939, followed by Australia, Canada,
and Sweden (all with 0.936), but the value for Italy,
in twentieth place, was still 0.909. The lowest values
( < 0.35) are shared by sub-Saharan countries. Data plots
show a nonlinear trend with a high HDI ( > 0.8) reached
with as little as 65 GJ per capita, and with minimal or no
gains above 110 GJ (fig. 12.5).
The weakest of important links between energy con-
sumption and the quality of life are the political arrange-
ments that guarantee personal freedoms. Fundamental
personal freedoms and institutions of participatory de-
mocracy were introduced and codified by our ancestors
generations before the emergence of modern high-
energy civilization, when average per capita primary en-
ergy use was a mere fraction of the late twentieth-century
levels. The only key exception was women's suffrage.
The U.S. federal law guaranteeing women's right to
vote was passed only in 1920, and an analogous British
act made it through Parliament only in 1928 (Hannam,
Holden, and Auchterlonie 2000). Events in the twenti-
eth century showed that suppression or cultivation of
freedoms was not dictated by energy use. Such free-

doms thrived in the energy-rich United States and in
energy-poor India alike, and they were repressed in the
energy-rich Stalinist USSR as they still are in energy-
scarce North Korea.
Consequently, the ranks of free countries (Freedom
House ratings between 1 and 2.5) contain not only all
high-energy Western democracies but also such mid- to
low-level energy users as South Africa, Thailand, Philip-
pines, and India (Freedom House 2005). Countries
with the lowest freedom rating (6.5-7) include not only
energy-poor Afghanistan and Vietnam but also oil-rich
Libya and Saudi Arabia. Basic personal freedoms are
thus compatible with societies using as little as 20 GJ
per capita (Ghana, India). Chile and Argentina are popu-
lous nations with high freedom rankings (1-1.5) using
low amounts of commercial fuels and electricity ( < 75
GJ) (fig. 12.5).
These realities translate into some fascinating conclu-
sions. In the early 2000s a society concerned about eq-
uity and willing to channel its resources into securing
adequate diets, good health care, and basic schooling
could guarantee a decent quality of life (high life expec-
tancy, varied nutrition, educational opportunities) with
annual TPES of as little as 40-50 GJ per capita. A better
performance (IM < 20, female LE > 75, HDI > 0.8)
requires at least 60-65 GJ per capita. The best rates
(IM < 10, female LE > 80, HDI > 0.9) need no less than
110 GJ per capita. All these variables relate to average
per capita energy use in a distinctly nonlinear manner,
with clear inflections evident at 50-70 GJ per capita,
diminishing returns afterwards, and basically no addi-
tional gains accompanying consumption above 110 GJ
per capita. Political freedoms have little to do with any
increases in energy use above existential minima. And be-
cause of steadily increasing conversion efficiencies the