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ofcourse. make bigger profits. How–
ever, it takes more energy to manu–
facture and drive bigger cars than it
does for smaller cars.
The use by a 130-pound Ameri–
can housewife, for example. of a
3,000 pound automobile gulping a
gallon of gasoline every 8 or 1
O
miles, just lo bring home 2 or 3
sacks of groceries,
is
hardly a wise
use of our God-given natural re–
sources. The total energy cost for
such a shopping trip is seldom, if
ever, calculated by the individual.
Our Throwaway Socie ty
Another significan! technological
change has been the proliferation of
packaging - for example, nonre–
turnable bottles and cans. Accord–
ing to one study, a soft drink in a
nonreturnable bottle is 30% more
expensive to buy than a soft drink
in
a returnable bottle. Yet , the energy
cost for throwaway bottles per unü
of soft drink delivered in this study
was 3 to 4 times as great as return–
able bottles. Throwaway bottles and
cans are nevertheless on the in–
crease. Obviously, monetary costs
don't reflect the energy costs in such
cases, which means a greater envi–
ronmental impact than the mone–
tary cost indicates.
In the case of aluminum cans, tbe
very material itself boosts energy
consumption. Aluminum produc–
tion requires six times more energy
than steel. pound for pound, and
twice as much can for can, even
though aluminum cans weigh less
than comparable steel cans. The old
type "tin" can (made of steel) at
least would eventually rust away
when disposed of, whereas alumi–
num will not. This fact makes dis–
posal more difficult, in addition to
the already excessively consumptive
energy requirement to manufacture
it in the first place.
These and other important tech–
nological changes since World War
li
atfect the lives of every affiuent
Westerner.
ll
is the
way we live our
lives
that explains the energy crisis.
Affiuent nations prodigiously and
PLAIN TRUTH July·August 1973
100
•U.S.S.R.
u.s.A..
•
CANADA
•
UNITED KINGDOM
•BELGIUM
&
LUX.
•AUSTRALIA
•GERMANY
•
NETHERLANDS
•S. AFRICA
50
•IRELAND
•JAPAN
•
MEXICO •ITALY
NIGERIA
INDIA
,000
•
GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT PER CAPITA
The close relation between a natlon's consumption of
energy
and
ita
grou national product is depicted above.
wastefully consume energy because
of our peoples'
collective
way
of lije.
The way we produce our food,
clothe and transport our bodies.
house our families. perform our
daily work and engage in recreation
explains
why
we have an energy
cr isis.
Our Me chanical Maids
Combining all our energy con–
sumption - industry, housing, com–
mercia l transportation, etc. -
affiuent nations must stable a pro–
digious amount of borsepower to
maintain their mechanized way of
life. This work is performed by me–
chanical "energy slaves." To power
these mechanical maids. Americans
use more than 8 trillion horsepower-
hours of energy every year. Imagine
having to stable the number of ac–
tual horses necessary to do this
much work.
Each American has at his finger–
tips, on the average, the equivalen!
of the energy expended by 500
human s laves. Europeans have
roughly the equivalen! of one third
to one half this number; Austra–
lians. one half; South Africans, one
fourth.
This means, according to science
writer Irving Benglesdorf, that the
true population of the United States
is roughly 200 million people
PLUS
100
billion
energy slaves, making a
total human equivalen! of
100,200,000,000 working servants.
Regardi ng these "energy slaves,"
7