EQUALITY BEFORE THE PLOW

Now comes news of another aspect of US energy gluttony: It isn't even true. Yes, the US accounts for about one third of the world's energy consumption; but only in fossils and hydropower. That overlooks the main source of energy for the majority of the world: brute animal and human muscle power.

Everyone knows that more energy is used for agriculture in the US than in India. But "everyone" is wrong: It is Indian agriculture that uses more. The difference is that 9.5 million US farmers mainly use gasoline-driven tractors and the high energy that goes into producing chemical fertilizers, while the 440 million of India's rural population mainly use bullock work and human labor (the latter 1/3 of the total energy expenditure). Another difference is that the US energy pigs produce enough to feed much of the rest of the world, including the Indian laborer who produces food at double the dollar price and with 22% more energy input (not to mention the lower per-acre yield).

This is reported by Roger Rearelle, Harvard professor of population policy, in Science (6/4/ 76). His 6-page article Energy use in rural India is an eye opener for all who think energy conservation means curbing efficient energy sources: Small-scale energy conversion is not only wasteful, but it makes man a beast of burden. (And not only man: Equality of women, for the primitivists, would mean an equal right for women to be harnessed to the plow.)

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Prof. Rescue comments: "An old saying has it, 'slavery will persist until the loom weaves itself.' All ancient civilizations, no matter how enlightened or creative, rested on slavery and on grinding human labor, because human and animal muscle power were the principal forms of energy available for mechanical work. The discovery of ways to use less expensive sources of energy than human muscles made it possible for men to be free."