ABSTRACT
Over the course of the twentieth century, a rising level of energy use has been increasingly perceived as a vital hallmark of development and progress. At times, in fact, energy consumption per capita almost appears to have acquired the status of an independent variable, against which developments in other fields like communications are measured and evaluated. The extension of industrialization to many different countries of the world, especially since 1945, offers one explanation for the trend, as does the emergence of more advanced industrial societies with their burgeoning demands for consumer durables. Beyond this, however, it is vital to register the declining costs of energy, notably since the Second World War. The growth of competing energy resources has contributed to this, as
iii g 0.1 -t---r---....--.----.---r---.-- 1860 1880 1900 1 920 1 940 1960 1980
have developments in the production scale and production organization of energy sectors like oil. The outcome of these various forces is depicted in Figure 3.1. In particular, it demonstrates the sharp acceleration in the rate of energy use from the early 1940s which led commentators to talk. so readily of a neo-:- Malthusian resource crisis by the turn of the millennium. As the graph indicates, though, there has been a correspondingly sharp deceleration in the rate of energy use in the 1970s and early 1980s. Major downturns in the world capitalist economy have contributed to the change. The growth of the 'environmental lobby' has promoted . greater efficiency in energy use. However, the prime catalyst has been the alteration in the oil market.
