/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>57928640
I remember taking an ecological anthropology course in college, where I got to know the professor quite well. He worked with a research team in Kenya/Tanzania. In one of his projects, his team produced elaborate flow charts of virtually all the energy used by a pastoralist people in that region, measured in kilocalories (iirc), and flowing from the sun, to the plants, to the animals, into meat and milk, into daily activities etc. It was very impressive.
Making a similar flow chart of the energy uses of a modern civilization would be a tremendous undertaking and an astounding feat. But it's amazing that people have quantified and charted all the energy used in a relatively primitive human social system.
Sunlight, of course, has very low "power density." Same with wing. Nuclear and hydrocarbons are where the real power is at.