Al Bartlett's video “Arithmetic, Population, and Energy”1 spells out many of the complex issues related to energy use in our society. Bartlett makes the point that basic arithmetic is the fundamental obstacle preventing us from being able to grasp the relationships between energy consumption, population, and lifestyles. In an earlier version of Bartlett's video, he refers to a “Hagar the Horrible” comic strip in which Hagar asks the critical question, “Good…Now can anybody here count?”
References
1.
The video is available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O133ppiVnWY.
2.
See supplementary material at http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4902201 to view and download the spreadsheet.
3.
Other papers on this topic include Howard Hayden
, “A conspectus on energy
,” Phys. Teach.
49
, 497
(Nov. 2011
) and Robert
Ehrlich
, “Physics educators need to become more knowledgeable about and involved in renewable energy
,” Phys. Teach.
48
, 86
(Feb. 2010
). 4.
The consumption and export data came from The World Almanac and Book of Facts
(2014
), pp. 110
and 111. The resource data came from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec4.pdf. © 2014 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2014
American Association of Physics Teachers
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