Time in a Barrel

Reading Bill McKibben's book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, I was struck by his illustration of how much human power is equivalent to the energy contained in a single barrel of oil. 42 gallons of oil equals about 25,000 hours (or more than a decade) of one human being's labor and that, along with natural gas and coal, has provided humankind with a sort of time machine: By combining the energy stored in fossil fuel with human ingenuity, we started the industrial revolution and in the process we changed our earth forever. We created machines and infrastructure that allow us to travel vast distances in a matter of hours. Communication systems allow us to exchange data and ideas, such as this blog. Data can travel around the world in a matter of seconds. By letting us accomplish so much in such a short period of time, fossil fuel has altered our consciousness.

We don't perceive or value time and energy the way our ancestors did because with fossil fuel, we can fold time and space. Walk outside your home or office, stand by a stop sign, wait for a car to appear, and you'll see something that happens hundreds of thousands of times each day. The driver will bring their car to a stop (hopefully) and then accelerate away from the stop. Depending on how aggressive, frustrated, or relaxed the driver is feeling, they may accelerate slowly (using less fuel) or rapidly (using a more fuel). What the driver probably doesn't appreciate is the benefit provided by their car's engine and the fuel it is burning: They are moving a ton or so of metal, rubber, plastic, themselves, their passengers, and their cargo by simply extending the toes of their right foot. Put the same cargo onto a bicycle, turn the driver into the engine, and you will dramatically realign their awareness of energy, time, and space.

The compression of time and space provided by fossil fuel, along with the increase in available activities and goods, has changed the way we value those goods and activities. We spend a lot more time sitting, observing, and thinking. We tend to drive more and walk less. With less physical activity, we are more obese and more likely to suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiac disease. We expend less physical energy, but we complain that there aren't enough hours in a day to accomplish all we'd like to accomplish. Without an appreciation of the labor that goes into cultivating food, we aren't troubled by wasting food. Forced to walk or bicycle the 32 miles the average American commutes to work each day, most of us would choose to live closer to work, or find work closer to where we live, or allot considerably more than the 52 minutes the average American spends commuting. Forced to walk to the grocery, we make more thoughtful choices and have a greater appreciation of our resources. Which gets us back to the crux of our predicament.

With dwindling fossil fuel reserves and climate change already underway, McKibben has been exploring the myriad of issues we will soon face: What sort of work we will do, how we'll meet our transportation needs, what sorts of food will be available, and where will we find clean water. It's a huge topic, so big that most of us can't get our minds around it. We have catapulted ourselves into the future, but soon we'll begin to decelerate and we'll need to adjust our priorities and values. A good place to start is to cultivate an appreciation of how much human labor is contained in a barrel of oil, a gallon of gasoline, even a 60 watt light bulb. Forget carbon offsets and all the other distractions. Getting your mind around renewable energy, human-powered activities and locally-based economies are the first steps toward preparing for the future.