How energy has shaped our lives and cities
Life is all about energy—capturing it, harnessing it, storing it, converting it to work, using it to reproduce ourselves, and transforming it to enable us to capture more energy.
Such is the story of all living beings and of human civilization. Everything about life and society is about the capture of energy.
Energy conversions
We can even view history as a sequence of energy conversions, with each progressive leap of humanity marked by increasing energy capture.
This is the energy paradigm of cultural evolutionism posited by anthropologists like Leslie White and historian and archeologist Ian Morris.
The energy captured by hunter-gatherer societies was limited since the only available sources were human and animal muscle power and the burning of biomass. No surplus in production was generated by these small, nomadic bands, and their social organization was patterned after the available energy they harvested.
With the discovery of agriculture and the domestication of plants and animals, the amount of energy captured by settled societies increased, allowing surplus production which mainly went to human reproduction.
The resulting increase in population in agrarian economies led to hierarchical social structures and centralized authority to facilitate the distribution of captured energy and to organize the quest for even more energy via territorial expansion.
Societal development
Surplus energy is converted into material goods—trinkets, weapons, buildings, infrastructure, temples, ships, and even into an abstract form like money to facilitate energy storage and exchange.
Agrarian economies also allowed for specialized roles in society—artists, priests, soldiers, merchants, and explorers—which led to the colonization of new lands to further increase energy capture.
Cities reflected in physical form the hierarchical social organization of agrarian economies at the peak of their energy capture.
Societal development within cities, particularly the growth of scientific thought, brought about the next energy epoch (fossil fuels) and the next stage in the transformation of societies.
Growth of industry
The discovery of fossil fuels was a bonanza that allowed societies to breach the ceiling of energy capture in agrarian societies.
Rather than relying purely on biomass with low energy densities, an abundant source of fuel in the form of coal, oil, and natural gas enabled the development of machinery and the growth of industry.
Societal structure and philosophical thought were transformed.
The monarchy was replaced by a new elite of industrialists. Societal norms shifted toward individualism and capitalism. Colonial rule and forced labor were abolished, and individual freedom became the new ideal.
Cultural values and forms of government changed with the new energy epoch. So did cities.
The old ordering of cities around churches and palaces gave way to factories, highways, and commercial establishments, high-rise buildings, and megalopolises. Fossil fuels became embodied in our built environment and daily life.
Next leap forward
But increasing complexity demands more energy.
Such is the nature of systems. The inability of a system to harvest enough energy to support its level of complexity and to distribute it optimally can lead to the system’s collapse.
Has our society reached the ceiling of fossil fuel energy capture? We are already witnessing conflict, chaos, and inequitable distribution of resources. The increasing scarcity of fossil fuels amid rising demand will heighten such risks. That is, unless we are entering a new energy epoch—one that would allow the next leap forward of human society.
Societal transformation
Many speculate what form the next energy bonanza would be. Some say it will be solar power; others, hydrogen fuel cells; still others, nuclear fission.
I am personally hoping that our future cities can convert waste into energy more cleanly and efficiently. Perhaps, it will be a mix of these technologies built upon the remaining capacity of the fossil fuel reserves.
Whatever it is, the prospect of a new form of energy to replace our dependence on fossil fuels will likely trigger widespread societal transformation, as previous energy regimes have shown us. If history serves as a basis for the future, a new energy epoch will probably usher in a new set of philosophies, social and economic structures, new industries, and new elites. With these will follow the transformation of our cities.
Information age
Already, our cities consume 80 percent of total energy output and we are still urbanizing. From a per capita energy consumption of around 120 watts in hunter-gatherer societies, the typical person in today’s developed societies consumes over 10,000 watts per day.
Whether our urban areas will increasingly take a digital form or finally achieve harmony with our natural environment will depend on how we transcend our current chaos in this late stage of the fossil fuel epoch.
Even if we do survive the chaos, some patterns in history will likely remain.
We have, for decades, proclaimed that we are in the information age. With the advent of machine learning, big data, and continued dependence on digital technology, society is even more entrenched in the information age.
But what sort of information will our future civilization seek? What else, but information about new ways to capture energy.
The author is a built environment professional and the founder and principal of JLPD, a master planning and property development consultancy practice. Visit www.jlpdstudio.com
