Does Energy Make You Happy?
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 06.21.07
The Oil Drum has a thoughtful article on whether energy use makes you happy. There are 6.5 billion people on this planet, and not enough energy to go around. When people discuss peak oil, and the changes that will ensue, it’s assumed that we will need to find new energy sources to replace it. However, the article looks at peak oil ‘from a broader context: the necessity and purpose of continued increases in demand for energy. What is it all for, if not to make us happy?’
The article contains quite a lot of interesting statistics, including a study that compares GNP to the average happiness of countries’ occupants. The basic result is that money, and therefore consumption and products, makes you happier to a point, but after that point does very little. It’s summed up nicely by this quote, “When you buy your 5th car, does that make you anything close to as happy than when you bought your first? (does it really make you happy at all, or is it like opening the fridge at midnight?). Is the 10 million dollar in the bank 10 times better than the first? Do we buy the 50th pair of shoes because we need them, or we need the feeling we get from buying them?”
Do we really need to be stripping the Earth of resources as quickly as we are, in order to keep everyone happy, even considering how many people are balanced on top of it? Even if the answer is yes, then it would appear that an even distribution of energy use would up the global happiness average considerably. Of course, that all seems rather obvious and intuitive when you say it like that. It’s interesting to see that conspicuous consumption is pointless, but quite another to convince people to give away all but a few of their millions for the greater good. ::The Oil Drum
See also ::Why Conservation Is the World's Best Energy Source ::China Has a Plan for Climate Change
if you look at the collapse in the US back in the 30s, there is a fine line between being rich and able to keep food on your plate. even in the developed world we have rich and the poor.
but agreed, its not spread well across the 6.5billion.
hi,
When you buy any thing ,think wisely whether really you require it.
Yep, true happiness comes from meaningful adventures, and doesn't require buying more stuff. We've only been convinced that buying stuff makes us happy by marketers. It does give us a temporary boost in joy, but leaves us feeling empty far too soon, compared to real, meaningful exploration and discovery.
If we want that more realistic (and obviously more sustainable) message to become well known, we're going to have to do at least as good a job at marketing our message as the corporate marketers do. And, while we're at it, we're going to need to convince the marketers and their corporate employers that they, themselves, would be happier if they made and sold products and services that met humankind's needs more sustainably and successfully. Everyone will be better of when companies produce more quality stuff, more useful stuff, more nourishing stuff, and more Earthling-friendly stuff!
Interesting conincedences. The 100 mile diet folks just posted on the science of happiness.
http://100milediet.org/the-science-of-happiness