Without energy, homo sapiens would be reduced to what all the other species do: survive.

Much discussions and much arguments are exchanged about what distinguishes human beings from other animals: intelligence, language, conscious of their finiteness, and so on. Naturalists question all of this and point to observations of smart octopus, elephant memories or ape-like languages. Religions rely on a God creator and chosen people.

But there are two elements that certainly distinguish our species from others: the use of energy, and artistic expression.

From a quantitative perspective, energy is the goose that lays golden eggs. Its use allows us to create and act beyond what our bodies are capable of doing, from cooking dishes up to sending space probes beyond the solar system.

Without energy no wealth creation is possible, as this diagram shows with an excellent correlation between the use of carbon sources and the gross domestic product of the world.

It shows that for every ton of carbon used [1] the world’s GDP increases by $ 150. In other terms: for each 3.67 ton of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere, humanity creates a wealth being worth $ 150.  Of course, this economic measurement is somewhat simplistic, but representative of an indisputable progress.

With the help of such same progress we can expect an ever more efficient harvesting of the energy provided to us by the Sun, as fossil fuel, although with a multi-million years delay, or as daily irradiation,  and also that is contained in the planet Earth, as geothermal flux or fissile material. To complicate things by artificially making energy more expensive is the result of a weird modern eschatology, that of a programmed Weltuntergang (doomsday), as if there were a guilt to use the resources that are at our disposal. I hope that this aberration will be only temporary.

Art is the qualitative corollary of energy; the value it creates is huge but priceless (forget the mercantile value of certain works, it does not matter). Without being freed of worrying for survival there is no possible artistic creation, and the unveiling of our human spirit could not take place, even small parts of it. What would we do without literature, without music, without arts, without dramas and comedies, without science too? Darkness would threatens us. Artists know this and also know that they can count on a society that has built a proper framework within which they can express themselves.

The genius is in the art that energy makes possible.

[1]
Please note that fossil fuels represent the vast majority of the energy used; coal-oil-gas make 86.3%, hydro 6.8%, nuclear 4.4%, and the others 2.5%, among which the so-called renewables.