> Our global energy consumption in 2008 was estimated to be 474 exajoules. If my maths is right, that's about 40,000 kcal per person per day, or about 15 times

> Our global energy consumption in 2008 was estimated to be 474 exajoules. If my maths is right, that's about 40,000 kcal per person per day, or about 15 times the energy consumption of an average adult. I'm trying to figure out if that's a lot or not. On the one hand, not: this ratio is not strictly bounded in any way, and the human energy consumption is an arbitrary denominator. Still, a very rough interpretation is to say, we consume daily, on average, the fruit of work of 15 people. Of course, that is very skewed. I wonder what the ratio looks like for an average American or European - must be much more. It goes to show what a gilded life we live (on average!!!). Before industrial revolution, all energy basically was muscle power, and it's like for every 1 person alive, we have 15 servants turning the generator for us. I suppose some of this number is literal service providers, fed by food produced by powered agriculture. Is there a logical upper bound to this number? Is there some energy amount we can't use given sufficient supply? Ultimately, all energy we produce is spent on humans so our energy consumption is a yardstick for human energy needs. But that's not quite right either; a lot of energy is wasted. I wonder how much of this number is clothes that go straight from factory to landfill, AC left overnight, inefficient engines and energy storage. I don't really have a point, other than I think this is an interesting fraction to look at.