Energy Conservation and the ConsumerBruce HannonScience, New Series, Vol. 189, No. 4197. (Jul. 11, 1975), pp. 95-102.Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036-8075%2819750711%293%3A189%3A4197%3C95%3AECATC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-KScience is currently published by American Association for the Advancement of Science.Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/aaas.html.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academicjournals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community takeadvantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]://www.jstor.orgFri Mar 14 10:55:49 200811 July 1975, Volume 189, Number 4197 SCIENCE Energy Conservation and the Consumer A tax placed on energy and adjusted to wage levels would ease a change to a more labor intensive economy. In this article I seek to explain what is known about the connections among con- sumer activities, the direct and indirect de- mands of these activities for energy and employment, and the consumer's options for energy conservation. When the con-sumer's activities demand employment, they require the consumer's own services, but when they demand energy they require the stored energy resources of the earth. This fact underpins the three dilemmas of energy conservation that I will discuss in det.ail. The consumer's control over the en- ergy he uses to heat, cool, and light his resi- dence or fuel his auto will not be discussed; the methods for conservation in these areas are well understood. Individual control over energy use is viewed as an alternative to governmental assumption of that control. Energy con-servation is necessary because of (i) the environmental effects of unbridled con-sumption; (ii) the long lead time and mas- sive capital allocations necessary for future increases in energy supply; (iii) the in-stabilities associated with a large depen- dence on foreign energy supplies; (iv) the need for an enduring national goal that unifies the nation and does not require massive new economic growth; and (v) be- cause energy is a fundamental ingredient in any economic system. This last point in- dicates the necessity to focus on the con- servation of energy rather than steel, for example. A proper plan to conserve energy would conserve steel. In general, capital 11 JULY 1975 Bruce Hannon can be recycled but, of course, energy can not. Labor can not only be recycled, it can be multiplied. During the industrial revolution in the United States there has been an unprece- dented thrust to substitute the energy from fossil fuels for human labor to accomplish material transformations (toolmaking) and to achieve mechanization. From the worker's and consumer's view, this sub- stitution has generally meant less drudgery in the work place, greater buying power, and more leisure. To the industrialist, the substitution of tools and energy for labor has provided a means to control and pre- dict production costs and, consequently, profits. Material and energy costs have been low, relative to labor, as well as predictable for almost 50 years. Machines and fuels are incapable of striking for higher wages. Economic growth seems to have absorbed those workers displaced by mechanization. Thus technology, material and energy use, and employment and economic growth ap- pear to be intimately linked. But now the finiteness of resources comes into view as this nation's striving for a better life spreads internationally. We are beginning to understand the links among heavy con- sumption, environmental damage, and degradation of the quality of life. We are beginning to see the need for one more adaptive act of humankind, the need for a group morality. It should be within the reach of each in- dividual consumer to perceive that he must forgo certain forms of energy consumption now in order to ensure their availability to his offspring or to his own generation in the future. As the human body eventually reaches a condition of zero growth, then so must that population as a whole. Such an achievement, however, would require our casting out such mathematically impos- sible maxims as "the greatest good for the greatest number" and substituting, per-haps, "life-styles of elegant frugality." Then we would act to preserve the knowl- edge of how to live healthfully, limit our numbers, and minimize our per capita con- sumption of resources, particularly energy. We would recognize that, because people's wants are infinite and because resources are finite, only relative wants are impor- tant; and that economic growth increases the disparity in relative wants, eases our severe interpersonal and interindustry competition, and increases the uncertainty of future events Economic growth and development will probably continue until the assured avail- able energy is almost entirely demanded for maintenance of the society. Stabiliza- tion of economic growth now is often ar--gued as being a means of reducing the inev- itable future trauma of living on an energy budget. There would obviously be prob- lems, however, with the egalitarian na-tional life-style that would be required to achieve stabilization now. We would have to recognize that the rising world popu- lation will result in the rising collision of individual and national freedoms as well as in the