Energy and living: a global view
Physics Narrative for 11-14
Possibilities by country – a common currency
Globally the energy available to each individual also determines what people can or cannot do. The life-chances of people in countries around the world are significantly affected by the quantity of energy available to them. You can find up to date figures in terajoule (TJ; where 1 terajoule is 1,000,000 megajoule), demonstrating the huge variation in energy available per capita.
These figures raise lots of interesting questions. Some countries are increasing their per capita consumption, some decreasing. There are some puzzling differences between countries that in other ways might be thought to be comparable.
There are also some questions to be asked about the data. For example if the figures are exactly the same, does this reflect a failure to gather new information? You might notice that the majority of these repetitions occur for the less developed nations.
This common currency of the number of joules we have to spend affects all parts of our lives, from simply staying alive to powering iPods, laptops, domestic heating and cars. We pay for what we do in joules, as well as in monetary currency. In both cases if you don't have enough of the currency, certain activities, goods or services will be beyond your