Jihad vs. McWorld - Benjamin R. Barber [170]
If we compare the amount of energy a nation uses as a percentage of world usage to that nation’s percentage of world population, we get a justice-of-energy-distribution index (JEDI-A) that, if greater than I, suggests injustice pure and simple (see Table 1. Energy Usage and Population). The forty-seven nations surveyed represent a cross section of First, Second, and Third World countries, some of which are producers and exporters, and some merely importers of fossil fuels.
JEDI TABLE 1. ENERGY USAGE AND POPULATION (1990)
If we compare the amount of energy a nation uses as a percentage of world usage to that nation’s percentage of world Gross Domestic Product, we get a justice-of-energy-distribution index (JEDI-B) that, if greater than I, suggests economic inefficiency that is also a form of injustice (see Table 2. Energy Usage and Gross Domestic Product). The standard here is not absolute justice; it asks only that if a nation consumes more than its fair share by population, it justify that usage by its economic productivity.
JEDI TABLE 2.
ENERGY USAGE AND GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (1990)
In a perfectly just world, a nation would consume a percentage of the globe’s energy equivalent to or less than its share of the world’s population and would require no more of the world’s energy to sustain its GDP than its proportionate share of global GDP. In an imperfectly just world, nations might consume more than their fair share as measured by population but would at least consume no more than their fair share as measured by GDP. But as the JEDI tables for population and for GDP indicate, most of the world’s developed nations and not a few of its less developed nations consume radically disproportionate quantities of energy as measured by population; and some also score badly on the efficiency rating and are hence doubly unjust. Saudi Arabia, despite its enormous reserves (or because of them?) uses more than three times its fair share as measured by population, and is inefficient to boot, using more than twice its fair share as measured by GDP. The United States and Canada are horrendously unjust in their usage by population (five times what they deserve and ranked 46th and 47th out of the 47 nations surveyed), but are at least efficient and thus fair in their usage as measured by GDP. Likewise Japan consumes too much by population but is extremely efficient (ranking third) by GDP.
Among the seven nations that are unjust on both scales, the ex-Soviet Union (as it was constituted when these 1990 statistics were compiled), is the global energy villain, using three and a half times more energy than its population warranted and nearly seven times as much as its GDP warranted. Some of Russia’s former allies, like ex-Yugoslavia and Hungary, did little better, and overendowed Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were not far behind. South Africa and North Korea round out the group of seven that are both unjust and inefficient. Of course nations like ex-Yugoslavia and Russia that are today in transition would score better in 1995 than they did earlier, not because their efficiency has grown but because—as a result of anarchy, civil war, and rapid privatization (the twin evils of Jihad and McWorld being experienced simultaneously)—their GDPs have plummeted.
China is a nightmare waiting to happen on energy usage. At present, it uses far less than its population warrants; but its radical inefficiency of usage (46th of 47) suggests that as its GDP continues to grow at better than 14 percent a year and as it realizes its plan to make automobile manufacturing a key to its development, it will not only use a radically disproportionate percentage of the world’s energy, but may threaten to tap out global resources completely. Would that it might imitate Hong Kong, which uses only a third of what it deserves