Can the way of living in the industrialized countries serve as a model for the world?

Considering who is using the energy today one finds a striking imbalance. Only 17% of mankind live in industrial nations but nevertheless they have a share of more than 60% on the total energy consumption!

How are our energy requirements met today?

More then 90% of today's energy supply consists of coal, petroleum and gas. So we meet 90% of our energy requirement by burning fossil fuels.

At today's consumption rate petroleum, our most important fuel, lasts for another 40 to 50 years. One can easily work out what would happen if the other 83% of mankind consumed as much energy as we do: In less than 10 years the world's remaining petroleum would be used up!

Therefore resolving the world energy problem has to start with us. We have to reduce our energy consumption and we have to introduce modern technologies. In actual fact the developing countries do not yet participate in global energy consumption!