We live in extraordinary times, with lifestyles, facilities, a variety of choice of foods and consumables, technology and access to sheer power that Kings and Queens of yesteryear would have thought to be God-like.

Going back just a couple of hundred years, even the most well-stocked of royal kitchens had a very limited range of vegetables and fruits available at any one time. Fresh meats and cheeses were common, but also very constrained by seasonal conditions, local availability and storage options.

Everything was done using oxen, horse or human labour until coal, oil and the first machines came into existence.

This is where the story starts to explore why we are talking about trillions of ‘oil’ workers.  Ever wondered just how much energy is in a litre of oil?

The answer is, the approximate equivalent of what 20 fit men can do in a day. All of these cheap equivalent ‘oil workers’ are the reason it made so much sense to replace human agricultural workers, oxen and horses with machines.

Today we have approximately 1.2 billion cars using roughly 65 million kilometres of roads, using billions of barrels of oil per year. We clearly love our cars and the convenience they provide, all powered by this amazing liquid energy.

The fact that fossil fuel energy is so dense is largely ignored or misunderstood. Going back to our King and Queen example, they might be rather surprised to know that we can now have the equivalent of 1000 people working for us for one day (see figure below) for the cost of 50 liters of gas, roughly costing $117.50 NZD. That’s quite a feat.

Lets do a flip-side experiment. What would happen if we have to value that gas at its intrinsic labour worth?

What if our 1000 oil workers in the example above were paid a living wage? The cost would be approximately $150,000 for the day, which would value our gas at $3000.00 per litre, now that would make you think about filling up for a Sunday drive.

And what about Jumbo-jets as another example? It turns out the similar calculations for a jumbo jet tell us that it employs some 700,000 oil workers to get up to cruising altitude and a few less when cruising. (Rickover 1957). That many workers toiling away for one-hour (flight time from Auckland to Wellington) priced at a living wage would be some 14 million dollars. (That's the equivalent of about $40,000 of 'oil worker' labour per passenger)

It is hardly any wonder that the human species has and continues to alter the earth with such great power. We apply this enormous leverage factor of trillions of ‘oil workers’ to nearly everything we do whether it be manufacturing, agriculture, construction, transport and harnessing new energy.

Ok this is all very hypothetical, and the point is?

At the moment you can head on down to your local gas station and fast- food joint and pay more for your burgers and bottled drinks than the cost of your gas. The gas is relatively invisible and virtually free in the context of what it enables. (And of course it adds to accumulating GHG’s)  

And as we have seen above, the system currently operates with a high dependency on the extremely high leverage oil provides us – the trillions of ‘oil workers’ around the world doing the heavy lifting of our lifestyles.

This isn’t such a bad thing when we think about using oil to do the most essential things like agriculture and making factories and tools, but what about when it comes to the non-essentials? Such as, consumption of junk, built in obsolescence, unproductive overheads, resource wasting activities in general and building new things we don’t actually need.

And then think about the power of social media to leverage all of that activity and consumption – people like Kim Kardashian probably now wield more influence over energy use and the earth's ecosystem, than all of the ancient leaders combined… is this what we need or want?

Perhaps we need a rethink?

Today:

Minimum wage is $20.00/hr

Gasoline is $2.38/L

Fast forward 5 or 10 years and what would be your pick on those 2 prices?

And what will your dependence on oil be?

We would love to hear your thoughts.