Energia e sociedade

Abstract

This article reviews some correlations between the energy consumption and the stage of development of a society, its customs and the degree of industrialization of the country. Until the last decades of the last century, it was thought that "most developed societies necessarily consume more energy". This thought was so ingrained that it came to the point of considering that energy was an end in itself and sometimes the scenarios of high energy consumption were called "optimistic scenarios", but in fact it should be the opposite because it is evident that in addition to involve greater environmental harm, such scenarios require great sacrifices of society. It is true that the development of societies still sub-developed requires increasing energy consumption in per capita terms, however, once attained a reasonable quality of life, this consumption can stabilize at a steady state.