From the chart below, it is apparent that wealthier countries have curtailed their oil consumption per person since the 1970′s oil crisis. Saudi Arabia stands out as a huge consumer over the last two decades, and especially over the last 10 years. China, India, Brazil, and other rapidly developing countries are using an increasingly large proportion of the world’s oil (see second graph of magnified y-axis for some of the developing countries).
So we have wealthy countries cutting consumption per capita to make room for the fast-growing developing world. Stuart Saniford (also source of the graphs below) argues this trend will continue for some time. How will we do it? “There are two ways for these cuts in consumption to happen: use oil more efficiently in the economy, or have less economy,” Saniford writes. “Since 2005, in the US, we are mainly taking the second approach.”
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