responsibility lies for unsolved problems associated with a high energy using society, it is no wonder events have overtaken us. We are using almost twice as much energy per person today as in 1920 (see Table 1-5). Americans are the highest energy users among consumers of the industrialized western world. Only Canadians come even close: they use 83 percent as much per person as we do. Consumers in Sweden and West Germany are next, using energy at a rate about half that of Americans. In total we consume a third of the world's energy, with only 6 percent of its population. A Chinese delegate to a recent conference session on world resources is reported to have joked "the world can only afford one United States."