Energy, Oxygen Consumption and Production
From "Coats & Schauberger - Living Energies - Viktor Schauberger's Brilliant Work With Natural Energy Explained", page 32
The amount of energy a human being requires for survival over one year is averagely 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh). According to Walter Schauberger's calculations a human being operates at the relatively insignificant energy level of an electric light bulb, namely 100 watts.1,000kWh is also the average amount of energy received from the Sun annually per square metre of ground surface. Theoretically, therefore, all a human being needs to do is to stand on its square metre and obtain its energy from the Sun. Were it able to transmute this energy directly, then its annual energy requirement would be satisfied. This amount of energy,however, is associated with the consumption of 260kg of molecular oxygen (O2) per year, which is equal to 29.659gr of oxygen per hour. These are the amounts of energy and oxygen required by a human being for the maintenance of bodily functions, reproduction, creativity and intelligent thought for a whole year.
The average petrol consumption of a car with a 1.6 lit. engine, however, amounts to between 10-11 lit per 100km. Walter Schauberger has calculated that to travel a distance of 1,000km requires an energy expenditure of 1,000 kWh. Therefore to highlight the ludicrous mechanical efficiency we have so far managed to achieve and of which we are apparently so proud, a car travelling 1,000km destructively consumes the same amount of energy in a few hours that a human being uses far more economically and productively in a whole year. The car, however, does not think, it does not reproduce, nor is it creative. It has none of these abilities. Equating 1,000km travelled with the annual activity of one human being produces a very poor energy relationship.
Once again, the amount of oxygen used per human being per year is 260kg. To drive a car at 50km an hour requires 22.25kg of oxygen per hour, which is roughly 750 times the amount needed by a human being. Therefore as we drive happily along in our cars, we unknowingly take 750 oxygen-breathing slaves along with us. These slaves, however, do not breathe out nice, healthy carbon-dioxide and water as we do, but they spew out a noxious concoction of poisonous gases.
In a journey lasting eleven hours, all the oxygen required by one human being for one year has been consumed. According to the scientific television program "Quantum" (11 .Oct.89), it has been estimated that there are presently 450 million vehicles in use worldwide. If we multiply this figure by 750, we arrive at an oxygen consumption equal to that of 337,500,000,000 people, about 67.5 x the present world population. We are forced to admit, therefore, that the relationship between our technology and its use of energy is diametrically opposed to that of Nature.
In Australia, for example, the amount of oxygen consumed annually through fossil fuel combustion for the purposes of industry and power generation equals 214,465,670 tonnes of molecular oxygen (O2) [1977 figures]. At a consumption rate of 0.26 tonnes O2 per annum per person, this is sufficient to keep 824,868,073 people alive for 1 year. In contrast, the amount of oxygen consumed by the Australian population over the same period amounts to 4,290,000 tonnes O2, which is 1/50th of the first figure above.
But where does our oxygen originate?
Based on Canadian figures for conifer forests, the number of hectares required to produce sufficient oxygen to satisfy the above combined demand at a production rate of 10.0619 tonnes of O2 per hectare = 21,740,990ha or 217,410km2. This area is marginally less than that of the whole of Great Britain = 229,523km2. Australia has a population of about 17 million, whereas Great Britain's population amounts to some 60 million odd. Extrapolated world-wide in relation to total world consumption of oxygen and the rapid eradication of the world's forests, the picture becomes quite horrendous.
