It is, ironically, the incredible success of the energy industry over the last half-century that has allowed it to become so disdained by a large segment of the public. The industry has created a wealth of energy for our society, and as always happens, wealth has led to a generation of spoiled brats who have known neither want nor gratitude.

Thus we now face the unusual prospect of living in the first generation that voluntarily limits its energy supplies, like guilty heirs giving away all Daddy’s dirty money to try to buy praise. The consequences of this will range from the bad to the disastrous. And “disaster” is not an exaggeration, because in my opinion, it is difficult to exaggerate the importance of energy to human society. It is one of the fundamental bases of wealth. A list of the most important events in human history would be full of energy milestones.

That most fundamental human discovery, fire, is a perfect example. Often viewed as merely a means to cook food and scare off predators, fire’s real significance was in unlocking the energy potential of wood cellulose. As anyone who has ever worked outdoors in the cold can attest, food is warmth and you need huge quantities to stay warm. Using fire instead of food for warmth was a windfall of untold billions of calories. Man had essentially found a way to convert wood into food – a feat matched by very few other organisms.

Domestic animals such as cattle and sheep then allowed man to tap into the caloric value of grass cellulose. This energy stockpile was so massive and advantageous that it triggered one of the few instances when man physically evolved to address a challenge, rather than technologically adapting to it. Lactose intolerance is the normal state for human adults. Evolutionarily, only infant mammals need the enzymes that digest milk, and these enzymes are turned off once most reach adulthood. But in Europe, Africa, and central Asia, the rare mutants who were able to drink milk into adulthood (and thus live off the grasslands’ huge energy stores) had such an evolutionary advantage that they quickly dominated those populations. Today lactose intolerance is viewed as a disorder in these populations. Energy is wealth, and in hard times, wealth is life.

Once draft animals were tamed, this allowed grass cellulose to be turned directly into work without ever passing through a human as food – a huge increase in man’s energy assets. Agriculture funneled solar energy into its most useful forms.

The high technology of the late Roman Age and the Middle Ages consisted of the windmill and the waterwheel, which both significantly added to man’s energy wealth. For the first time, the energy source was not harvested from a living source – well, not quite the first time, since coal had been burned on a limited scale since the Stone Age. The discovery of coal in huge quantities and the means to mine it led directly to the Industrial Revolution, via the steam engine.

The Industrial Revolution was made more complete by the discovery of oil – a liquid hydrocarbon that needed no costly conversion to steam to drive machines. Natural gas added to this trick eventually, and briefly served as a major source of lighting before being displaced by one of the greatest advances of all time – electricity. Instant, transportable, powerful, and free from combustion requirements, electricity has led to innumerable inventions and advances. Even the waterwheel was rejuvenated by it, in the form of the hydroelectric turbine.

Electricity is a universal power source that can be made from nearly any sort of energy. The promise of nuclear energy, a discovery so significant it gave its name to the Nuclear Age, is owed to this remarkable fact.

All throughout history, man’s fortunes have been tied directly to his supplies of energy in more ways than is often realized. Yet today, a society at the peak of its power is considering ignoring the lessons of history and walking away from whole categories of energy. Let’s hope the first tastes of energy celibacy will restore a little clarity.