In the last couple of decades or so energy consumption has been measured as a proxy of GDP or GDP per capita, which is useful in places with large informal/underground economies. Whether that equates with civilization is an interesting question.
Similarly, I've seen energy consumption used to estimate GDP of economies where there was little or no formal economic reporting, such as ancient Rome.
Consequently, I've seen this as a proxy to determine whether, for instance, Rome was more or less civilized than Han China.
Of course, this is using a rough estimate as a proxy for something else, since it's not as if we can read the energy bills for the Roman Colosseum or whatever.
I thought everyone knew that energy generation and consumption was about the best proxy for civilization out there?
If they do know that, they certainly don't behave like it!
Maybe it seems more obvious to cats.
You don't need money to catch mice (in fact it doesn't really help), but you do need energy.
In the last couple of decades or so energy consumption has been measured as a proxy of GDP or GDP per capita, which is useful in places with large informal/underground economies. Whether that equates with civilization is an interesting question.
Similarly, I've seen energy consumption used to estimate GDP of economies where there was little or no formal economic reporting, such as ancient Rome.
Consequently, I've seen this as a proxy to determine whether, for instance, Rome was more or less civilized than Han China.
Of course, this is using a rough estimate as a proxy for something else, since it's not as if we can read the energy bills for the Roman Colosseum or whatever.