Today's Need: Energy Managers

The survival of our society — indeed, of any society — depends on a sufficient supply of energy. Our society, like each one of us, needs calories to sustain its life functions. This similarity of man and society is not just a convenient analogy, but a fact. Any living thing, be it amoeba, man or society, consumes energy in order to survive. The processes by which society converts all forms of energy for its daily needs can be described as social metabolism. The biologists have discovered that any organism has the capacity to use energy essentially in two ways: To build up (anabolism) or to break down (catabolism) constituents and functions of the body. Similarly, society uses energy and raw materials to construct its institutions and keep them operative; as well as to reduce them and make room for change. Only if we begin, to think along such lines can be we hope to develop the interdisciplinary methodology that is necessary .for survival.