On the Grid
by Noam Lupu

Who knew there were problems with our power grid? Before last week, how many people outside of electrical engineering departments would have guessed that it was, in the words of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a "Third World electrical grid"? Not many. Not many, that is, until last week's blackout in the Northeast.

In its aftermath, more than a few commentators have fixated on the argument that we have become too dependent on technology, especially of the electricity-using kind. "We have BlackBerrys that are also telephones," moaned New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, "and Palm Pilots that are also cameras and cellphones that also send text-message mash notes."

Dowd and others have a point. Americans use more electricity now than ever before, and that trend likely will continue. According to the Energy Information Administration of the Department of Energy, in 1949, consumption of electricity totaled 255 billion kilowatt hours; by 2001, that consumption had steadily grown to 3.4 trillion and is expected to grow by an annual average of 1.5 percent through 2020.

But it's far too simplistic to criticize that trend as as some dangerous dependence on an ever-expanding market of gadgets. On the contrary, that dependence is a good thing, or at least evidence of a good thing — progress.

Put simply, the fact that Americans consume more electricity is a result in part of the fact that more of us have the means and the access to do so. According to the Center for Ethical Business Cultures, in 1940, 20 percent of Americans lived on farms, of which less than a third had electricity. Thirty percent of American households did not have running water, more than half lacked a refrigerator and 58 percent lacked central heating. By 1996, more than 70 percent of American households had a refrigerator and central heating, and 97 percent of homes had a color television. This connectedness to the grid, in turn, gives more of us access to adequate healthcare and to information.

Today, most of us live with the comforts of air-conditioning and with running water purified through electrical technologies. Our hospitals increasingly use the latest technologies to perform life-saving operations and to cure deadly diseases. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the infant mortality rate has dropped from 29.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1950 to a record low 6.9 in 2000. Life expectancy, which was 47.3 years at the turn of the 20th century, has risen to a record 76.9 at the turn of the 21st. Not all of that is because of our dependence on electricity, but those numbers wouldn't be nearly as high without it.

More of us today use technology to stay connected to friends and family and to stay current on local and global events. Television, while certainly containing its share of mindless entertainment (but then again, so did vaudeville), brings us educational documentaries and 24-hour news. As an immigrant who learned English primarily through television, I can personally vouch for TV's educational potential. Computers, in addition to being important educational tools, in many cases allow those previously disenfranchised — people with learning or physical disabilities — to live normal lives and hold normal jobs.

By the same token, people living today in the poorest regions of the world, without access to electricity and to new technology, live far more vulnerable lives. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where, according to the 2002 IEA World Energy Outlook, over half a billion people have no access to electricity, the UNDP reports the average life expectancy to be a mere 46.5 years. According to its 2003 Human Development Report, only 62.4 percent of the above-15 population is literate, and only 57 percent of the population has access to clean water.

So yes, it seems we Americans have become more dependent on electricity. But that dependence has allowed us to live longer, healthier, more informed lives. And while our "Third World electrical grid" may need updating to avoid future blackouts, the Third World should be so fortunate.